I found out about this idle business when I came across an events programme for 'The Idler Academy' which has recently opened on Westborne Park Rd. Such fun quirky things going on there - evening talks, sewing mornings, ukulele lessons...I actually decided a while ago that I wanted to learn the ukulele. I've never been musical - tried leaning the piano at prep school but my teacher was strange & he sniffed a lot so I gave up. It was very shorted lived - probably just as long as he had a cold. I say this in retrospect, now that I've realised that the sniff may not have been a permanent characteristic of this chap, but I didn't stick around long enough to know. My recent decision to learn the ukulele was based on my idea that it would be realitively easy as it's small. 'Half the size of a guitar = half the difficulty of a guitar' was my rationing. Unfortantely, after a lesson with a musical friend of mine I realised this was certainly not the case. He spent a good half hour teaching me to strum which was quite frankly beyond me. Once again, my attempt at a musical career was somewhat short lived.
So ukulele lessons at the Idler Academy? Maybe not. But a talk about hedgehogs? Yes please. Apparently there was also a talk about Sloths a while ago which I sadly missed. A whole hours talk dedicated to sloths...how wonderful does that sound? It would also have been rather interesting because I honestly cannot think of anything else they do other than be lazy. Maybe the talk was tips on how to be a lazy sloth? Because we all need more help with that, right?!
No sloths, no hedgehogs, but books! I went to an evening talk & class called 'How to Make a Book' which was just fab. It was run by a man called John-Paul Flintoff, a proper English eccentric who just bloody loves books. I don't think I've ever met someone who has such a passion for them...Of course I know real bookworms - those wonderfully bookish, library loving, nerdy types, but this chap's love of books is different. He simply loves making them - from what I gather - out of anything & everything. The talk began with him waxing lyrical about all the ways books can be created & the types that can be created..books with hidden pages, books that fold into different shapes, never ending books, small books, large books...papers, colours, shapes, sizes, books, books, books. The evening then turned practical - glue, scissors, paper, material, thread, needles, all flying around as we learnt to create signatures & bind them together. It was such a jolly event & the other people were equally as jolly & indeed rather eccentric. One woman in particular had to shield her eyes when the buttons were brought out. She has a phobia of buttons. I found this a bit odd, but then remember that I've got a phobia of toothbrushes & I guess an irrational fear of buttons & toothbrushes are roughly on the same par...
My owl-y creation!
Here's another example of a bit of my collaging..lots of owls, of course. My favourite is the picture of Adam & Eve with the quote 'Honesty, there IS no one else'. Amazing.
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