hello, beautiful...

No, I haven't given birth prematurely, but I have bought a super-large vintage wall chart of lobster anatomy from the lovely Junk Deluxe to indulge myself. It's currently adorning our bathroom wall because it happened to complement the wall colour, and there aren't too many walls big enough in our house to accommodate it. Needless to say, I am in love with it.

 

Like Junk Deluxe on Facebook for most recent stock updates. Wall colour: Hardwick White by Farrow and Ball. The other picture is a screen print by James Brown.

Hope you have all been well. Life is slowing down at my end - I'm counting down the days until I finish my latest project and can finally get on with preparing for the arrival of the little beast currently residing in my belly.

Geological volcano maps

These geological maps of volcanoes really caught my eye this afternoon on wired.com. They are like beautiful paintings. I would kill to have one of these on my wall, like our Great Britain map, geek that I am. I have a soft spot for geology from my first degree where I studied geology for two years. Click on the link to see all eleven of them.

Seen via Design for Mankind.

EDIT: in fact, there seems to be a possibility of purchasing some of these maps from the Geological Survey of Japan, although the actual mechanism of buying is somewhat cryptic! I think an e-mail might be the best start...

the weekend

We tried to relax this weekend and get away from thinking about all the things that have been bothering me these last few days. So we went picnicking at the seaside, this time at Frinton-on-Sea where they have the most amazing Modernist and Art Deco seafront houses. I mean, jaw-dropping white beauties like this one and this one, and there are loads of them. Whilst I am all for Georgian farmhouses for my own home, I can't help but wonder what it would be like to own something as stunning as those. I can just imagine the kind of decor I would like to use inside!

We also went to play on the helter skelter at cheesy Clacton-on-Sea, and to explore the site of special scientific interest at The Naze. The latter borders Hamford Water and the creeks and saltmarshes where Arthur Ransome set his Swallow and Amazons book, 'Secret Water'. Being the geek (here and here) that I am, I was pleased to at least have seen a part of it from a distance. We never quite made it to Hamford Water itself, but the sailboats that now navigate those waters were clearly visible from our walk on the sea wall.

vintage school posters

I'm a sucker for scientific collectables, from old microscopes, prosthetic eyeballs and medical equipment to opticians' charts and educational posters. I don't own much stuff like this because of my innate miserliness but I still like to look.

I was browsing Present & Correct this morning and spotted a few good things, including these posters. I especially like old charts that you imagine might once have adorned school science labs and classrooms, teaching the children, as they daydreamed and stared at the walls, about the life cycle of a frog, or what their urinary system looks like or how to use correct grammar. Speaking of grammar, I'm not too sure about Peter's Eggs there (£30, above) - I would always say 'fewer' eggs myself or am I wrong? Were they lying to me in English lessons at school? Whatever the case, it bothers me :-). But there is a good selection of these kind of posters at P&C, as well as lots of other papery goodness.



Fruit chart, £75.


1950s eye chart, £100.

If your budget doesn't stretch as far as that you can get some pretty good ones on eBay sometimes, or try your luck haggling at antiques fairs. If you happen to be in Paris, I have seen some good stalls in the flea market, Les Puces de Saint-Ouen. Here are two I found on eBay just now:




Right, I'd better get on with some work!

geek love

I got an early birthday present from my husband at the auction on Saturday (yes, I was well enough to go!) - this incredible old Roneotype printing machine. We didn't have a clue what it was or whether it worked, but with two huge and beautiful boxes of metal type, a little printer's stand and a 1930s style chest of drawers full of random printing goodies in it, it was too good to miss. Turns out there is scant information anywhere about such machines, so I will just have to muddle along with it using my prior knowledge of other printing presses as well as a whole pile of assumptions.

It's now in the greenhouse (of all places!) where yesterday I spent a good couple of hours behaving like the geek tomboy that I am and taking the thing apart. Filthy business it was - there was a disintegrating sponge somewhere in there and about fifty years of brown oily gunge to clear. I'm still working out the mechanism for inking up and printing, but I think I understand all the bits now. It was joyful pottering, gratifying geekery to be out there with the wind battering the panels of the greenhouse and getting covered in oil. Only problem is, one of the cogs has worn right away and needs replacing or it won't work at all! Luckily the husband has lots of friendly technicians at work who might be able to help me out.

Here she is, in pieces:




It came with three barrel-shaped drums on which you set your type, and a handful of composition forks upon which you create each line of text before sliding it onto the barrel. Some of the type and blocks that came with the machine were for an old shoemaking company in Norwich, so I have inherited the little shoes, boots and logos which would probably have been on their letterheads and correspondence.



What else did we get? a few beautifully etched soda syphons not unlike these in clear glass (only we're struggling to open them!), some random old tins, some even more random bottles of horse medicine (!), a flour sack full of weird rabbit traps and a crate full of lovely vintage terracotta pots for me.

And to top it all off, my football club won 9-1 yesterday. Whoop!