Antiques at The Old Brewery, Paint Workshops, Brighton childhood, Arundel Festival, Ardingly Antiques Fair & other chatter
Good Morning
from
Arundel Eccentrics
How are you?
I hope life is treating you well.
It's been a busy couple of weeks
and hence some while since I blogged.
We are open today
at
The Old Brewery Antiques Warehouses
behind
Arundel Co-op.
I know, I know, we are very posh. LOL
Actually, joking aside, we are very
full with some lovely pieces at the moment.
Go and say Hi to Nass if you are in town.
Paint workshops
We had a paint workshop this week.
Two people for two days
who appeared to get along
well and have fun with the
paint, gilt, crackle glaze, decoupage and craquelure.
Patrick turned these.............
and Nicky turned these.............
into these.................
but coming along a treat hey?
I am working on some new dates and ideas.
Here is a three day event that you might be interested in.
Normally, a day is £95.
That includes all materials,
(apart from your items of furniture) and vegetarian lunch.
The three day event is £180.
It's a Friday, Saturday & Sunday
for those who work all week.
It's a Friday, Saturday & Sunday
for those who work all week.
It'll be tiring, but exciting and
you will go home with pieces
that are completely transformed.
Dates
May 10th 11th 12th
Places are at a premium,
so if you are interested please contact
That said...if you would like
to do a one day workshop,
email me,
suggest dates that suit you
and I will link you up
with one or two other
workshoppers on one of those days.
Check out our paint workshop blog
to see exactly what you can
do on a one day workshop.
Here's the three day itinerary.
Itinerary day one
To Bring
One item to paint and distress before waxing
Another item to paint, decoupage, and Craquelure
Something to protect clothes
Day 1
Objectives
Paint, distress, wax and finish one item and prepare second piece for decoupage.
9am arrive
Coffee, introductions and discussion of what you want to achieve.
Photograph pieces for before and after pictures
9.30 start work.
Prepare and paint both items
While they are drying, look at images for decoupage.
Photocopy..sort out what is needed for your second piece
Lunch around 1pm
Vegetarian quiche and salad
Afternoon
Distress and wax the first item
Buff , finish, photograph and admire
Prepare the second piece so it's ready for decoupage first thing tomorrow.
Discuss ageing, tinting and cutting out of images.
Take images , cutting mat and craft knife to cut them at home.
Cup of tea and update any notes.
To Bring
One item to paint and distress before waxing
Another item to paint, decoupage, and Craquelure
Something to protect clothes
Day 1
Objectives
Paint, distress, wax and finish one item and prepare second piece for decoupage.
9am arrive
Coffee, introductions and discussion of what you want to achieve.
Photograph pieces for before and after pictures
9.30 start work.
Prepare and paint both items
While they are drying, look at images for decoupage.
Photocopy..sort out what is needed for your second piece
Lunch around 1pm
Vegetarian quiche and salad
Afternoon
Distress and wax the first item
Buff , finish, photograph and admire
Prepare the second piece so it's ready for decoupage first thing tomorrow.
Discuss ageing, tinting and cutting out of images.
Take images , cutting mat and craft knife to cut them at home.
Cup of tea and update any notes.
Creative Writing Workshops in Arundel
I am thoroughly enjoying the
creative writing workshops.
We are a small group,
with some
friendly and fascinating characters.
Led by Peter, who used to be a
Sunday Times journalist,
we are all getting more and
more involved in the course
and seem to be learning a great deal.
Hopefully one day
I will be writing a novel.
Who knows?
Meanwhile, you may be interested
to read my little piece on
a Brighton childhood/ teenage years.
And yes, its true LOL
" 'ere do you want to come an orgy?" asked Ray.
Annie searched his grinning face trying to find some hint
as
to what an orgy actually was.
And although she found no clue said, "yeah ok,"
anyway.
It was 1966. She was thirteen and from a sheltered background.
Her family were strict Catholics. Her mother had converted when she married.
She was more committed to the faith than Annie's father.
Mum made sure her
offspring attended Mass every Sunday
and all the religious high days.
and all the religious high days.
Her
father was a policeman and for many years walked
the local beat before being
promoted to station sergeant
. Annie was a day pupil at the local convent
school.
She had passed her eleven plus.
Wouldn’t have been there else,
but it
made her different from the other kids
on the council estate where she lived.
She
was desperate to fit in.
Ray Wilkinson was the love of Annie's life.
He was a
seventeen year old
who lived up the road and was part of the local gang of
mods.
Ray had two lambrettas.
The red one he used in the week and
the shiny silver one for weekends.
Both
would be heard roaring up and down the road day and night.
There were only three daring things Annie had done to date.
The first was to spend all her bus fare on Brighton Pier
one
Sunday after she had sung in the choir at Mass.
She had to walk all the way
home from town.
It took her three hours and the traditional family roast was
finished
and cleared away by the time she arrived.
Her parents were raging but
they calmed down quickly.
Both relieved to see their daughter was safe.
There
had been a murder in the area only weeks
before and parents in the town were
edgy.
The second bold act was to stand for hours
at a time
on the toilet seat,
behind the locked bathroom door.
She would squint through
the gap at the top of the
patterned glass window to catch a glimpse
of her idol
as he hurtled up and down the street.
Thirdly, well..... that was the first and only time Ray had
kissed her.
Much later she realised why Ray kept his distance.
He seemed
to really like her, but had never asked her out.
Her age was one factor, her
father being the local bobby was another.
Probably the biggest drawback to any
progress was her mother.
One cold February afternoon Annie jumped off the school bus.
She was delighted when Ray tore up the road on his scooter and screeched to a
halt beside her.
Although wrapped up in his uniform parka, he seemed to be
shivering.
"Can I borrow your scarf?" He asked.
Her heart beat faster.
"Of course you can.”
Annie felt happy as he wound the red felt scarf around his
neck.
Her mother's voice bellowed down the street,
"Get that scarf off yer greasy neck, Wilkinson"
Ray blushed, Annie blushed and her mother continued her
ranting.
It was excruciating for the thirteen year old.
But more than anything she was surprised her heartthrob
would go red.
Ray thrust the scarf
back into Annie's hand revved up his red lambretta
by way of having the last
word and roared off.
She stood in the middle of the road and watched him,
embarrassed, upset, but hugging and burying her nose into the warm scarf.
The next day she apologised.
"Ah that's ok" he said, "You still coming to
the orgy?"
After yesterday’s fracas, she felt she couldn't say
no.
Besides she was intrigued.
She still hadn't found out
what an orgy was.
Saturday night arrived and she made the excuse of going to
see her cousin.
It never occurred to innocent Annie, that an orgy might be
anything sexual.
As it turned out it wasn't.
Well, not much anyway.
It was a group of teenagers crammed into a small council
flat with the curtains drawn tight.
Throughout the first showing of Lady Chatterley's Lover
on
the small black and white tv set
they munched on packets of crisps,
(those ones with
the little blue bags of salt inside)
and rather daringly swigged lemonade from
glass bottles.
Arundel Festival
Homes and Gardens Magazine
Look out for us in June's edition of Homes and Gardens magazine.
One of our Victorian Bamboo Cabinets is in there.
We decorated this one especially for the shoot.
Ardingly Antiques Fair
Coming up.
its on Tuesday 23rd and Wednesday 24th April
Come and say hello
we are on
shopping Arcade 68
But we may only be there on the Tuesday.
Have a great day
