The museum of broken things

It wasn't until yesterday that I realised I hadn't walked along the riverbank since before the flooding. Perhaps that meant I hadn't fully come to terms with the scale of events, the power of the river and the effect on us all. It's been a tiring, stressful period and I think I needed to see the river again.

I love to collect. The act of beachcombing or mudlarking slows me down. It makes me focus. It makes my brain work at things in a very primative (in a good way) manner. I think there is something about the act of sorting and searching that helps me settle and regain my composure.

Yesterday I enjoyed findng the usual 19th century pottery fragments in and amongst the horrible 21st century filth, washed up on the riverbank. But the other thing I have previously observed in numbers are shoe and leather parts. Never before have I found a whole shoe though, which made me think I wonder how old these are? The sheer numbers suggest this is the rubbish from a cobblers. I know there was a tannery just upstream until around 1900/1908; I wonder if there was a leatherworker there too?

If anyone has any thoughts let me know.

Walk 3

From home to studio.

Bingley to Saltaire.

Along the river, through the woods and by the canal.

New green leaves, yellow buds and pottery shards.

An elderly man told me about finding stickleback in the slow water between river and spring 'when we were younger' and told me about the big round marsh marigolds further along the path.

Things with holes in

Leather, wood and pottery

Worn and river washed

From function to form

Holes for stitching into?

The game is afoot - want to play?

A little collecting game to play at the river, seaside, wood, mountain, garden, car park...

First find an interesting thing...

... then see how many other interesting things you can find with the same characteristic.

Today it is the colour blue:

... and then find something to put your treasure in (like this rusty enamel tin found in the river)

or make a display to leave behind for other people to see your lovely finds.

I've been playing by the river today, where for the first time in ages the river is low enough to look for treasure. It's funny to think the last time I walked the footpath here (which is now about a metre higher than the water) there were fish swimming in it.

If anyone wants to play along, send me a link to your blog posting and I'll add it here, no prizes, just for fun. Tomorrow it's 'things with holes in'.

Yesterday's News

Since I discovered my appetite for mudlarking I have been delighted by the little treasures I have found on the edge of the river Aire, but last week I was amazed to come across these river washed fragments of newspaper. It always surprises me how fragile yet robust paper can be. These pieces had clearly been washed by the river for a long time, turning and shaping them like a piece of driftwood, I wonder how long they had been in the river? The date on this reduced copy of the Daily Express was November 1936!

River Connections

The objects I collected when 'mudlarking' on last week looked so beautiful together, because they share the same context or perhaps because they have taken on some of the hues of the landscape. The rough shapes and edges also create a visual connection.

Beyond all of this I am also realising that the river Aire acts as a a connection for me between home and Hirst Wood (where I have done so much artwork over the past few years). This is both a physical, geographical connection and a mental connection between places... one point to another... connected by walking and making.

I don't feel the need to walk as a refuge now as much as I did before I moved house. Now that I have a garden to enjoy it doesn't feel as necessary, but I should walk more for my creative self as it feeds and nourishes me in a different way.

Mudlarking

Feeling the need to stretch my legs I set out on a little rainy walk. Enjoying the emergence of spring shoots contrasting with the brittle, dry textures of winter stems I walked to the river. Following a trail of fresh green seedlings down to the waters edge I discovered treasure; a fragile pearly freshwater clam shell. What a discovery... and then I found another... and another, just 150 metres from my doorstep. Now I understand why the oystercatchers come to this landlocked part of the country. So I took to some mudlarking myself, searching for my kind of treasure in the sand and silt of the riverbank.

Along with the shells I found some beautiful blue and white ceramic shards, sections of weathered stained fibreglass and pieces of dark stained cattle bones. I have lots of ideas for these with stitch, composition, wax, etc. I could have collected many more treasures, but I felt like it would be greedy to take more than I can work with at one time. It will be interesting to return another day to see what the river leaves for me.