Black as your soul
Jun. 24th, 2018 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaHeading home the other day I spotted someone doing... something outside the block of flats I live in.
Something that involved kneeling on the floor in the driveway. Which is odd.
Once I got up close I realised it was my neighbour David, doing a brass-rubbing of a manhole cover. Being an inquisitive sort, I asked him why.
It was, he said, an unusual and pleasingly-designed manhole cover and he quite fancied printing it on a t-shirt.
Now, this combines three of my favourite things. That is: (i) close observation of easily-missed everyday objects, (ii) batshit creative projects, and (iii) actually taking one's ideas from armchair to execution. So naturally I got down on the floor too, to examine his work.
It was, he explained, not going that well. He'd tried chalk, and he'd tried some weird-arsed squashy oil pastel affair that seemed about the consistency of tofu. Neither had been very successful.
"What I really need," he said "is a wax crayon."
Well, now. I was pretty sure I'd have a wax crayon. I'm not much of an artist, but I was a kid once and I am shocking at throwing out anything which might one day be useful. I scooted indoors to rummage in a cupboard.
Yup, in the first place I looked, there was a tobacco tin full of very battered-looking crayons. The mother always referred to them as "chubby stumps", which I really hope was a brand name.
Incidentally, what do kids from non-smoking households keep stuff in? How do they find anything? I had stacks and stacks of Gold Block tins, in which all kinds of bits and bobs (including wax crayons) were kept coralled. Anything too big for that (Lego, Matchbox cars, miscellaneous oddments) went into giant plastic catering tubs that once held margarine. I recently asked my parents why on earth they bought margarine in such epic quantities in the 70s. What the hell were they doing with the stuff? "That's just how it came," shrugged my dad. But I digress.
Anyway, I proffered my tin of crayons and David chose a black one, tested it out and agreed it was a vast improvement.
He felt the cover design was clearly t-shirt-worthy, and was planning to do some looking around online to see if anyone else had hit on the same idea.
"Don't Google 'manhole rubbing'," was my advice, which got me rather a funny look. Must remember that not everyone operates with their mind trundling along in the gutter the whole time.
Anyway, he gave me the experimental version done to test the creation, and unrolled a new section of paper. I left him happily rubbing the design out in black wax. I haven't seen him since to enquire how the shirtination went :)
Having mentioned this to a friend yesterday, she tells me that using street furniture for clothing is a thing now, and furnished me with an illustrative video on Facebook.
Something that involved kneeling on the floor in the driveway. Which is odd.
Once I got up close I realised it was my neighbour David, doing a brass-rubbing of a manhole cover. Being an inquisitive sort, I asked him why.
It was, he said, an unusual and pleasingly-designed manhole cover and he quite fancied printing it on a t-shirt.
Now, this combines three of my favourite things. That is: (i) close observation of easily-missed everyday objects, (ii) batshit creative projects, and (iii) actually taking one's ideas from armchair to execution. So naturally I got down on the floor too, to examine his work.
It was, he explained, not going that well. He'd tried chalk, and he'd tried some weird-arsed squashy oil pastel affair that seemed about the consistency of tofu. Neither had been very successful.
"What I really need," he said "is a wax crayon."
Well, now. I was pretty sure I'd have a wax crayon. I'm not much of an artist, but I was a kid once and I am shocking at throwing out anything which might one day be useful. I scooted indoors to rummage in a cupboard.
Yup, in the first place I looked, there was a tobacco tin full of very battered-looking crayons. The mother always referred to them as "chubby stumps", which I really hope was a brand name.
Incidentally, what do kids from non-smoking households keep stuff in? How do they find anything? I had stacks and stacks of Gold Block tins, in which all kinds of bits and bobs (including wax crayons) were kept coralled. Anything too big for that (Lego, Matchbox cars, miscellaneous oddments) went into giant plastic catering tubs that once held margarine. I recently asked my parents why on earth they bought margarine in such epic quantities in the 70s. What the hell were they doing with the stuff? "That's just how it came," shrugged my dad. But I digress.
Anyway, I proffered my tin of crayons and David chose a black one, tested it out and agreed it was a vast improvement.
He felt the cover design was clearly t-shirt-worthy, and was planning to do some looking around online to see if anyone else had hit on the same idea.
"Don't Google 'manhole rubbing'," was my advice, which got me rather a funny look. Must remember that not everyone operates with their mind trundling along in the gutter the whole time.
Anyway, he gave me the experimental version done to test the creation, and unrolled a new section of paper. I left him happily rubbing the design out in black wax. I haven't seen him since to enquire how the shirtination went :)
Having mentioned this to a friend yesterday, she tells me that using street furniture for clothing is a thing now, and furnished me with an illustrative video on Facebook.
