Front Page - Nicki MacRae

nicki_macrae

Life & Creative Practice ~ Living with neurological disability
Art / Scottish Highlands / History / Vintage / Mudlarking / Fungi / Disabled Hiker

Hooray! 😍👏 We’ve been looking for one of t

I’ve searched out every single Spongeware potter

I’ve searched out every single Spongeware pottery shard I’ve ever found mudlarking and spread them out on a table, so that I can have a focused effort at trying to match some up to complete examples of similar patterns.

This may take some time… 🤔😂😂

I’ll save any tiny bit I find on the shore as I’m fascinated by the patterns, and also the social history... The thought of these gaudy, often brilliantly coloured items adorning the shelves of the often dark, cramped cottages of local households. Did they bring a bit of lightness and joy to dinnertime, after a heavy day tending large families, scraping out a living from the earth or chasing herring / salmon? Why choose those folksy designs over more refined choices? So many questions (which I won’t bore you with here…) 🤔

(At this point this ‘assemblage’ of finds has taken up space in my lounge for 3 days… I’m making very slow progress because my hips and legs are complaining about a protracted ‘lark over rocky ground the other day, and now my heads on the wonk again, so I’m stuck lying flat 🧠🤷‍♀️😂 #IntercranialHypotension. I can’t actually insist the teenagers tidy up their messes currently, as I’ve made such a mess with my “old junk”😂😂)

#LiveLifeInTechnicolour
#StayCurious

[Image Description: tens of different broken pot shards are spread out upon a table top. Many colours and patterns are represented - blues, red, grey, greens, black, flowers, leaves, stripes, diamonds, rope motifs, rings, lattice. Next to it is an open book with colour photographs showing complete examples of Spongeware decorated plates with colourful floral designs with repeating borders.]

#SeaPottery #MaterialHistory #MudlarkingCeramics #MudLarkingFinds #Mudlarks #Mudlarking #MudlarkingUK #BeachcombingFinds #SeaTreasures #Beachcombing #ScottishBeachFinds #HistoryOnTheBeach #ScottishBeaches #Beachcomber #Spongeware #SpongewarePottery #ScottishSpongeware #HistoryLover #HistoryLove #HistoryLovers #Archaeology #HistoryHunter #HistoryHunters #SavingHistory #TreasureHunting #TreasureHunt #HistoryHunting

A hazy, Turner-esque late evening glow over Glenmo

A hazy, Turner-esque late evening glow over Glenmorangie Distillery.

The distillery is just a mile north along the coast from my home (my street is named for the farm the distillery was built on).

Built in the 1820s, it actually began life as a brewery before being converted to distil whisky 20 years later by an assortment of local men (the records suggest the early days of the business were complex with several changes of management / ownership, and various searches for suitably skilled staff) with two secondhand whisky stills. Of course it’s likely distilling had been going on in the area for hundreds of years previously, but in many small, unofficial stills.

The business struggled through the first half of the 20th cent’ - with US prohibition curbing exports & two world wars - and production was mothballed for several years in the both the 1930s and 40s. But production was back at maximum by 1948, and from there it grew.

Glenmorangie has been the best selling single malt in Scotland almost continuously since 1983, and produces around 10 million bottles per annum. After being in Scottish ownership most of its existence, it’s these days owned by the Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton group.

The distillery has its own water source - owned and fenced off against tampering - in the woods just inland. Around 20 years ago - about the time I moved here - there was an advertising campaign telling how the whisky came from Glen Morangie - or ‘the Glen of Tranquility’. I remember that confused me a bit at the time, as it didn’t quite match the geography around my new home 🤔 (but I didn’t have any Gaelic and therefore didn’t feel qualified to fully understand 😂). The advertising ombudsman actually got a letter of complaint (not from a local) saying the Gaelic translates to ‘the big valley of the water meadow’ and claimed false advertising. But the distillery defended by saying it was an English corruption of the Gaelic ‘Gleann mor na sith’, which translates as ‘big glen of peace’ - the crux being which root source of one word you picked - this was backed up by several Gaelic language experts, and the complaint was not upheld.

