We have just over a week to transform the furniture store back into a gallery for the last show of 2009. Both the artists exhibiting have young children and we are breaking with the traditional evening opening and having an opening on Saturday 28th November. There will be a badge machine and cake for the kids and you will be able to sign up for childrens workshops with Georgina Bell, one of two a women artists working in Nottinghamshire whose work will be in the Gallery. Look on the events section for more info.
Those of you who cant come will be able to buy on-line once the show starts…….but no cake!
Some years ago BBC Homes and Antiques Magazine were kind enough to include our shop in an article recommending places to go ‘antiquing’ in Newark on Trent. We were pleased recently to find out about the magazines campaign to encourage readers to use or lose their favourite antique shops, listing antiques shops willing to give readers a 10% discount on production of the magazines Novembers issue . The scheme started today, October 7th, publication day . We are the only shop participating in Nottinghamshire. There are others in the area, Lincolnshire and nearby Leicestershire and Derby….so….get your copy of the magazine, come and have a browse and if you find something you like, don’t be shy…come and claim your discount!…and we can all thank Natasha Goodfellow at Homes & Antiques for making it happen.
This weekend Tori, our fashion guru, has been in England…bringing us antique linen sheets, vintage textiles from France and news about all the really important minutiae of French cultural life…..the fashionable way to tie a scarf for example (not tied at all but draped across the front of the neck, cross the ends behind the back of the neck and carefully pull the ends down over the shoulders at the front) ..the most talked about exhibition of the season (Renoir at the Grand Palais)…clothes (brogues, layers which mustn’t be too self- consciously matching and boyish tailored jackets with the sleeves rolled back). But the most important thing she brought was a blast of creative energy which has rubbed off and is manifesting itself as a new red scarf….sadly not long enough to tie fashionably… a series of designs for cushions made with some of her vintage fabrics and a determination to stop putting things off, meet up in Paris & see the Renoir Show.
Some days the gods are with us and it was just so this morning when we started cleaning and restoring the surface of a large french limed blond oak table top. A job which was daunting in the beginning went like a dream….clean the dirt…not patina…old food and sticky finger marks.. with a gentle conservation cleaner, take a little more off with a gentle sweep of a v.sharp plane blade and unbelievably a lovely aged table top revealed itself. We don’t recommend you try this unless you enjoy slowly teasing an abused surface back to life, it’s work for the patient. A beginners mistake is to over-clean and remove the surface patina along with the dirt.
Tomorrow we’ll begin the re-liming…….wax mixed with rottenstone should do it. Happiness is a restored thing of beauty.
Festie (rhymes with pestie) our canine is an important part of the equipe here at Galerie: ice breaker, friend to anyone who comes through the door, he has an engaging repertoire of attention grabbing tricks and ways of asserting his ownership of the place. We are the sad people who think we are in charge.
For some time its been Petes desire to ‘give him a go’ - by this he means find him a mate. Thats not to say Festie hasn’t already found one for himself during one of his many episodes of going AWOL- but if we ‘give him a go’ we could get a Festie puppy, and, given the lack of grandchildren its the best we can do in terms of new additions to the family.
Before you ask, Festie is a terrier, a cross-bred terrier I say…Pete says he is a Newark terrier because there is a tradition of traveller-bred ‘digging dogs’ in Newark and our foundling chien is almost certainly one of them. Like all terriers he could dig for England but sadly, confined to our courtyard most of the time, he contents himself with looking for rabbits in what was once a garden, stocked with the rare and the fashionable offerings of Chelsea.
I have just reminded myself of the point of this blog…the news that a customer who also sees the merit of a dog with attitude has a friend whose dog,a certain little Jack Russell lady, a red-head like Festie, is looking for a mate.
If you are one of the many people who have your name down for a Festie-puppy, don’t hold your breath, should the ‘go’ prove fruitful Pete will go into hiding with the offspring before he parts with it.
I will keep you posted
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It’s warm and misty here in the yard this morning, from nowhere we remember that in the Paris bistrots it’s time for filet mignon du pork with a sauce of lavender and honey. A sort of longing for France is setting in - made worse when we see the screensaver photo of an empty road curling away in front of us, rimmed by the fallen leaves of a beechwood in La Perche. We think of the massive spotty pigs we saw snuffling through the orchard before we entered the wood and a hand is already reaching for Sea Frances number.
Today has been web-site day…I am so focussed even the dogs annoying habit of creeping onto a chair in the shop window doesn’t distract me. ( I know, I know, if you are looking for something from a pet free zone……..).It’s only when Festie starts to bark at the new dog on the block that I take any notice at all.
Meanwhile, in the yard the fig tree is having its last fling of the year- it can’t hold back winter and is still loaded with green figs….. must find a good recipe for them…any suggestions anyone?
It’s astonishing how many people come into the shop to see the dog, the fig tree and the ‘waterfall’…it’s a wonder we get anything sold at all. By a stroke of luck someone calls in, falls for a cute little chair and the week is off to a good start.
