Museum of Making: 2023

For any reader of this Blog, they would have been surprised to have received this yesterday and found the only word written was “Ab”. What on Earth happened? I don’t know but I could speculate. From the start of the Blog, back in 2015, it was linked with Twitter so when it was published people could have a notification via email or via Twitter. A few months ago, when @elonmusk bought Twitter and many changes were made, an automatic link between WordPress and Twitter was stopped. Now it has to be done manually. That’s ok. But yesterday was the first day that the big black X replaced the little blue Twitter bird but if you use an iPad it can be delayed and I used the old logo. I suspect it was sabotaged. And the Blog deleted. So now I start again.

For five years a tall, elegant lamp has stood in a dark corner of the lounge on a china cabinet, unused. It was styled on a Tiffany-shape but the two small drop lamp shades are more like Charles Rennie MacIntosh in design. I’ve had it for about twenty years but it didn’t fare well in the house move, followed by six months in storage, five years ago. The shades became loose and it wasn’t possible to change the bulbs. It felt unsafe. I wanted it mended. In this disposable age that is almost impossible. I tried the place I bought it. Fat chance. Then I tried the manufacturer who really weren’t interested in anything but selling me another lamp. So there it has stood. If you looked at it from a distance you probably wouldn’t notice but you might ask why I hadn’t put the lamp on as it got dark in the evening.

With the fairly rotten weather recently Liz and I decided on a full, top to bottom house clean with some moving of furniture around and clearing of unwanted clothes ready for the Charity Shop. I had a feeling about what was going to happen next.

“We really ought to get that lamp mended” Liz said.

“Quite right but where?” I said “We’ve tried this before”

“I’ve found somewhere” she said “You could ring…….”

To cut a very long story short, because Scott of stage_left_lux wasn’t sure if he could do anything because my photos were pretty rubbish, I just said “Wouldn’t it be easier if I brought it to you so you could see. I only live twenty minutes away.” And that’s what I did.

Three days later it was rewired, cleaned and fully mended and working. It’s brilliant. And why didn’t I do this some time ago rather than just let it sit in the corner doing nothing. It now has a different place, centre stage. Having seen what Scott could do, I got two much older lamps out of the shed for him to work his magic on.

Anyway excited by the return of the first lamp we decided to go to the Museum of Making which was nearby. We’d been there once before when it was called the Silk Mill and the Tower of London poppies poured out of the windows to celebrate the centenary of the end the First World War. What an interesting place and not only that it had a tea towel to celebrate my revitalised lamp.

Thank you stage_left_lux

Broadstairs: 2023

Every morning I’m in contact with my Aunt Catherine who lives in Essex. We text solely via emojis, we play an alphabet word game called Wordly Wise plus an occasional notelet using real post. In fact she is probably the only person who actually writes to me. You don’t even get an electricity bill these days! In addition, she likes me to send a picture of one of my older tea towels with a bit of a story of where it came from. This is because she doesn’t have access to the Internet so can’t access the Blog. The pictures have to be quite clear because the detail on a WhatsApp picture is scanty, and I have to remember which ones I’ve sent.

Catherine is a big supporter of the Tea Towel Collection and is very keen that I achieve 2000. I’m a bit of a way off from that at present. A couple of weeks ago Catherine was off on a trip to Broadstairs with a group she goes to. Knowing she might try and buy me a tea towel I sent her a picture of the Broadstairs tea towel I thought she had bought for me a couple of years ago.

“I’ve never been to Broadstairs” she texted back.

“Of course you have” I said. ”You bought me this tea towel”

“Nice tea towel but I didn’t” she said. She was quiet after that and I was puzzled. A couple of hours later I received another text “Amanda bought you that tea towel.” Amanda is Catherine’s daughter. That answered that question.

A few days later there was the familiar sound of a padded envelope on the hall floor, the sound of a tea towel through the letter box. By this time I’d forgotten about this conversation. And yes, it was a tea towel of Broadstairs. Catherine had had a great day out, had plaice and chips on the sea front and the question she wanted the answer to was “Are you near to 2000 tea towels yet?”

“No”

Thank you Chloe: 2023

If you are a regular Reader of this Blog you will know of my exploits on Bargain Hunt on BBC1, filmed in February this year but not shown until June. There have been a number of nice things that have happened as a result of this. One was a note from Chloe via the Visitors’s Book in the Virtual Tea Towel Museum. She said “I saw you on Bargain Hunt and wondered if you would like to rehome two vintage Irish linen tea towels? They are really beautiful……..My uncle recently passed away and I found them while clearing out his house. They have never used……” What a delightful offer. Chloe’s right, they are really beautiful. The colours on the donkey one are soft and warm and so reminiscent of the Irish countryside. The artist has really caught the relationship between the mother and baby donkey. The other one is so different. You can almost smell the heat of the fire and the dog warming itself after a day outside. Both have definitely never been used and are both quality Irish linen.