#LiveLifeInTechnicolour
#StayCurious

This little shard intrigues me…🤔 #Mudlarking

This little shard intrigues me…🤔
#MudlarkingFind

I found it ages ago and it’s been up on one of my display boards. It’s a piece of Parian Ware, with some of the stippled areas glazed a sky blue, and the rest of the surface left in unglazed body colour.

Parian was invented in the 1840s as a type of porcelain to imitate marble - hence the name, after the fine white marble from the island of Paros used for many Ancient Greek carvings (Copeland at the time called it ‘Statuary Porcelain’, and Wedgewood ‘Carrara’ after the famous Italian marble).

Often it was used to make figurines, and was seen as a way for people to have copies in their own homes of the sculptures kept in the collections of great houses.

Some Parian ware was decorated selectively with a brilliant sky blue, or occasionally darker blues, lavender, brown, black, and these coloured pieces are often in the form of jugs or other vessels.

But our piece has some small but noticeable traces of golden embellishment… 🤔and so far I’ve only been able to find only one example of blue Parian with any gold included in the design (and it looked nothing like our shard) 🤷‍♀️. So the search continues… ☺️

I’ve included a few examples here: -

1) blue Parian vase by Copeland, in the Collection of the V&A Museum.

2) jug by Copeland, made between 1861 - 1864, for sale via NicerThanNewVintage on Etsy.

3) same vase, showing close up view of the blue stippled areas that are similar to our shard.

4) Lavender jug for sale via Eron Johnson Antiques.

5) bust of Prince Albert in Parian, by Minton, V&A.

#LiveLifeInTechnicolour
#StayCurious

[Image description: A small triangle of broken porcelain, just a few centimetres across, sits on a sky blue background. It has raised decoration of beaded bands and floral style flourishes, and between are fields of raised pinhead dots. The dotted areas have been selectively glazed in cornflower blue. The rest has been left it’s cream body colour.]

#ParianWare #MaterialHistory #MudlarkingCeramics #MudLarkingFinds #Mudlarks #Mudlarking

Lots of lovely photo textures (that I’ve capture

Lots of lovely photo textures (that I’ve captured to use in my digital paintings)… ☺️

1) Red bricks from the perimeter of a Victorian walled vegetable garden.

2) Accidental light effects caused by moving the camera.

3) A painterly effect on an old chapel tin roof.

4) The worn green leather of a chesterfield armchair.

5) Messily piled fishing rope of different colours and thicknesses.

6) Blue fibreglass on a rowing boat hull.

7) Textures of green and black bladderwrack seaweed.

8) Mock-leather (red) cover of a 1950s book (under its dust jacket).

#LiveLifeInTechnicolour
#StayCurious

#CollageMaterial #CollageMaterials #FoundPattern #FoundPatterns #DigitalCollage #DigitalCollageArt #CollageArtistsOnInstagram #CollageArtistOnInstagram #CollageArtist #DigitalPainter #CreativityMatters #CreativeHappyLife #DigitalArtists #Textures #TextureRevolution #TextureLove #ThatTextureTho #TextureRevolution #AllYouCanTexture #TextureIsPoetry #TextureOfTheDay #MyTextureFix #LifeOfAnArtist #ArtistLife

A short film about hopeful enthusiasm 👌😍✨✨

It’s always worth a poke around to see what you can find, isn’t it?! 🤷‍♀️😂

On a sunny afternoon, everyone else was looking at the glorious view along Loch Tay… and I was looking down 😂

#LiveLifeInTechnicolour
#StayCurious

[Video description: A sunny day. Looking along a Scottish loch, light sparkles off tiny waves. Text reads: ‘A Wuick Holiday Mudlark. Also known as park the car can you give me ten minutes’. A bird eye view on the shore shows grey rocks. A white, female hand poked around, turning over small ceramic shards to see if they have describable markings or pattern. Amongst the plain, a tiny piece of sprigged blue earthenware on a white ground, and a couple of pieces of Spongeware, one of which features a design that looks like eyes with long eyelashes. The hand holds out a palm full of small decorated shards. More text reads: ‘Did I find much?’, ‘no’, ‘did it add to the holiday memories?’, Absolutely!’.

