The in-between Christmas and New Year Lull
Does not have to be necessarily Dull
Play with your Toy Theatres
Things aren't as they appear at first
In mazes, shell grottoes, old films and old skulls...
...What do you do in the lull between Christmas and New Year, this strange time-out-of-time, a catch-up time, a rare R&R time, or an exceptional exploration time?...
Get your ALADDIN paper toy theatre here
...you colour, cut, paste and play with your paper toy theatres!
…you play with all your other Christmas and holiday toys...
...you wistfully reminisce about your childhood and toys of the past at a place like Pollocks Toy Museum...
...you watch toy theatre performances, such as Dick Whittington in London...
...you see how it works behind the scenes and buy your own toy theatre here: https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/product-page/aladdin-paper-toy-theatre ...
…you think about the Miller and his Men and the Victorian real firework toy theatre explosions (and real fires!)...
...you eat a lot of panettone and play with a Chinese shadow puppet theatre...
Buy Aladdin
More brushes and beautiful tools here
...you think about preparing for the New Year with new brushes and tools: https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/shop
and new ideas and knowledge: here's the link to my Make a Carpet Page e-course. Once downloaded it's theirs to keep forever: https://vaishaliprazmaricarpetpage.thinkific.com/courses/make-a-carpet-page or purchase some easy-watching, relaxing painting films...
Book classes
...and you realise that although the streets of London are not paved in gold they are still strewn with lights and Christmas decorations, and the historic Leadenhall market (temporary home of Pollocks Toy Museum) is atmospheric and festive at this time of year. As is Fortnum and Mason's iconic chiming advent calendar clock window. A little boy in a carpet shop: my son in Liberty's carpet section. My parents met in Selfridges (they worked there as students), and their friend from the carpet section used to cover for them while they took long lunch breaks, whiling away their Saturdays and taking a bit longer than they should have.
Speaking of counting time, does anyone know about this Chinese calendar tradition? It's for the Winter Solstice Festival Dongzhi jie 冬至. Many cultures have traditions associated with the Winter Solstice (Persian Yalda شب یلدا , Yule, Saturnalia, midwinter festivities; I like a Japanese one involving hot baths with yuzu) and one lesser known Chinese tradition is the festival of 'Nine nines': you paint 1 petal of a 9-petalled flower per day and paint 9 whole flowers in total. 9 x 9 = 81. This is a countdown of 81 days from the darkest day of the year through to spring light. At the end of the 81 days it will be spring! My son found a variation of the tradition however which is simply to paint one flower per day for 81 days. You can also paint 9 Chinese characters, each with 9 strokes each, and when you've finished your calligraphy it will be spring. Most Chinese associate this festival with eating tang yuan, but I am very picky with desserts and prefer the painted flowers. Some Chinese painting inspiration classes, including when the Chinese first encountered a giraffe: https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com/book-online...
...January is also a good time for nesting, making books of nests, dancing about architecture, talking about music or just going along and seeing a musical, or a panto. Oh yes we saw: Peter Pan at the Palladium with Julian Clary and Jennifer Saunders, a very funny comedy duo to sustain us. "Mama, why are we always sitting so high up and far away in weird positions?" said my son. "Because this way we can see more about the mechanics of the stage and even get to see sneak peeks of the people waiting in the wings to go on", I replied. It's all about how you spin it. We spun around Narnia via Leeds Castle (which is in Kent). The monthly meeting will be in neither Kent, nor London, but online.
The monthly meeting link is also over at the Forum, which now is a real hub of information and you just need to scroll around or use the Search tool to find information. It's sorted into broad categories too. The Zoom link is via the Forum https://www.miniaturepaintingforum.com or here's the direct link:
JANUARY MEETING
Vaishali Prazmari is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Vaishali Prazmari’s Miniature Monthly Meeting
Time: Jan 23, 2024 18:00 London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88585860639?pwd=VWZYNmxJblV5bmZ3UUkrdXZha0ZuQT09
Meeting ID: 885 8586 0639
Passcode: 455754
Join by Skype for Business
https://us02web.zoom.us/skype/88585860639 ...
