I’m going to keep up!

I have decided that I am going to do my best to keep up with my blog by posting the discarded seating I see, as soon as I see it. This is going to be a challenge but one I am excited by. I am yet to work out exactly what I’m going to do with the ‘backlog’ but I think it’s at least a start.

Woodville Road, Sherwood

Daybrook Street, Sherwood

This morning I did a drive buy snapping of the people of Natwest moving leather cream sofa out of the way. I love the fact that there’s such a story. Where will it be tomorrow?

A change in situation

I have just received this photo from Ali (Thank you!) and it looks like the cream sofa has had a change in situation. Whereas yesterday it was carried (then abandoned again) down the road in the sunshine, today it has been turned around and left to fend for itself in the hail and rain.

What is next for this sofa?

The adventures of the cream leather three seater

On the way home from work on Friday evening I squealed as I passed a spattering of cream sofa’s. I ran round the corner to get photographing and as I walked back past them, a couple were taking an armchair away.

‘Free removal to anyone’

Yesterday I received a text from my friend Ali to tell me about the sofa and an email from my friend Katie with a photo of the sofa, but in a new location. Thank you both! It had been moved outside Natwest and I just had to go to visit it! I wonder how it got there and why it had been abandoned for a second time.

Yellow marker is first location and blue is second.

 

Drawing cats

I find drawing relaxing and would like to do a lot more of it. I recently drew my favourite cat on my road, after he moved house. I was genuinely sad that he or she (I never did establish which) had left. I often would say hello in the morning and the cat would squint back at me or roll on the floor for attention. I’m going to practice, as I haven’t captured the personality as well as I’d like but I really enjoyed drawing again. The photo is bad quality too, so shall replace with a better one later.

Overwelmed and organised

Lately, I have been overwelmed by the sheer quantity (and quality!) of the furniture being spotted. I recieve emails/picture messages on (some good weeks) nearly a daily basis. I am always photographing furniture myself too, so the collection is growing and fast. I have been talking to a handsome web developer about creating a mapping system and we are in the process of building it. I’m trying to do some forward planning and have been logging the locations on a spreadsheet, but it’s a mamonth admin task. It is great to revisit the ones I haven’t looked at for years and reminisce, and I believe it will be worth it when it comes together.

 

One of the things I’d like to do is have an archive consisting of all the photos that have been taken to date, as a starting point. I shall start to look into the best way of doing this over the next week.

The Waterfront Festival 2012 (Lots of fun was had!)

Yesterday was such a wonderful day and I cannot stop smiling! It was filled with my beautiful friends, family and huge amounts of fun, all in aid of two great causes; the Nottingham City Hospital charity Cystic Fibrosis unit and Scope. There was such a good atmosphere, the sun shined, ale shandy’s were consumed (by me) and there were more talented musicians than you could shake a stick at! Rob White drew hilariously accurate caricatures of people and there were photographers and camera men everywhere (sometimes filming each other, which I thought was very post modern). There was a real buzz in the air! We waved at the narrow boats that went by (and they waved back!) and cooed at the signets sitting on the back of the mother swan.

The raucous raffle was a success and people went home happy with their prizes in tow, anything from a photograph of the Queen, tea and cake for two to a piece of signed artwork, generously donated by Nottingham Artists, Local businesses and celebrities. I had so many great conversations and met lots of awesome people, from the friendly security, to the people lending a hand on the day and excited raffle winners. Everyone wanted the same thing, to make lots of money for the charities, with the maximum amount of fun.

There were lots of families bopping to the music, including a friend of mines little boy Noah, who looked amazingly cute in his ear defenders. We had an awesome jive to Rob Green and I heard rumours that a few of my friends went on to have a hoe down to one of the bands, which involved dosey does! I would have liked to have seen that. As my nickname Nanna Rebs would suggest, I was slightly startled by the rock and roll experience of watching Baby Godzilla, but loved every minute of the interactive and unpredictable set. Being so near to the lead singer thrashing out a beat on the drums was loads of fun!

Being involved in something so positive, for causes I really believe in has been an incredible experience. I would like to continue to get involved but for now, I am sitting down, with my feet up and having a brew.

 

 

The Waterfront Festival – 23rd June 2012

I’ve been helping organise the Waterfront Festival this year and it’s getting close! We’re raising money for two worthy causes, The Nottingham Hospitals charity Cystic Fibrosis unit and Scope. I lost my lovely friend Ben to Cystic Fisbrosis so helping the unit in Nottingham is really important to me.

I’m really looking forward to it and we’re currently sorting out a corking raffle with a magical mix of prizes! People have been really generous so far and it’s wonderful to get such a positive response.

You can also enter our competition to win two tickets if you count the Rosie and Jim’s (remember that wonderful show with the awesome duck?) or you can just have a giggle at me and my friends in animal masks on a canalboat, tis up to you:

An army of armchairs!

My blog is something I really enjoy doing, so today is all about planning it back into my routine. I have been galavanting in Cumbria and frolicking by canalsides, so I canny complain! I have been receiving lots of discarded furniture photos from around the country, which I will be sharing in the next week. I got a tip off from my friend Ali about an army of armchairs, not far from where I live. I was in my element!

To see more art, that is the plan – Part I

I have been a bit rubbish at getting myself into gear to see as many exhibitions as I would have like in the last year. I pretty much always enjoy it when I do, it’s just making the time. It’s something that makes me happy, so I will do more of it. There is nothing like seeing a piece of art that you really relate to. There are obviously times where you see things that aren’t your cup of tea but I think that reminds you how great the things you like, really are. I have seen two exhibitions recently that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Here is the first:

Sarah Browne – How to Use Fool’s Gold, Ikon Gallery Birmingham

I haven’t written about art for a long time however I found the exhibition to be exciting and thought provoking. It was also extremely aesthetic and spoke a language me and my family understood. It spoke about people, industry and the obselete technology. I think my favourite piece was ‘Common Knowlege’, wild flowers pressed in different books that were written about ‘traditional feminine craft and an intellectual enquiry into amateurism, economics and mass cultural production’. For example ‘May 2010: Bluebells in Glenn Adamson’s Thinking Through Craft, 2009.’ I thought they were beautiful and I loved the relationship with what they were pressed in.

www.sarahbrowne.info

In the book ‘How to Use Fool’s Gold’ I spied the below piece of work called ‘The Gift’ which wasn’t in the exhibition but it is right up my street! The sofa’s were sourced by the artist and then re-upholstered using patterns created out of Irish potato bags and articles from the Irish constitution about the home. They were then given away, as gifts to various members of the Irish community (Including a man living in a council flat who had previously been homeless). They were asked in exchange, to document the sofa in their home. I wonder if the sofa became a talking point for their guests, and was treated as an art object and looked after with extra care. Is it now part of their furniture, a member of their family or prehaps living with a new owner? Could it be that it got tired and was discarded alongside it’s DFS equivalents?  The reappropriation of an object like the sofa is fascinating and these sofa’s have an extra couple of chapters to their story.

www.sarahbrowne.info

It runs in the family

My Brother Theo took this photo recently and I love it! As a massive fan of wear and tear, I thought the rust made it but I also think the colours are marvellous. Theo is great at composition and has a fantastic eye for straight lines.