#SeaPottery #MaterialHistory #MudlarkingCeramics #MudLarkingFinds #Mudlarks #Mudlarking #MudlarkingUK #BeachcombingFinds #Beachcomber #Beachcombing #ScottishBeachFinds #HistoryOnTheBeach #BeachTreasure #BeachFinds #ScottishBeaches #Beachcomber #Spongeware #SpongewarePottery #ScottishSpongeware #HistoryLover #HistoryLove #HistoryLovers #HistoryHunter #HistoryHunters #SavingHistory #HistoryHunting

|| The Vintage Fashion Challenge Day 18 || Today

|| The Vintage Fashion Challenge Day 18 ||

Todays prompt is ‘Stripes & Dots’. I thought I’d show a 1920s handbag that I recently fell in love with and bought. I’m a sucker for early plastics, and loved the ornate, faux-carved frame. The striped fabric is such a lovely combination of colours - and it’s relatively unfaded! ☺️

One thing that made me giggle… That fan-shaped knob on the top has no practical function at all 🤷‍♀️. I kept turning it to open the bag, but really you just pull open the frame - the knob isn’t a latch or connected with anything mechanical at all! 😍😂😂
#TheVintageFashionChallenge

#LiveLifeInTechnicolour #StayCurious

[Video Description: a cardboard box is opened to reveal a bubble wrapped item amongst polystyrene chips. A white womans hand unwraps to reveal a 1920s handbag in broad green / blue / purple striped fabric, with an ivory-coloured early plastic handle that is decorated with an abstract cutout pattern that suggests berries and flowers. Plastic rings attach a very thin cream leather handle (long enough to hold in the hand). The bag opens at one side, a hinged flap lowering to show a slightly shiny black internal lining fabric that is stitched to the frame.]

#VintageBag #VintageHandbag #VintageHandbags #1920sFashion #1920sStyle #1920style #DisabilityVisabilityInVintage #VintageStyleNotVintageValues #VintageInspired #VintageLover #VintageLove #Vintage #VintageClothing #VintageGal #VintageGirl #VintageLook #RetroStyle #RetroMood #VintageMood #VintageStyle #VintageFashion #FashionHistory #DressHistory

Hello! 👋 Sorry, I had to have a little health /

Hello! 👋 Sorry, I had to have a little health / mental health break.

My wonky old brain has been very much misbehaving… 🧠🤯 which, for me, can take the form of intense pain / feeling awful, *or* not being able to focus / concentrate / being confused, *or* absolute ‘bone weary’ exhaustion, *or* mood swings / low mood… and *lucky me* 😉, I got all four in endless loops over the last week or so…🤷‍♀️😂
#BrainInjury
#IntercranialHypotension
#BrainSurgerySurvivor

I’m feeling a bit more on an even keel now, and the first thing I wanted to do was complete a digital painting project that had been on my mind for some time 🤔 - A self portrait that’s about trying to represent my experience of pain, and some of the emotional and physical manifestations of living with neurological illness…

Of feeling washed out by pain, frayed at the edges, or completely enveloped by it. Of senses being dulled, as if sensory input is being filtered - like when you’re floating underwater. Of not knowing where I start and end, what is my own experience and what is muddled mis-rememberings. Of things being slightly ‘off-kilter’, unreal, things being tinted or tainted by what I’m experiencing.

These are hard things to describe to anyone who hasn’t had similar life experiences… 🤷‍♀️But I hope this painting goes a little way towards trying to explain them ☺️.

