Done and dusted

Japan trip very successful, wonderful exhibition, very well hung, opened with aplomb (see photos) and had a great (and relaxing) trip to Mashiko afterwards with my friend Teruko (Mashiko being the pottery centre of Japan if not the world!).

Back to reality and to editing at Film Farm (8-10 March) in which time we managed to complete the MUSIC section and do some tweaks. So now all that is needed is my proof readers do come up to scratch, change PDFs accordingly, check the DVD myself, Charles and Mike Westbrook to edit sound recordings, and then Charles has to re-author the entire work. So the end really is in sight!

Libby and Teruko at Slow Time Mashiko, a wonderful minimalist Shaker inspired hotel in the town (recommended)

Manic

Snow drift - see Thursday below - that's supposed to be a hedge in the background!

That is the only way to describe the past 2 weeks - Libby becoming more hyperactive than normal!
Saturday I delivered my Piper lecture (my first on this topic) to the SGFA and it seemed to go down pretty well and I returned with a lovely bunch of flowers which are still doing very well thank you.
Sunday tried to catch up with mail etc, then got down to writing the lecture for Japan because they need it urgently for translation.
Monday finished the lecture, timed myself, exactly an hour if I don't speak too quickly.
Tuesday started the PowerPoint show, carried on with this Wednesday (most of the Brangwyn lectures I've given to date have been slides, so much extra work involved scanning slides and books and working from CDs of FB images Paul has supplied me with in the past).
Thursday woke up to a white out, and it continued snowing throughout the day, also very windy so the snow has once again drifted across our little country lane and I'm marooned! Realised that it would be more sensible to finish the PowerPoint next week and start supplying Charles with the information he needs for the DVD, so re-read all my catalogue, changed some photos and formatting, made some new logos for buttons on the DVD, designed the disc and sleeve.
Friday everything seems to be going wrong, the PDF files are arriving on Charles' desk without images, logos pixelated etc etc. By nightfall I was completely stressed out - the deadline for getting the DVD finished is 2pm Sunday because Charles is then going to a techy conference in London and the DVD needs to be sent away to Crash Test Dummies or similar to be processed. And the more stressed I became the more mistakes I made. A sleepless night.
Saturday I was due to go up to London for Patrick Reyntiens Open Day in the studio. More or less decided I couldn't spare the time, but since I was making so many errors (still) determined to go - despite the snow. Did get stuck and had to be pushed out of a drift, but somehow managed to get through the village and on to the main road which was clear. London did me a power of good (see sister blog) so returned revitalised. In the evening made a break-through - very simple really, if I used Adobe PDFs instead of PDF factory it all arrived on Film Farm's crowded desk looking hunky-dory!
Sunday - wow, what a day! Much sending to and fro of PDF files, discussions on sleeve and disc design, then my email crashed, the laptop crashed twice, I got it restarted but had to use a different mailbox to send everything to Charles. By 3pm he'd got the DVD finished and then let Mr Mac make a copy before he had to dash off to London. First time ever he hasn't had time to check that everything worked properly. Cross fingers.
Monday no connection on the interweb - tends to do this when it snows or the weather is unseemly - one of the joys of living in the sticks. Concentrated on my slide show and more work on the little booklet I'm making to give as gifts in Japan - it's to show details of FB's stained glass, will be titled Quiddity which means the essence of something, its distinctive qualities, will be printed on hand made Nepalese Lokta paper and contain a design abstracted from one of FB's glass panels duly coloured in by hand in bronze and gold paints. And I've decided to make a limited edition of 50, all signed and numbered by myself. I must be barking!
Tuesday finished the slide show thank goodness. Whizzed down to Guildford to a fantastic shop called Fibrecrafts to buy the Lokta paper - actually whizzed is the wrong description, because it poured, cats and dogs by the kennel full, spray coming up from the road almost blinding at times. Frightful conditions.
Wednesday had a look at the sleeve design and found a mistake - when I went to alter it in In-Design discovered that I'd deleted that file! Ugh. So had to re-design. Meanwhile the printer is gobbling up inks like there's no tomorrow and there isn't time to order ink over the interweb so had to drive down to Ashford and buy more inks for Quiddity and sleeve.
Thursday and Friday organised our next 2 Reyntiens outings. Finished Quiddity, wrapped them all in different coloured tissue papers, Japanese style, sealed with one of my Moo stickers. The 20 processed DVDs for Japan arrived, checked them out, wonderful! Congratulations Charles! Put sleeves on boxes. Packed. (Don't order your copy of the DVD yet - because we're going to make some additions before publishing the final version)
Saturday wrote this blog - in 3 hours time I'm off to Japan! Yippee! I think I deserve a break - I'm thoroughly exhausted just reading this!

