Black knight

He's about 5 foot 2 inches tall.

End of year exhibition

My course finishes in two weeks' time, which I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I have to make some decisions, (which I've been putting off), about what to do next, but on the other, I think I'm ready for a change. To conclude the course students' work, (including mine!), will be on show at Morley Gallery from the 5th to the 12th July.

Gold: Power and Allure at Goldsmiths' Hall

Entry: Free

While I was experimenting with gold leaf last week my tutor suggested I visit the current exhibition at Goldsmiths' Hall, Gold: Power and Allure. It's free, which was enough of a reason for me to go. Goldsmiths' Hall belongs to the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one of the many livery companies of the City of London. The Goldsmiths' Company was founded to regulate the craft of goldsmithing and has been responsible for testing the quality of gold and silver since 1300. More recently, platinum and palladium have also been added to their remit. They run the Goldsmiths' Company Assay Office, responsible for applying hallmarks to goods, (hallmarks = marks made in the Goldsmith's Hall), and perform the Trial of the Pyx, the annual examination of coins from the Royal Mint.

Knitting needle case

Several months ago I was given a lot of knitting needles. Unfortunately, they've languished on a windowsill in my living room since then, waiting for me to find somewhere more sensible to keep them. This week I finally tired of knocking them on the floor whenever I opened the blinds and made a case for them. The instructions came from Stitch 'n Bitch, (which has a few sewing patterns alongside the knitting patterns, all for knitting accessories).

Armour part 4

The felt armour now covers the mannequin's torso. I never reattached the arm/shoulder piece that came off some time in March, instead I've been using it to test ways to apply gold leaf to felt, (answer - felt is not a smooth enough surface for gold leaf). The gold decoration in the pictures below is gold leaf, but it was applied to fusible interlining, cut to shape and then glued to the felt. (I can't afford the genuine gold leaf made from real gold so I bought some very reasonably priced fake gold leaf from Atlantis Arts.)

New year's knitting resolution

My new year's resolution to finish some knitting projects continues with a third pair of socks. Happy birthday, James! They are only 10 days late!

The pattern is a heavily-modified version of Knitty's bmp. (People on Ravelry are welcome to look at my Ravelry profile for the technical details.) Neither of the next two projects are socks, which is a relief; I think I might be done with socks for a really long time.

Graffiti

Here's the second new graffiti post. There's been good stuff on Scrutton Street, Curtain Road and Christina Street before - examples here and here - but this is the first time I've seen someone use that stretch of wall for one continuous scene. I've tried to capture the full effect by stitching my photographs together, (I'm currently using GIMP for tasks like this); the images below are larger than I'd normally upload so click on them to get a better look at the details:

I feel I may be missing a lot of references in all of this. I recognise tributes to Moebius and Adam Yauch in the Curtain Road section (middle image) and the Scrutton Street section (top image) looks like it might be a John Carter of Mars scene. But what about the pointy eared woman riding the horned cat or the big game hunter and the monster he's shot? Are these references to things I'm unfamiliar with or are they the inventions of the artist?

Graffiti

Apparently it's been nine months since my last graffiti post! Here's the first of two new ones - the recently repainted Queen of Hoxton on Curtain Road:

You can still see some of the old design - flowers and vines - one the metal shutter in the central picture, which seems strange. Was the bar open while it was being repainted or did the painters just get bored and skip the shutter?