2008

God bless her and all who sail in her.

Christmas is past (although the decorations are still up, see above) - feeding between 5 and 15 for 6 days is no joke and even the 6 bedroom house was pushed to the limits, but I got the sofa by the log fire so was a happy bunny - and needless to say FBSG work was halted for the duration.

What will the new year herald? Last year's plans got somewhat delayed, didn't finish Christ's Hospital monograph, didn't finish FBSG, BUT did achieve many things I had no intention of doing in the first place. And I'm not even Irish.

So here goes. In 2008 I am determined to finish FBSG (we've already got some interviews fixed for February) and Christ's Hospital - although now I have another project to complete by the end of this month about the Stations of the Cross, and, rather excitingly, have been pulled on board for a Japanese exhibition about FB. Don't get sidetracked Libby - I hope to finish the academic writing by the end of this month, the design work by the end of February, review the rushes and plan the editing and script Libby verbiage in March and perhaps get Charles started on the editing April. We've still got Gareth to film May(ish), so possibly get everything completed end of July? Writing this down makes it seem more possible or at least gives me something definite to aim for (ah, the wonderful sound of deadlines swooshing past). I also want to find sponsorship for the Reyntiens project (see 17 November, Glory of Glass), and get my SGFA and William Morris papers published. And I'm going to return to taking more exercise and doing more art work, drinking more water, drinking less wine. And listening to more music, and continuing to cook up storms. And continuing to enjoy life to the full. How's that?

Rhetorical dear boy, rhetorical.

MEMO: Never start a sentence with AND or BUT! :-)

Glass and Glory Holes

We have had some super experiences in our quest to pay tribute to FB's stained glass, but today was probably the most exciting - colour, movement, heat, light, skill, artistry, burning cauldrons (well furnaces actually but cauldrons sounds more exciting) - this took the proverbial Rich Tea. This had energy, which accords with the rather Tiggerish nature of your scribe - stained glass windows have an unfortunate habit of standing still for long periods of time.

Ah, sorry, you want to know what we did? I will keep you in suspenders no longer - we made a visit to English Antique Glass Limited near Alvechurch, Brum area, the ONLY firm in this country producing glass by the traditional methods. In fact one could count the number of similar facilities in the whole of Europe on one hand.

It struck us that if we were to include an educational film about the making of a stained glass panel (by Gareth Morgan AMGP you recall) we perhaps ought to go back one step further and show how the glass sheets themselves are made.

Harry Prior, a Master Glassblower and fellow North Easterner, explained the whole process for us; we watched enthralled as he and Walter Pinches blew glass cylinders and placed them in the glory hole (above); and David Gwilt flattened the writhing almost anthropomorphic glass into sheets. Mike Tuffy, the MD, explained more about the business side whilst Alison Hensey and Sue Eggleton supplied us with information sheets and coffee. And Barney bounced around and sat when instructed so to do. Such a welcoming, amenable band of people it would be hard to meet. Harry was the star of the show though, giving up most of his afternoon for our filming and providing us with a most professional introduction to glass making.

If you want to know more go to http://www.englishantiqueglass.co.uk/


Below left to right: Walter blowing a glass cylinder, Harry in attendance; flattening a glass cylinder; a small sample of the many and varied colours of glass produced by the firm





Left: Charles working hard as ever!
PS It didn't rain!

Wot, no breakfast?

We were informed by the owner that she was going out in the morning and would not be able to cook a breakfast but we should help ourselves in the dining room. We found a few boxes of cereals, some milk, slices of unappetising processed bread in a tupperware box, but no tea and no coffee or even the facilities to make same. Unfortunately I'd already paid for the rooms the previous evening, and there was no-one around, but we were less than impressed, it has to be said.

Thence to Kingsland to take photographs of the cartoon for the Bucklebury window, and back on the road - this time heading for Film Farm.

And what a joy to be sitting in the cosy Aga heated kitchen once again, drying out for what feels like the first time in days (including those Gore-Tex boots).

