Drawing Tuesday: Irons at the Science Museum ( plus V&A Exhbitions)

Drawing Tuesday   this week was at the Science Museum - very busy and noisy with families ( tho marginally quieter than when there are school groups), slightly less  frantic  in the ' Secret Life of the Home' gallery in the basement. It's a treasure trove of  household appliances, ancient and modern.  I tore myself away from the sewing machines  to find something a bit easier to draw  and found another  textile related display  dear to our hearts - irons !

 It was interesting to see the innards  of a steam iron  and see the early models of the electric iron ( my mum had one identical to the canary yellow one  below) 

 I was initially tempted by the idea of drawing the damage done to synthetic fabrics with a hot iron  ( above) but settled for the range of old metal flat irons 

The 'goffering iron ' looked  quite space age . It was made to shape ruffs and frills  with a hot metal poker placed  in the iron to heat it up. 

 With lots of rubbing out and   redrawing in 2h and 2b pencils  it was a relief to finish off  with a quick sketch  of box irons using a 6b graphite stick ! 

 After catching up with the others in the cafe and revived  by lunch I headed  over to the other side of  Exhibition  Road, to the V&A .  Using my Museums Association   membership  card I got into the  Frida  Kahlo  exhibition ( despite   all tickets being sold out)  and then 'Fashioned from Nature'.   I'm not sure  that I would have paid  to see the Frida Kahlo exhibition ( I tend to agree with the reviews) but as I'm coincidentally re-reading ' The Lacuna' by Barbara Kingsolver, it was fascinating to see the early photos and short  film clips including one  with Trotsky. 

It also brought back fond memories  of  going to Mexico for work   in 1997. I taught an orchid growing workshop in Puebla  then  had a few days in Mexico City gracefully hosted by Robert Bye and Edelmira Linares . ( contributers to the  book associated  with 'Frida Kahlo's Garden' . Now that's an exhibition I wished I'd seen) .   Besides the usual museums and galleries , Edelmira ( who's an ethnobotanist)  took me to some fascinating craft places. 

 More to my taste was the 'Fashioned from  Nature' exhibition  - so much  exquisitely  stitched  clothing and a fascinating glimpse into materials  and methods both used in the past and new innovations. Being  a textile exhibition with many fragile pieces, light levels were low  so photography was a bit  limited. I was rather struck by the Gucci handbag inspired by stag beetles ( noble beasts!)  and the darned clothing  ' Visible History'  by designer John Alexander Skelton. 

  Finally, I  had  a quick look at the gallery showing the finalists of the 'Jameel Prize 5' . I was particularly struck by the woven details in the  work by Hala Kaiksow ( below)

  I wonder whether those folds involved  a goffering iron?!

Drawing Tuesday at the Science museum

 Bit of a frustrating time  this Tuesday drawing in the Science  Museum. We met in the gallery devoted to 'Making the Modern World' and there some fantastic items to draw (  like the  early sewing machine!) However there were LOTS of school groups , no stools and all the seating areas were occupied. I headed up to the mezzanine level where there were some benches and display cases with interesting  items (' Plan Your kitchen Kit' anyone?)  but it was still difficult to get close enough to  look at things properly.

 I chose this steam engine model ( mainly for the reflections in the copper )

  I liked the 'blind drawing' not looking at the paper - it looks like  some Heath Robinson contraption.

 I struggled with the straight lines of the architecture ( why did I choose it - I much prefer organic shapes ). It looks marginally better  using Photoshop filters (below) but not much. I should have just gone for abstracting the shapes which is what appealed in the first place.  Next week I'll take my sketching stool with me .

Drawing Tuesday - Flying in the Science Museum

 It's years since I visited the Science  Museum ( probably not since I was at University round the corner over 30 years ago)  so I  got thoroughly lost  finding the 'flight'  gallery, destination for Tuesday's drawing session. Memories of the   aviation section of the Royal Army Museum in Brussels .

  I was enchanted by the  early planes, so fragile, and spent most of my time sitting in front of the case dedicated to  Hiram Maxim ( as in gun) 

 It was the curves of 'Phillip's Propeller  which attracted me but  it proved a challenging subject with all that foreshortening!

  As  bit of light relief , I turned to the boomerangs in the next case , trying to capture the different qualities of their surfaces  using graphite and eraser.

 And finally a quick biro sketch , not taking the pen off the paper,  attempting to untangle what was happening in this model ( which it looked like it had evolved rather than  being planned).

  Waiting for others  to finish,  Margaret  showed me the different kinds of rivets - this seaplane   being a good example. Definitely lots of things of interest for another visit

 After a leisurely lunch, I did a little more exploring in the museum on the gallery devoted to 'challenge of materials'

 There were 2 polyester dresses in a case on 'Perceptions' where unusual materials had been used for clothing ( like the Vivian Westwood  Axminster carpet dress). These had stainless steel coating with permanent embossed images of spoons ( above) and of hands( below), playing with the idea of transparency/solidity.

 This sculpture using layers of different flooring materials was fun

  Then a bit of retail therapy in the museum shop - couldn't resist this heavy cotton lined bag  showing  how a sewing machine makes stitches on one side and about cotton production on the other.

Then a bus ride to  High St Ken  and Cass arts. I only went in for a fine eraser   but somehow  came out with 2( Tombow Mono zero and Derwent eraser -pen)   and a tin of Winsor and  Newton   watercolour markers..... I made them work hard in the shop as the packaging just had dots of colours  on the front, not a list of what they were  but they helpfully looked it up on the computer so I could work out what additional ones to buy  to replace the green and black.  I'll let you know how I get on.