Are we nearly there yet?

Well, hold your horses, have patience and you'll find out in due course!
Saturday 30th the packers collected a couple of works for the Japan exhibition, then I drove up to Bluewater for a rare shopping expotition - mainly because my sheets and towels are so old they are full of holes. Precious little remuneration in this art business, don'tchaknow! Thence on to mea mater for a couple of nights. Same old, same old, don't get me started.
Monday 1st drove down to Film Farm. Charles appeared to have survived the Bear's visitation, so we got straight on with work - first thing to record Libby outside for the beginning and end of the Overview sequence. Not the warmest of weather, Zooty started off wanting to be the star of the show but then decided to chase Pepper instead, so that involved a number of takes, then the local dog began barking at me. Having decided I wasn't an alien he then also wanted to be filmed but walked off in the middle of a take. We finally got the chat in the bag, Libby warming herself with a glass of red. Cheers! Thence to the edit suite.
In the evening Ray Leigh of the Gordon Russell Museum rang - looks like we've landed ourselves another joblet! Although we don't appear to have sufficient hours in the day as it is - still the money will be useful (think of those sheets).
Tuesday: Some old maps I'd ordered arrived, a 1924 one of the UK and a wonderful yellowed one of Bruges, undated. We're using these as chapter headers for each church in the Overview. More editing but by the close of the day were nowhere near completion and Wednesday was a Reyntiens meeting in Cambridge (see Reyntiens Revels blog) and I was planning to return home Thursday.
Wednesday: Charles woke up with the Bear's cold, which worsened exponentially as the day progressed, so by the time we returned home in the evening (snow on the ground) he was in a dire state and fit only for red wine and Lem-Sip (a delicious combination). So no work that evening.
Thursday: The man felt somewhat better this morning so we decided to plod on with the editing, finally giving up for the day at 9.30, after which we ate and wrote up yesterday's minutes.
Friday: Up to the edit suite first thing. By 1.30 we'd more or less finished the Overview, apart from sound tweaking etc, so, after a quick espresso, I started the drive home (which took 6 hours this time). Then cooked, then checked Saturday's lecture, massive headache and worried I've caught the dreaded cold.
So, in answer to the question - sort of! The Japanese would like me to take some copies of the film to sell in the shop, but we haven't done the Music sequence yet and there are some minor chapters I wanrt to add to the written catalogue. We've decided to crank something out - which means poor Charles has a dreadful job ahead of him this next week, checking all the sound levels, going through each sequence making sure there are no errors, then making the menus, authoring the DVD etc. I feel hugely guilty landing him with this, especially when we'll have to author a final DVD in due course. :-(

