5 in 5 - June 2018 - The South Asia Collection Museum In Norwich

Welcome to '5 in 5' where on the 5th of

each month I post 5 photos that I have 

taken in 5 minutes.

Last week I visited the 'Turn A Page Book Art Fair' in Norwich and one of my exhibiting friends told me of a place I might like to visit, just round the corner. What I discovered was a hidden treasure!  The building was built as an indoor skating rink in 1876 (this was a surprise in itself) and it was worth visiting just for the building itself. 

But once inside I was immediately transported to the far east, and amazed at the displays and diverse collections on view. Part shop, part Museum, I wondered how I had never heard of The South Asia Collection Museum before, and was very grateful for my friends tip off. The skating rink was not long lasting, and the over the following years the building was used as a Vaudeville Theatre, a temporary home for the Salvation Army, storage for tinned meat, and a warehouse for a building manufacturer. Philip and Jeannie Millward purchased the Rink in the early 1990's and renovated it, making it what it is today. I thoroughly recommend a visit if ever you are in Norwich, and it was the perfect place to take 5 photos in 5 minutes. But before I share these, let me quickly show you the building itself:

Some of the exhibits are large pieces of architecture and furniture.

Upstairs you could look across and admire the beautiful beams and wooden ceiling. Back on the ground floor I set my mobile timer and got my camera ready:

This teakwood spinning wheel was used for winding bobbins, for fabric weaving.

I was excited to see antique wood blocks, used for the printing of fabrics.  I had to add these to the collection I bought in India!

And it was lovely to see examples of dyes used and printing in the museum section.  Upstairs the shop sells fabric and linens as well as clothes. Again everything was beautifully laid out and it reminded me of a recent visit to Liberty's in London.   

Other interesting things I found was this collection of padlocks.  I thought of the beautiful doors I had seen in India that were architectural works of art in themselves. 

This bowl of goat bells attracted me too. So much of Indian wares are beautifully decorated and detailed. 

I could have stayed longer, browsing and admiring the exhibits. But I had gone to Norwich for the Book Art Fair and still had more to see; and so this hidden treasure will be a place to visit again. 

Meantime I look forward to using my new wood blocks. I have a workshop planned 'Inspired by India' where we will be printing our own fabric and Khadi Papers to make book covers, and making a book. I'll be back to show you these another time. 

For now, I invite you to join me in this monthly photo challenge. This is what you do: 

1.  Choose a location.

2.  Have your camera ready.

3.  Set a mobile timer for 5 minutes.

4.  Take as many photos you can until the time is up.

5.  Choose 5 photos to download and share by using the link tool.
   You have until the 25th of the month to add your photos.  

If you want to know more there are details here.

And one more thing - when you use the link tool, please click on your post title.  This will show the web address. Please right click, copy and paste this as your link.  This will take readers directly to your '5 in 5' blog page and be easier for them to find.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you have had some recent good discoveries of your own.

Celebrating 5 years!! 

Next month this monthly photo challenge will be celebrating 5 years! That's a good reason to mark the occasion and I would love to hear any ideas that you may have. Please leave a comment below and I will be back with more news and updates soon. 

A SoulBook Gathering

Have you heard of the SoulBook Gathering experience, an idea recently shared by Melody Ross? I decided to invite a group of friends to join me and I was lucky enough to be given creative space to use at a local community cafe. It was the perfect location, and the warmest of welcomes (thank you Emma!).  Throughout the morning people popped through to see what we were doing and hopefully some of them will join us another time. 

Usually, when I take an idea, I expand it and always make my own tweeks and adaptions.  But this time I decided to keep it simple, and follow Melody's instructions to make the book. So I cut enough corrugated card so everyone had 6 pages, and we attached them with masking tape.  I wasn't sure how this would work as it seemed a bit basic, but with addition of papers and some strips to connect the pages together it proved a strong and useful construction.

With the instruction download came pages of prompts, such as:

'These are things I always want to remember' and

'I want to remember that every single day is a brand new chance to start over'

These were cut into strips and shared among the group and we put our books together. Then using the collection of materials provided we decorated our pages and added personal touches such as photos. There was chatting, and drinking tea and coffee; but more than this, there was periods of stillness as everyone appreciated this 'me' time, because too often we are dashing around or caring for others and not giving ourselves time to just be present in the moment. 

Here are some of the books made that morning: 

 

Afterwards we gathered in the cafe for lunch, and as always the food did not diappoint. It was made even more special by my favourite lemon merignue pie!  