...Deeper into Narnia we found a curious Christmas tree melting into spring blossoms (since Aslan won) and my kids - including the real Prince Caspian - sat on the 4 children's thrones at the end of Narnia. And then we ventured into the maze... a current obsession of Prince Kashi and the Leeds Castle maze has easily got to be one of the best in the world. You exit via a shell grotto, what can beat that?! If you look around the London tube, there are mazes and labyrinths - key difference is you can't get lost in a labyrinth - scattered in various stations.
I still get lost in the Tube. "People get lost at Saltburn", says Duncan the scary butler (aren't all butlers scary? why are they always so scary?) in the eponymous film, which includes a puppet theatre and a maze, and a model of the maze and a real-life puppet master manipulator - that's all I'll say, watch the film Saltburn yourself (upper class England v. 'the north'). I've been watching films, some good for me, some pure entertainment (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, full of rope bridges, caves, skulls, ancient artefacts and a Harrison Ford who references his role in Blade Runner - surely that's breaking a 5th wall or something?) and some all-time great movies including Casablanca...
Page control: Pause and download free Geometry of the Page resources here
...and I understand what makes them just so great. I LOVE Casablanca! I love old black and white movies - I used to watch them with my grandma while she knitted. I love their politeness even when they are about to insult or even kill you. I love the gentlemen. I love the ladies even more. I love, in Casablanca, Sam the piano player. Victor Laszlo really did look like a Czechoslovak Resistance leader. My own Czechoslovak, Mr Prazmari himself, was inspired by the film, naming one of his former clubs Casablanca after the movie. (And here's a line for you, Patrik: "I’m sure you’ll excuse me if I am not gracious… but you see Mr Strasser, I am a Czechoslovakian." No excuse, zlatko!)
Ingrid Bergman is just so cool, calm and collected. I felt sorry for Conrad Veidt - a German actor who was regularly cast as a Nazi when he was solidly against them in real life, married a Jewish wife and prayed for the oneness of all humankind. He was very good looking. Don't worry Patrik, he's now resting peacefully in Golders Green Crematorium. (We have French Blondin, the most famous tightrope walker in the world, at Kensal Green Cemetery. And Patrik, we'll always have Paris.) I like Humphrey Bogart even more. What a suave sophisticated guy, what style, what frankness, what candour, what considerateness. He passed away along with that era and all its manners. Now TV and films are full of swearing. I think this is one of the world's problems that could be fairly easily sorted out - swearing on TV. I like proper dialogue - the rest is sound pollution. I realise that I don't necessarily want to hear reality when I watch entertainment (I can just get on a London bus, honestly) - I want to be transported myself, I want actual scripted dialogue, I want wit, thoughtfulness and imagination. Swearing is just lazy filling in, don't you think...
...what's not lazy at all is how they made these movies in the past. Look at the interior of that plane. Also, one of my grandmother's brief former jobs - connecting telephone calls, like this Chinese actress here is doing. I'll leave you to guess the name of this film but I'll give you some clues. A British diplomat finds Paradise, and then loses it, and then searches for it again, somewhere in the snowy Himalayas, possibly via Kensal Green, where there is a place of eternal spring...
...my eldest can read the Chinese characters on the side of this plane! Motherly moment of joy.
Another moment of joy - and very surreal ex-cinematic moment: I had one of the best most relaxed and calmly joyous evenings of 2023 with my friend Alexa, an artist and mama movie-maker extraordinaire. We made chocolate dipping sauce and dipped fruit in it with the kids then took them to see Wonka (recommended! Timothée Chalamet is a good Wonka). And THEN, as we were leaving the Lexi, I did a double-take. Standing outside was the chocolate cartel leader Arthur Slugworth in real life, the actor Paterson Joseph himself! Just saw him in the film, then saw him in the street, just a regular, nice guy. They made him look particularly mean in the film - the magic of make-up in movies. A little magical celebrity moment! This was a real surprise for my youngest, who is 3 and has a very active imagination: "Wow, he came out of the film!". Paterson Joseph who was there with his family and friends was gracious enough to take photos with us. What a dude. And the best end to an evening with friends and kids: a short-ish walk home to burn off the popcorn and then pizza.
I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Although, Alexa, you are already a good friend. May our friendship last a new generation and be passed on to our kids. Here's looking at you, kids!
Bogartly yours,
Vaishali Prazmari
