In the frame ...

I attended the  monthly Stroud Business Women's Network meeting this morning at the Old Lodge Inn. I've been a member now for a few months and it's a great place to meet others who are in business and keen to promote themselves, their products and services. 
On a rota basis, members get to "Shout about" their business and today Lesley Young gave us an interesting insight into her framing service.  Not only does she frame pictures and  photographs, but also often gets asked to frame personal items such as children's clothing and holiday souvenirs.  Luckily for me, Lesley had just completed framing my "Dispatch" stamp collage featured in my previous blog, and it was on display for all to see.  As always, the framing was perfectly in keeping with the picture and Lesley had given me her expert advice on the way she felt would enhance this particular subject, using the technique of float mounting the stamp collage which is on watercolour paper, and exposing the decaled edge of the paper. A deep spacer had been inserted to raise the glass, showing the picture off to its very best advantage. The frame is tulip wood and tones in very well with the wood effect of the ship, for which I had used  heavily postmarked US stamps portraying the Landing of Columbus.   This picture will be displayed with others in the Walking the Land exhibition called Earth.Water.Wind.Sky opening at the Old Passage Inn, Arlingham on 4th May until the end of May, and possibly beyond.
Lesley can be contacted for advice on framing by e mail on framingbylesley@hotmail.com.     

to the lonely sea and the sky - The Dispatch

Finally completed my stamp collage of the Dispatch, a two masted schooner which has ended her days on the banks of the River Severn, at Purton Ships' Graveyard. Built in Scotland in 1888, this beautiful old ship had a long history of voyages as far as Newfoundland for cod fishing, before being beached in 1961. Not much remains now as the ship has been burnt, vandalised and pilfered over the years but is now protected by the association formed to conserve the remains of the ships at Purton.

This framed picture will be exhibited at The Old Passage Inn at Arlingham in May 2012 as part of the Walking the Land Exhibition. Prints and cards will also be available from my studio which is detailed in the Site 12 Open Studios brochure Route 04 and will also shortly be on line.

" to the lonely sea and the sky" seemed an appropriate title for this tall ship, the quotation taken from John Masefield's poem, Sea Fever.

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by".