I would certainly arrange another SoulBook Gathering and this it might be something that you would be interested in doing too - let me know how it goes if you do. Thank you to the ladies who joined me to made this a special time, and to Emma and her team at the School Room Cafe for providing such a warm welcome. I will be back soon!

Missing, not lost

It seems so long ago I posted anything other than my monthly 5in5. I have a head full of ideas and things to share but it has been difficult to find time or energy, and some things have sadly been neglected. But hopefully I will find my way back soon.

It wasn't meant to be. But after a year of running workshops I decided I needed to reach out and meet others, as running a small businesses alone can be isolating sometimes. So I have been on trainings, to events and network groups, and a long the way I met some extremely interesting and knowledgeable people. Looking back it has all been worth while.

One of the things I have been doing is setting up my own website. Boy, that has been a challenge! It is work in progress and I still have way to go as it is a huge learning curve and I am not someone who finds technology easy to understand. But I want to do this for myself so that I have control of my website, I did not want to pay or rely on someone else to manage this. Hopefully I will have a sense of achievement in the end, and I love learning new things so I just keep reminding myself this!

Last week was another situation outside my comfort zone. I was asked to give feedback about some of the trainings I have attended so I agreed to this, only to find afterwards that it was a video interview.  Now then, I am not accustomed to wearing a mike and having a camera just a few feet from me! So although I was outside my comfort zone I decided that it was a good opportunity, so found a way of managing this. It seemed serendipitous as one of the recent trainings included video presentations and the interviewer chose a waterside location. Now some of you will already know that I am most comfortable and relaxed by water. So I took these as good omens and other than needing to do the odd retake, as ducks decided to add to the sound effects, it all went smoothly and I gave a huge sigh of relief and achievement when it was done. I am waiting to see the result....

Meantime I have been busy running and planning workshops. For a very long time I have been germinating ideas of a handmade book with a Alice in Wonderland theme.  This all came together on Saturday and  I had a lovely time and hope the ladies who attended did to. Of course, being Alice we had to have afternoon tea and jam tarts! 

Some ladies wanted to come and were unable on this day so this is likely to be a workshop I repeat in the near future. I will post photos once I have worked on my book some more, and I hope not to leave so long this time!

5 in 5 - November 2015 - 3 BOOKS FOR 3 GIRLS

Welcome to '5 in 5' where on the 5th of

each month I post 5 photos that I have

taken in 5 minutes. 

 

I am always looking for new ideas for hand making books, so when I saw this pad of papers I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it:

 

 

I would make 3 books for 3 girls!

They are very different in personality so I wanted the books to reflect this:

 

The smallest one is quite daring and she might want to add photos into her book and write about things that she likes. She started school recently and likes to practice her writing, these prompts might help:

The middle one is a girl of my own heart because she loves reading, writing and stationery. So her book has extra space where she can write facts and personal thoughts, and make the book her own.

 

And finally, the oldest and most grown up one. She loves inspirational and motivational quotes, so some of her pages have space where she can write her own. There are cheerful background papers too, where she can print or stamp quotes to stick in.

 

 

I hope they have as much fun as I did making these books.

 

And as I sat here writing and choosing photos, the idea came to me that others might like to make a book, one that they can keep or give as a gift. One that can be added to, and made personal.

So I plan to run a workshop. 

And I know not everyone will want to use the papers and colours that I used here, so there will be a choice and lots of ideas. I'm getting excited thinking about it! 

 

My workshops are run in Essex and I know that does not suit everyone but I am prepared to travel and come to you. So if you have a group of people who would be interested in a book making workshop please get in touch as we may be able to work something out. And please let others know who might be interested, because I love sharing what I do! 

 

If you follow my blog you will know that I also love photography, and so a big thank you to Maggie, Eileen, Helena, Melanie and Joy for taking part in this 5 in 5 photo challenge last month. And I'd love for you to join in too. So if you have time to pick up your camera for 5 minutes this is what you do:

 

  1.  Choose a location.

2.  Have your camera ready.

3.  Set a timer for 5 minutes (I use my mobile phone).

4.  Take as many photos you can until the time is up.

5.  Choose 5 photos to download and share by using the link tool below. 

   Please note: 

You have until the 25th of the month to add your photos to the link

and you can take  your photos any time. They do not have to be taken or posted on 5th!

 

If you'd like more details please go here.