The next outing? Filming glass making in December near Wolverhampton. I just pray it doesn't rain.

And the rain it raineth

St Winifred's, Manaton.
Below: Charles filming inside the church, with the early 16th century roodscreen behind, defaced (literally) during the Reformation.











Knowing that today would be a long, tiring day, Charles decided on a large cooked breakfast - bacon, sausage, poached egg, tomatoes, fried bread, mushrooms - I think that was all, the right decision as it turned out but it nearly defeated him. Our genial host noted that this was his small size cooked breakfast - he could perform greater feats with even larger plates. Goodness gracious me.

And so, having piled up China once again we sadly said goodbye to Dawlish and headed up to Manaton, a fairly tiddly village near Bovey Tracey (a large proportion of FB's windows do seem to be hidden in obscure parts of the countryside - is there anything relevant in this one might ask onself). We filmed the inside of the church and the FB window (dedicated to Esmond Moore Hunt, the son of one of Brangwyn's friends) and my blurb but I kept getting my murds wuggled up (I blame the cold). I scoured the graveyard for Esmond's grave to no avail and got rather wet in the process. We filmed the outside of the church, me trying to cover Charles and the camera with an umbrella (not easy when the cameraman is 6ft 3in and I am a mere 5ft 2in (although I did actually stretch to 5ft 3in when living in Hong Kong and doing loads of sports). We then bundled into the car, all soggy and wet and back on to the moors for location shots (wet and grey and misty).

And with excellent timing arrived at our next venue nearby to interview a relative. Unfortunately the gentleman was one hour late and no explanation was forthcoming, but he was absolutely charming so we bagged that bit of film and set off again for Leominster area, still exceedingly wet and damp (more so than yesterday's swim in the sea) and by this time rather tired and a little miserable. The B&B didn't 'do' food but we scraped together some picnic goodies at an M&S service station. We finally arrived at our destination about 9pm after a horrible drive in the dark through the rain, and then of course spent the next 30 minutes emptying the car of it's precious load before attacking our picnic with gusto (who he).

Art History Plumbs New Depths

I tried to explain to mine hosts at the B&B that I was a serious academic historian but each time I started uttering broke into gales of laughter, and today proved exactly the point. Donning the wetsuit I had collected Friday we drove down to the front at Dawlish and thence proceeded to Coryton Cove where I put on my flippers, mask and snorkel in order to dive down and find the wreck of the SS Empress of Britain, for which FB had designed some stained glass panels. Unfortunately at this precise moment the rain decided to descend in buckets full and Charles wimped out claiming that his camera would get wet. Meanwhile I frolicked on the beach, did some jogs, beachcombed for interesting stones, found a long stick and performed a Charlie Chaplin act, and sploshed about in the water (my wild child act). After 3/4 hour I realised Charles had completely disappeared but finally found him sheltering under a beach hut. We decided the rain had eased off sufficiently and he tiptoed onto a little promontory with trepidation whilst Libby floundered around in the water, rose from the depths (her Nereid act) and did her words to camera (brilliantly if I may say so) but the filmmaker kept getting things wrong and demanding more takes, which served him right because at one point a rather large wave topped the little pier and poured water into Charles' Gore-Tex boots, about which he was none too happy.

The wetsuit was wonderful (c/o Scuba Solutions) and even after an hour I didn't feel cold. Charles did!

Coryton Cove was known as Gentleman's Cove in Victorian Times, and gained the ENCAMS Quality Coast Award 2007 and Marine Conservation Society Good Beach Award 2007. It is backed by Brunel's railway line and the trains trundle through (unfortunately not puffers) regularly which is rather fun.

Old postcard of the Cove above.

Having treated my colleague to so many wonderful meals during our filming ventures he decided that it was time to reciprocate, and so we ended up at ... (wait for it) ... the Rock 'n' Sole Fish Bar where we (yes, even me) devoured pollack (very good and environmentally correct) and chips (well I left some of the latter which were immediately hoovered up by CM).