Having cleared a few relative’s houses I know that feeling of discovering the unexpected, like just two unused linen tea towels, and wondering why. Or where they came from, was there a back-story? Hence the Blog. I’d want the person who inherits my Collection to know where each and every one came from and their back-story.

Thank you Chloe for such a generous gift to a stranger. They are lovely and will be well cared for.

Monsal Dale: 2023

Towards the end of June this year we stayed in a small cottage, a converted pigsty, for four days to walk the Monsal Trail in bite-sized-chunks. The trail is the course of a former railway line, thus guaranteed to be fairly flat and since it is also part of the National Cycle Trail it is also a good walking surface. We had previously walked to the mouth of the Headstone Tunnel but turned back because we knew going through would be ‘a step too far’. This time we began the journey two miles nearer the Headstone Tunnel, walked through and onto the viaduct. It was the viaduct we were desperate to see. Of course, this is always a problem because if you’re on the viaduct you don’t get to see the curve, the arches, the bend, the beauty of the viaduct. Standing on it is wonderful. We left to find the viewpoint so we could stand a distance away and see the full splendour of the viaduct and take photos.

But maybe the best way to see the viaduct is on the poster from the 1930s promoting the Peak District and it is that poster that was used on this tea towel and it’s brilliant. I found it in the Bakewell Tourist Information Office. In fact recently Tourist Information Offices have proved to be a good source of tea towels from the local area; now I will always try and head there as a first port of call.

I love this tea towel, one of those that really conjures up memories of a very happy holiday.

A Cornish Coronation: 2023

My search for Coronation tea towels is well known by any Reader of this Blog. I am happy to find them at any time, no matter that it is more than two months after the event.

I found this amongst a pile of miscellaneous tea towels in a farm shop in the middle of nowhere. Made by Poppy Treffry, a Cornish company using organic unbleached cotton and Cornish workers, I love this naive design, a tribute to the King’s longstanding role in the Duchy of Cornwall.

My slowly growing Coronation Collection is unique for the very different mixture of tea towels. Still have to find that Ulster Weavers one that I saw.

Buxton Brewery: 2023

On holiday in the Peak District a few weeks ago, we spent half a day in Buxton, a town we’d visited 20 years ago. We’d decided to visit the Pavilion Gardens, wander around the paths trying to find some shade. It was certainly a hot day. We spotted an Arts and Craft Exhibition in the Pavilion, free to enter. It was wonderful, full of very different artists, everything from wood turning to pottery and ceramics, from painting to jewellery. The sort of place you could spend a fortune. I was hopeful of a tea towel but not one to be seen.

The Buxton Brewery were selling their wares and there, on the centre display stand, was a tea towel. This was my day! Certainly not what I was expecting! It is a very interesting design, based on the traditional idea of a Mandala, originating from India. They are based on very repetitive patterns, colours, and geometry which help take a spectator to a meditative place. This one was created by Tamdala who runs creative mandala workshops in the local area.

I love the simple design and colour scheme of this tea towel which gives it a kind of elegance which would certainly fit in with any kitchen colour scheme. A good buy.

Chatsworth House: 2023

A couple of weeks ago we stayed in a cottage for a short break very near to Chatsworth House. We had no intention of going there. First we saw a sign to their Farm Shop. Always worth a visit we thought, and it was. We bought something nice for tea but agreed we would pop in on the way home. Why not go in to the Chatsworth House shop, we thought and perhaps have a cup of tea.
I’ve never been to Chatsworth estate at all although I have a tea towel representing the Chinese silk curtains which my cousin bought me several years ago. They are still selling it, along with so many others. Which one would I chose? Liz said I should never make the mistakes of the past, regretting not buying a tea towel, thinking I might come back again and never did. So I chose a classic design of the front of the house and ‘Tea and Biscuits on the Lawn’, inspired by the famous portrait of Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire painted by Thomas Gainsborough. It shows off the Duchess’s elaborate fashion sense and the popularity of drinking tea in 18th century. It was designed by Lucy Loveheart. Having chosen those two I hadn’t seen the statues. The lion is created by local artist Jon Proctor and taken from the Sleeping Canova Lion in the Sculpture Gallery. And I couldn’t resist. They’re great. And finally by yet another artist is the front of the house in mirror reflection in slightly different colours, so clever.

I did exactly what Liz suggested and chose those tea towels I really wanted and would have regretted passing by. It was a great day.

Fishing Otter: 2023

I have to say, this is a stunning image from Angela Harding. She is a printmaker based in her rural studio in Rutland. Her original prints are inspired by the British countryside. You can find many of her images on notebooks, greetings cards and incredibly difficult jigsaw puzzles. I’ve tried several, not been defeated but they have certainly taken a long time. It’s the detail she creates.

