Monday 20 February 2017

Papermaking Workshop

HAPPY! HAPPY! HAPPY!


   These were the words heard coming from participants towards the end of our papermaking workshop on Saturday and there were, smiles all round!
   Thanks to our member, Chris Dobson, we had a well prepared and interesting workshop, with a wide choice of materials and additions to our papers.
   After Chris' demonstrations on making sheets of paper from two types of recycled, pulped paper, kindly prepared for us, ahead of the day, with the help of her husband - mustn't forget the unseen labour force! - she showed us how to make sheets of silk paper using wallpaper paste as a binding medium. These took a little longer than the pulped paper and necessitated us getting sticky along with the use of a squeegee to get rid of excess paste.

Galanthophile in Our Midst! but have no fear!

  One of our workshop tutor's enduring interests is her collection of snowdrops. To brighten our day further Chris brought a posy of flowers from her garden. Among other beautiful things were snowdrops....20 different snowdrops, each with a different name and all from her collection.
  
Chris challenged some of us to find the bloom with the name 'Grumpy'. Not a 'handle' you'd expect! If that is the first snowdrop , then the second is 'Cross'. Certainly not names you'd expect for a flower that brightens us up at this time of year!


This is one small swathe of the 'common' snowdrops in my garden. What name could we give them?
'Hump backed bridge' ?