James Dean lookalike?!

In the afternoon we interviewed Mike Westbrook, a fascinating shoot, where he sat at his grand piano and explained the thinking behind the FBSG compositions. And in the evening Kate cooked us a meal - without a doubt the best meal during the west country expotition.

Techy Stuff

For those of you interested in such things, here's some extra details about the sound recording:



Soundfield Technology is based on the principle that all acoustic events can be represented by four basic elements. These are 'X' which is front/back information (depth), 'Y' which is left/right information (width), 'Z' which is up/down information (height) and 'W' the central point from which the other three elements are referenced. Collectively, W, X, Y and Z are entitled B-Format. Soundfield are the only microphones in the world which deliver B-format which can be stored on four tracks of any recorder.



The Soundfield microphone itself contains four capsules, mounted in a tetrahedral array. The Soundfield System relies upon B-Format and its processing at its core. B-Format is a 3 dimensional representation of acoustical events, all referenced from a single 'virtual' point source. The 3 dimensions are: X, Y, Z as noted above. B-Format offers these 3 dimensions as an individual output plus the point source reference W, across 4 channels. It is possible to alter mic position within the recording after it was recorded and generate a final stereo output. B-Format also provides multi-channel output capability.



So there. FBSG has the distinction of not only being the first ever Catalogue Raisonne to be published as a DVD but also the first ever to be recorded in 5.1 surround sound! Wowzers, whatever next - don't ask!

Art History Scales New Heights

Mike Westbrook and Andrea Argent conferring
Mike with Miscellany: Andrea Argent , Audrey Barnes, Marianne McAleer, Ann Seabright, Helen Hill, Carolyn Morgan, Alison Pemble, Julie Taylor, Christine Parfitt, Patricia Pimm, Wendy Sergeant, Cynthia Dobson

Today was the day - the great Miscellany recording in St John's church, Clevedon. We piled up the car with all the filming and recording gear, collected Mike Westbrook (still not in the best of health) and zoomed off to Clevedon, where we met Andrea Argent, the highly efficient Musical Director of the group (as well as press officer, secretary, treasurer and musical dog's body), who possesses a wonderful turn of phrase and a good sense of humour. In fact the whole group do - between each take the choir broke into peals of laughter - one of the joys of working with the girls is that they are highly professional, obviously enjoy their music greatly, and have all been good friends for years. Charles set up his wonderful surround sound recording gear in the vestry, the girls ranged themselves in the sanctuary, the piano was trundled up to help with fine tuning, and we were off. Mike has written seven pieces for the film, and Miscellany started with the ones they were most familiar and at ease with. Andrea and Mike talked way above my non musical head, and the collaboration worked well, the choir's abilities growing exponentially as the afternoon progressed, so that when they came to the last (hardest) work they practically sailed through same, although Charles is left with some stitching to perform. And the afternoon was so well organised and well paced that the recording was completed in four hours.

The recording was made using a Soundfield SPS422B microphone system, recording onto a Sound Devices 744T hard disk digital 4 track recorder; the recording was also recorded in stereo onto a Tascam DA-P1 DAT recorder and monitored on Fostex 6301 loudspeakers. The 4 track B-format master will eventually be processed into a 5.1 surround sound audio track for the DVD.

Helen Hill, Andea Argent, Ann Seabright and Marianne McAleer listening to a playback in the vestry with Charles




Andrea wrote afterwards that 'at the end of the day, I felt as if we'd climbed an unfamiliar mountain, reached the top against all odds, and glimpsed a fascinating new world beyond.'



Helen Hill and Carolyn Morgan (my highly revered sister-in-law)

We returned to Dawlish in the wind and rain, took Mike home, emptied the car yet again, and went out in search of food. Unfortunately Dawlish out of season is not the best place for culinary delights and nothing was open. We ended up buying a rather limp pizza (CM) and a tub of coleslaw (me) which was washed down in the B&B with a bottle of red which almost made it palatable.