I was visiting Chatsworth House, well not the actual house but the shop, where there is everything you could want to buy, from cushions to garden furniture, from ornaments to luxury foods and tea towels scattered around. You think you’ve found all the tea towels and then another emerges. I had no intention of buying anything other than a Chatsworth House tea towel until I saw this one. As soon as I saw it, I thought of the 1969 film ‘Ring of Bright Water’ with Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers. It is one of my all-time favourite films. There is a scene where Bill Travers built a tank for his otter to swim in so that he could sketch an otter swimming under water. Angela Harding has captured that image. I couldn’t resist adding it to my Collection but I swore that if I saw the picture as a jigsaw I would never buy it, it would be much too difficult!!

There are many reasons why I might buy a tea towel but sometimes a memory is tugged, that is too strong to be resisted and that was certainly the case with the Fishing Otter. I love it. I’m glad I bought it and tonight I will watch ‘Ring of Bright Water’.

Bargain Hunt: 2023

It was at the end of January 2023 when I was contacted, through the Virtual Tea Towel Museum, by the BBC to ask if I would be willing to be on Bargain Hunt, not as a contestant (good job because I would be rubbish at that unless there were tea towels on sale) but as an ‘expert’. I was interested to know what kind of ‘expert’ they thought that I would be!
“Tea towels,” the woman said “because you hold the Guinness World Record.” She had a vision about how this would work. I’d bring a lot of tea towels and they would peg them up on washing lines. They would do all the work. Christina Trevelyan and I would sit in front of them and she would interview me. Sounded ok. I asked when this would be. 10 February, she said. I clarified. We would be sitting outside, in February, in front of tea towels, being interviewed.
“Yes it’ll be fine” she said with confidence, adding “wear something warm”. I didn’t know what the contingency plan was for if it rained. A couple of umbrellas I expect, since that’s what usually happens on the show.

I loved everything about that day. I did wear something warm but I was indoors while they arranged the tea towels so it was a big surprise to see the results of their hard work. Some of them hanging up I hadn’t seen for a long while. They had asked for “a lot”.

“What’s a lot?” I said

“About 70” she had said over the phone. She texted again and said that I ought to bring more, maybe 100 and finally “could you bring 150, we don’t want to have spaces on the table.”

“Fine as long as someone helps me carry them because tea towels are heavy in bulk.”

“They’ll be plenty of people around” and there were.

The thing I hadn’t realised was how the show was filmed in segments. We were in Newark and at least four shows were partially filmed. The auctions are completely separate. The whole thing is frenetic but friendly and welcoming. I loved it.

At the end of my interview, there was the real surprise of being given a Bargain Hunt tea towel. The camera man said that I was either truly ecstatic about the tea towel or a trained actress because he’d never seen a reaction like that. The truth is I was ecstatic.

Having filmed it in 10 February they let me know that it was to be broadcast on 16 June 2023. Everyone I knew watched and I’m surprised at just how many people do watch Bargain Hunt. I was contacted by the prolific tea towel designer Clive Mayor. Anyone who does have a few souvenir tea towels almost certainly has one of his. He saw one of his on display on Bargain Hunt and wondered if I had any others, which of course I do.

Someone else donated two tea towels to my collection! That was certainly a day to remember.

Langley Basin: 2023

It was Spring Bank Holiday, a bright sunny Monday in May. May seemed to have been full of Bank Holidays this year, what with the Coronation. This was an ordinary one. Liz, Pete and I had decided to go for a walk, destination unplanned. When Pete arrived he said he’d like to go to Langley Basin because there was some kind of Canal Festival there. Sounded like a good idea, although we knew parking would be disastrous.

We were clever having arrived early and found a parking spot. It’s ages since we’d been to an event like that. There were stalls selling everything from honey and natural remedies to pottery and glass. There were other stalls advertising other stretches of canal like the Chesterfield Canal (they had tea towels but I already had theirs). Boat trips sounded interesting on the Cromford Canal.

I was hopeful of finding a tea towel but time was running out. Then I saw a small stall over the other side of the canal. It involved a long walk over the bridge, fighting the opposite way the foot traffic was travelling but with a tea towel in mind anything is possible. I reached the stall. There were two tea towels, one of the Cromford Canal and the other of the Derby Canal, neither of which I had. I was so excited.
“Do you have a card machine?” I asked.

“Sorry, cash only” the man said.

I hadn’t used cash since March 2020. This was a disaster. No cash point near. I shout across the canal to Pete to ask if he had any cash on him. He did. He rushed over but we discovered he was £1 short. The man was very kind and let me have them at a bargain price. Two more tea towels to add to the collection and the perfect end to a lovely day.