I didn’t see Marc at Easter because of my Icelandic trip, but it felt so awful and so strange, I was pining big time ….. so when I found out that Virgin were offering train tickets to London for just £5.50 at half term, well it would have been most rude not too make a considered purchase, wouldn’t it?
So, I arrived at 7.30 just in time for supper and for us to watch Gogglebox, our Friday night programme of choice together for the first time …… and enjoy an aperitif or two ……….. well, neither of us know how we did it, and I am not sure I should really be telling you this for fear of you feeling ill of me and Marc and our habits ….. BUT these are our empties …… OMG …. and I don’t even drink, except for high days and holidays, by rights I think we should both be dead ….. but we didn’t even walk funny, talk stupid, pass out or get into a fight ……. the room didn’t even spin, we just talked and talked and talked until it became light and then it wasn’t really worth going to bed!! …. We had our last drink at 8.30 on Saturday morning and then started to work….. because despite this awful, awful tale of debauchery we were on a mission and had much work to get through ……. Marc had a wedding to “do” and I was there to help. He really didn’t have much of a theme/idea to go on ….. just the title Roman Holiday …. which Marc decided to link in with 1950’s style tattoos.
My first job was to embellish a pile of white lunch bags that were to be filled with favours (also to be made by Marc) with tattoo designs that Marc had drawn up. The idea had been to simply print them out on his printer, but erm….. the ink was running low ….. and we were stuck, until I suggested that if I could find somewhere in Notting Hill that had a copier all would not be lost ……
……. and that’s when Marc and I started bouncing ideas off each other that would continue for the rest of my visit! The colours were pretty flat and faded then Marc suggested that I went over them with ProMarkers before having them copied …… a genius idea, because when they were copied the paper took on a glossy texture and the colours became so much deeper and richer with what appeared to be a crude but perfect rough shading to them ……
Each tattoo design, one for the front and back of each bag, then had to be mat and layered on red, glittered using translucent diamond dust which went everywhere, and I mean everywhere, and the names of the bride and groom and guests written in my best loopy writing!
In the end it looked like as if a whole herd of fairies had partaken in a wild and wanton party where fairy dust had been scattered with unbridled abandon ….. my eyes were so sore, I was coughing up glitter and Marc and I were twinkling for England!
At Ar first I thought the bags might be a little over the top or not quite as precise as I would have liked …..
….. but sometimes when you are working up close to something for a long time you can’t see the whole picture anymore and leave them for a while and then go back to them …….. and when I did I was soooooooo pleased …….. but there was more work to be done, as you will see tomorrow.