message in a bottle

Here is a littlesculpture, made from Fimo, in a Kilner jar. It is destined for the display in the new Walthamstow Wetlands Centre, 150 jars suspended from the ceiling of the soon to be opened centre, which will contain amongst other things a cafe, ideal for starting or finishing your visit to what will be a wonderful nature reserve.

The jar was made as part of the submission of the Health and Wellbeing group that meets at Inky Cuttlefish studio every Wednesday morning,( come along if you fancy a hand at printing and other arty things). We were working on the theme of migration, in this case, sorry jar, specifically rivers. It took its inspiration from a cartoon drawn by Gabriel Rossetti of William Morris fishing.

To relax Morris went fishing, when he had time, and Rosseti drew him essentially ignoring the fish absorbed by a book of poems on the Thames at Kelmscott, Morris’s much loved second home. Morris can be seen with his trusty satchel over his shoulder, a trout bag to give it its real name, a bag that was to follow him for the rest of his life, wether fishing or filled with political pamphlets at his many meetings. It is displayed in the William Morris Gallery on the first floor.

In this case the fisherman sits in his boat, his feet on the bag, head absorbed in his book, he has let his oars go, and the fish are trying to up end the thing. Swifts circle the scene with one perched on the end of the transom, there are frogs and other wildlife included.

You can find out more about the wetlands here; www.walthamstow-wetlands.org.uk

the William Morris Gallery here; www.wmgallery.org.uk

and Inky-Cuttlefish here; www.inkycuttlefish.com