I’ve got a few posts pre-planned now, and things are easing a bit, so hopefully I’ll be able to get back to posting (it’s something I really enjoy doing ❤️)… and catch up with everyone else’s posts (without which, the reach of my world rapidly shrinks 😍) 👍

If you’d like to see an edited creation video (the process was originally very long), please swipe… ☺️ —>

#LiveLifeInTechnicolour
#StayCurious

[Image ID in comments]

#ArtForTheSoul #TodaysArtReport #DigitalPainter #ContemporaryArtwork #ArtistsWithDisabilities #DigitalPainting #DigitalArt #ProcreateArt #DigitalArtists #ArtVideo #ChronicIllness #Spoonie #Disability #Chronicpain #Neuralgia #ChiariMalformation #Syringomyelia #Dysautonomia #ChronicallyFabulous #DisabledArtist #PainWarrior #ChronicPainAwareness #DisabilityVisabilityInVintage #VintageInspired #VintageLover

A digital sketchbook page - made using various mud

A digital sketchbook page - made using various mudlarked pottery patterns, inspired by the work of John Piper and the colours of Imari porcelain.

I’m having to have a little break from the May challenges… As you’ll know from following my story, living with a brain injury 🧠 (and high levels of pain) is an unpredictable old business, and often has mental health ramifications . I’m trying not too put the old noggin under too much pressure just now… But like the midgies in May, I’ll be back 😉.

—> Swipe for a still image.

#LiveLifeInTechnicolour
#StayCurious

[Video description: from a blank white workspace, the layers of a digital abstract sketch build… washes of colour - blues and pinks - are joined by photo textures of different Mudlarking-found blue and white pottery shards. A photo of red painted wood is shaped and arranged to fit into the composition. Deep reds and blues now dominate, with painterly marks contained in an irregularly shaped charcoal grey solid border. The colours seem almost luminous. More pottery patterns now join in line work form - tendrils and flowers, a stylised floral border, a ditsy floral design… Tiny pottery shards are drawn in around the border. Each element blends and merges with the next.]

#Transferware #TransferwareChinaPottery #SeaPottery #MaterialHistory #MudLarkingFinds #BeachcombingFinds #TodaysArtReport #FlamingAbstracts #DigitalPainter #AbstractPaintings #AbstractArtist #abstractart_daily #ArtistsWithDisabilities #AbstractPainting #CreativeHappyLife #DigitalPainting #DigitalArt #DigitalAbstract #DigitalArtists #ArtVideo #AbstractDigital #BrainInjury #ChiariMalformation #BrainSurgerySurvivor #CSFLeak #DisabledArtist #PainWarrior #ChronicPainAwareness

We found another one… I know there was a lot of

We found another one…

I know there was a lot of love for the first one we found ☺️. And I know some people will remember what the mystery object was… 😉

Such a practical, everyday thing rendered unrecognisable and quite beautiful by time and tide 😍😄

#LiveLifeInTechnicolour
#StayCurious

[Video Description: Wording on the screen reads ‘We Found Another One’. A sunny day on a muddy shoreline, looking down at the ground. A litter picker stick holds a palm-sized metal bowl shaped object and shakes it to remove dirt. A plastic gloved hand turns it and inspects it. It’s seen cleaned and displayed with another matching, bowl type item. Both are dented and misshapen, covered in green verdigris on dark, grubby copper. A flashback shows film of finding the first of the objects, a hand holding it over another beach. Text on the screen reads ‘The First One… It took us a few
days to work out this beautiful
copper ‘bowl’ was in fact the
cover to a door knob!’. ]

#MaterialHistory #MudLarkingFinds #Mudlarks #Mudlarking #MudlarkingUK #BeachcombingFinds #Beachcomber #SeaTreasures #Beachcombing #ScottishBeachFinds #HistoryOnTheBeach #BeachTreasure #BeachFinds #ScottishBeaches #Beachcomber #HistoryLover #HistoryLove #HistoryLovers #HistoryHunter #HistoryHunters #SavingHistory #TreasureHunting #TreasureHunt #HistoryHunting

A detail of the *beautiful* red sandstone that mak

A detail of the *beautiful* red sandstone that makes up part of the walls at a local abandoned farmhouse, that I like to visit from time to time… 😍☺️.

