Erosion Bundle 1

Erosion Bundle Project phase 1 ends today!   Time to open up the parcels that have been exposed to the weather conditions and other natural influences (including, in my case, hens) since 1st January this year.

The bundle on display here is the one that was hanging in the greengage tree.   Sadly, for them, I had to displace a family of earwigs who had probably thought that they had found a particularly aesthetic des. res.   No doubt they'd been having their friends round to impress them with the exotic tealeaves, Indian silk wall hangings, incense sticks, portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, rare spices and delicate lace.

Well, I just hope the friends were more impressed than I was with the revealed contents of the bundle.   I obviously haven't got the hang of what to put in them to get the best results.   Not much transferred itself to other items in the parcel, lots of the dyes were obviously 'fast' and quite a lot of the stuff came out looking much as it went in!

This is a page from the 1958 Rent Book of Mr. and Mrs. Pearson, who were paying £3 13shillings and 4d a week, due on the 24th day of each month, for their house at 22 Byron Road.   I do quite like this, although, of course, just about all the stamps came unglued and are now loose.   The old fountain-pen handwriting is nicely faded and the lines have vanished from the page - all good.

Here's a scrunched-up stamp ....

and a feeble looking price-tag ...

and a snippet of silk which has taken a tiny portion of dye from the things around it ...

and a dirty bit of calico .....

and a spooky green face from a transfer-printed photograph from the 1920s - that one really gave me a shock, as I'd forgotten I'd put it in there.

Since the idea of the bundle is that some kind of artwork or crafted items are made from the eroded, weatherbeaten contents, I felt I'd rather short-changed myself with my choice of items.   So, to try and inject a bit of 'oh things aren't that bad, you can surely use your imagination to make the best of it', I decided to have a play with a digital programme to distort some of the images with the idea of maybe printing the resulting patterns on to fabric.   Oh heck, that's cheating!  It was fun to do though and perhaps I'll have a play with it as a separate little challenge.

Anyway, this is just one of two bundles:  the other one was buried in the compost heap and perhaps has more potential.   I'll disclose the contents of the buried bundle tomorrow (when I have dislodged the wildlife) and you can tell me what you think.