Sail away - the beauty of cloth.

Up on the coast last Sunday.

A beautiful warm sunny day .

Walking along the port at Binic I couldn't resist taking photographs of these beautiful sails.

Just loved the colours, textures, ropes and eyelets.





Binic too is beautiful especially in the sunshine.

If you look across the seawall you can see
 the high masts of the ship with the beautiful sails.

Hot sun, lavender and butterflies.

We are having some very hot sunny weather at the moment.

The day normally starts with quite a heavy mist and then the sun gradually burns that away.

Working in the garden has to be done in small amounts as its just too hot.

All the insects are having a wonderful time especially the butterflies.

On Saturday when I was laying out the onions we've grown to dry in the sun I decided to take a break and get my new camera and take some photographs.

The butterflies were just so beautiful against the lavender.

The cabbage white butterflies were enjoying searching for nectar - maybe they'll leave my vegetables alone - however I'm not too hopeful!!

I was especially delighted with the photograph above .

Numbers - start counting !?

When I was in Nantes I noticed a number that I really liked so took a photograph.

Then it occured to me that it would be good to start to make a collection of 

photographs of numbers.

So I made a start.

 Maybe one day I'll get to a hundred !!

A magical Elephant and contemporary art biennal.

Last week we went to Nantes for a few days with friends.

Where the old shipbuilding yards used to be there are two companies 

that design and make the most amazing machines.

We were lucky enough to see the elephant 

that was made by La Machine,  www.lesmachines-nantes.fr/

The elephant is able to carry many people and trumpets and sprays water from its trunk to the delight 

of everyone who sees it, especially the children.

The elephant has a lovely face, its eyes open and close complete with eyelashes.

It can flap its ears and raise its trunk - a wonderful, magical thing to see.

Some of you will remember seeing a special event in Liverpool, England where they were celebrating the link of the Titanic with the city.

Royal de Luxe, www.royal-de-luxe.com  another company based in Nantes had made a wonderful puppet of a little girl with her dog who were going to meet up with her uncle who had a letter to give her from her father who had drowned when the Titanic sank 100 years ago.

The reason for going to Nantes was to visit a huge contemporary art biennial.

We spent three days seeing the most amazing pieces of art and architecture

even going by boat to visit the huge submarine sheds at St Nazaire which were built by Germany in the second world war.

Art installations were inside the enormous sheds and one landscape artist has started to plant gardens on the top of these huge buildings, nature has continued his work with the help of the birds and the elements.

Next I've posted some photographs of pieces of work we saw in Nantes.

I city to be visited again for certain.

A row of these rings ran alongside the river and were illuminated at night.

This pot of blue paint was visited by tiny radio controlled
helicopters with brushes attached who then painted onto white boards.

This reminded me of a Salavador Dali painting.

The cat was painted onto a huge wall.

Later down the same road as the cat there was the dog.

A wonderful piece of architecture.

This figure was NOT real but amazingly lifelike.

This house was in the river.

A village from another world by the side of the river Loire.

I just loved this exhibition - all made from odd bits and pieces of metal.

Two huge arches made form concrete bricks.

This facade of a house just floated above a square in the city.

This piece of sculpture wove its way in tree and was lit up at night.

And the answer is ......... Pearl BUTTONS !!!

So, you will remember I came home with my box of shells and started the discovery.

The beautiful shells were part of a collection owned by Paul Dumas and Company.
A French business that started in the 1830's making buttons.

Old postcard showing the Paul Dumas factory.

                                                                             


Shells were collected from all over the world and so that is why they have their labels and their place of origin and the type of shell written on.


I was truly fascinated.

The buttons were used for clothing and on shoes.
In 1960 the factory changed its use becoming a place for making shoes.

Paul Dumas and Company were situated in Picardy, Northern France.
There were many companies making items such as fans, dominoes and buttons etc.
Now there is a museum which records the history of  the beautiful items which were made in the area.
It is possible also to watch buttons being made.

                                                 www.musee-nacre.com/en

One day I hope to visit the museum and maybe find out more about the company that my shells came from.

I have collected buttons from when I was a child being inspired by my Nan's button box.
I spent many happy hours playing with them.

I'm going to sell some of the shells at the next vintage textile fair I go to but in the meantime if any of you are interested in owning one of these beauties please contact me.

I now appreciate why pearl buttons were so expensive at the time and were taken off clothing and used again and again.

Much work and many hours would have gone into making a set of buttons to be used on an item of
clothing.

I am so glad that I managed to win them at the auction.