This rock can be found along the coast in many of the places I like to mudlark and generally wander…

It’s been occasionally used locally for buildings, both humble and grand - presumably because others too have admired its beautiful, intense colour ☺️. Though I’ve noticed it does tend to weather and pit with age - as seen of photos 2 and 3, which I took at Fortrose Cathedral, another red sandstone building a little further south of here.

Geology generally baffles me 😳😂, but I believe this process is caused by water moving iron particles within the stone, which then collect on the stone’s outer face. If this layer gets knocked off, the stone behind - which is left softer after the movement of the iron - tends to erode quite easily into a honeycomb of small holes, which grow into larger pits and tunnels over time.

I’ve been interested for a while in the idea of trying to make a paint pigment from this rock, but I need to learn more and gather some extra kit (and rope in someone else to help with the hard graft that my easily fatigued arms won’t cope with - but that’s what teenage offspring are for, right? 😉 It’s educational! 🤷‍♀️😂).

#LiveLifeInTechnicolour #StayCurious

[Image descriptions: a close-up photo of the surface of stone which has been dressed smooth for the wall of a house, but also shows age-related weathering, with the outer layer beginning to lift away. The rock is a beautiful, intense rich red with a cool undertone. The 2nd & 3rd photos show similar detail shots of more stones, this time in the walls of Fortrose Cathedral. The sandstone is a slightly weaker red and has weathered considerably over more than 700 years. Into long ledges and a network of very deep holes, many deep enough to place a whole finger into.]

#RocksRock #RocksOfInstagram #GeologyRocks #OldRedSandstone #Rossshire #Sutherland #HistoryLover #HistoryLove #HistoryLovers #Textures #TextureRevolution #TextureLove #ThatTextureTho #TextureRevolution #AllYouCanTexture #TextureIsPoetry #TextureOfTheDay #MyTextureFix

|| The Vintage Fashion Challenge Day 6 || #TheVin

|| The Vintage Fashion Challenge Day 6 ||

#TheVintageFashionChallenge

The Day 6 prompt is ‘Purple’, and I’m sharing (a bit late) this beautiful 1950s edge to edge wool coat.

I found this in a local charity shop literally a few days before the first lockdown in 2020, so I’ve never had the chance to wear it anywhere 🤷‍♀️ (I’m really only just properly easing my way out of shielding now). I don’t mind ☺️, it’s a ‘keep forever’ find, and there will be plenty more opportunities 🤷‍♀️😍.

The wool fabric is a wonderful quality, and my favourite bit is how huge the shawl collar is 😍. It’s a bit long on me, but I wouldn’t alter a piece like this - it’s not the coats fault that I’m only 5”1’! 🤷‍♀️😂

Thanks so much 🙏❤️ to @ILiveInMyLab, @TinyAngryCrafts and @MakeThisLook for creating and hosting the challenge.

Swipe —> for a badly taken photo of the coat on (I was trying to take a selfie using a timer with my phone on a shelf, propped up in a @RocketOriginals shoe! 😂😂).

#LiveLifeInTechnicolour
#StayCurious

[Image Description: 1) a full length, shawl collared, edge to edge style, richly coloured, purple wool coat hangs on a hook on a bedroom wall, surrounded by other hanging bags and hats, mainly vintage. It has a statement 1940s floral cream celluloid brooch pinned to its collar. 2) a short, white woman in her 40s wears the coat against the same background of hanging accessories. The coat twirls around her. She looks at the camera and smiles. She’s also wearing a black top, purple 40s style wide leg trousers and black suede Rocket Originals reproduction 40s shoes. 3) a detail photo of the coats label reads A Wreed Model, made in England. ]

#VintageStyleNotVintageValues #DisabilityVisabilityInVintage #VintageInspired #VintageLover #VintageLove #Vintage #VintageClothing #ReproductionVintage #VintageReproduction #VintageGal #VintageGirl #VintageLook #VintageStyle #VintageFashion #FashionHistory #DressHistory #1950s #1950sStyle

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