pocket rocket

Wowzers - I just cannot believe how much I've accomplished in the last 8 days since I returned to Kent - even for me it's prodigious! I completed and submitted two articles to the Japan Society for their forthcoming Biographical Portraits publication (on FB of course and Urushibara Yoshijiro - I really enjoyed writing the latter because it was a semi-new subject); finished the Overview sequence for FBSG; had a day's research in London at the BM and libraries; wrote a lecture about Piper to be given at the Society of Graphic Fine Art AGM on 6 Feb (of which I'm an Honorary member!); transcribed our interview with Andrea Argent; wrote the Music section for FBSG; started the lecture I'm due to give in Japan at the opening of the exhibition; had a dental appointment and gave blood, plus all the usual housework, cooking, runs, exercises etc. Oh, and I planned a little booklet to give as gifts in Japan and designed some new name cards and sticky labels which I ordered from moo.com (they really are fantastic, thoroughly recommended!)
Poor Charles meanwhile is coping with Jo the Bear trying to complete Charlotte Bach, and has a working weekend ahead - which he dislikes intensely, since one of his New Year resolutions is to take life a little easier. And it's not just the work but the play that's exhausting - 3am they got to bed Wednesday, and 1am yesterday - chatting and downing a glass or 3 of red. I just hope young Charles is still firing on all cylinders next week because I arrive Monday for a 3 day sojourn in the hopes of completing the Overview editing (and one of those days is already forfeit to the Reyntiens saga).

Progress

Well, since the last posting Libby has more or less written two articles for the Japan Society and Charles has done one of his many and variegated VAT accounts and sorted magazines.

I arrived back at Film Farm 17 January, and from then to my departure Thursday 21st we recorded my Bruges words and edited the film section for same - pretty good going since the film lasts some 20 minutes.

In between times we had brief interludes and despite the fact that Caroline Conran famously declared that life is too short to stuff a mushroom, Libby persevered and stuffed numerous calamaris - and very yummy they were too.

Charles lives in a not insubstantial house (a mere 13 rooms plus 2 kitchens, 2 bathrooms, 2 extra toilets, a shower room, a darkroom and a workroom) but he finds himself continually pressed for space, hence the magazine sorting and the arrival on Wednesday of a second load of very useful boxes in which to store same.

Personally - I despair!

PS The shadowy figure in the 1st floor right hand window is me, waving and nearly drowning because my bed is being subsumed by magazines - a la Day of the Triffids!

I've started so I'll continue ...

Well, I said we'd get on with FBSG, and as soon as I had taken my mother back home, I whizzed down to Film Farm, arriving 3 January. We recorded my words for the Dublin section and started editing the following day, actually managing to complete the film before I left on the 7th, so not bad going because it was quite a lengthy script.

Meanwhile on the 6th I helped take down the Christmas decorations - that is after we'd take a photo of same - a very minimalist soul Charles with exquisite taste!

PS If anyone can translate the Chinese comment on my last blog I'd be grateful - looks suspiciously like SPAM to me!

2010

Goodness, here we are at the close of 2009 - what has and has not been achieved in the last year?
POSITIVES: Well, I revamped my Brangwyn website at the start of the year using Dreamweaver, Ferens Art Gallery launched their From Victorian to Edwardian book and exhibition in June (all Brangwyn stuff by MOI), the Piper film was VERY successfully launched on the 27th September, Manuel Auad's beautiful publication of Brangwyn's Way of the Cross with a commentary by MOI (replacing G K Chesterton's original - walking in the feet of the gods here) came out in November, the article Gareth and I wrote for the Journal of Stained Glass appeared in Volume XXXIII and I've given countless Gourmet Art lectures which have been rather fun and certainly got the audiences laughing. Meanwhile much time has been spent writing an essay and cataloguing works for the forthcoming Japanese exhibition.
NEGATIVES: Unfortunately FBSG is still awaiting completion! However it WILL be finished next year - PRIORITY! Didn't get back into cycling and swimming but have been jogging regularly (although my hip won't let me get beyond about 2 miles at a time) and started an out of date Canadian Air Force fitness regime which I discovered amongst my papers!
NEXT YEAR: As stated FBSG will be completed (come whatsit or high water), Charles and I will hopefully be making a film about Patrick Reyntiens, hopefully I won't have to take a job shelf stacking at Tesco and hopefully I won't let the oldies drag me down - keep smiling and Carpe Diem!
HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!