Train Journey
• I booked my journey online and opted for digital tickets rather than physical ones. Being severely sight-impaired means that I lose things easily and having an extra, little papery, thing to worry about can only spell trouble! While this means I don't have an extra piece of ephemera for Monday's group crit and feedback session, I do enjoy the digital illustration attached with my tickets of a female passenger showing her tickets to the ticket conductor! It has a simple colour scheme matching the corporate colours and uses basic vector motifs to effectively convey the story.
• As a disabled passenger, I have to book assistance with Network Rail so that they can ensure I am on the right platform, put on the correct train and in the seat that works best for me and my Guide Dog (enough leg room, close to the doors, etc). The team at Leeds are always really helpful and assisted me a lot last year during the Access to HE course, so I know them well - but there was no assistance at all at Ilkley! Thankfully the train driver spotted me and helped me off the platform and outside the station. I couldn't get over how empty the train was - Tami and I practically travelled the whole journey ourselves!
Interviews
Shop Worker:
Customer #1
Customer #2
Customer #2 very kindly took my e-mail address to send along some of her photographs of the grape buttons that she enjoys collecting. She sent me so many photos of the pieces from her collection - and all I could think was, "Wow! This lady really likes grapes!"
It was wonderful to talk with this lady and really understand her passion for button collecting, propelled by the loss of her husband and featuring the motif from her childhood. The presence of buttons in her life allows her to go out to button societies and fairs, meet like-minded people and build her collection - rather than stay indoors and mourn. This shows me that, again, buttons are memories and keepsakes and even give people a purpose when / if they need it.
Photos
There was something undeniably powerful about being surrounded by so many buttons in such a small room! I felt small and insignificant among a huge treasure trove of metal, wood and plastic discs... There was a particular smell in the button room that I can distinctly recall even as I'm in my own bedroom typing away on my blog!
• See: Rows and columns of buttons, from ceiling to floor, organised in varying shapes and sizes, hue and colour. Felt like I was standing inside a mood board!
• Hear: Mostly silence, with the quiet din of traffic and electricity from the ceiling lights. The tinkle of the door bell occasionally as a customer entered the shop. Reminded me of a library. The occasional snore from Tami as she slept under the chair in the button room.
• Smell: There was a very distinctive musty smell in the shop that, again, reminded me of a library. Smelled like the past preserved in a shop. Probably caused by the vintage and antique buttons made of metal that have oxidised over the years.
• Feel: Friendly, welcoming and peaceful atmosphere created by the lovely shop worker. I felt overwhelmed in the button room surrounded by the sheer mountain of buttons! A sense of insignificance. Even morality - these buttons will live on. But it had an almost spiritual, sacred and mystical presence about it; like I was in a church of buttons or at an altar / shrine.
Observational Sketches
• After my visit to Duttons for Buttons, I went to Betty's Tea Room for lunch and made a few more observational sketches of food and people. It was nice to escape the cold weather again as my phone told me it was now 2 degrees outside! Good job I had my scarf and gloves with me!
Sound Map
Rubbings / Frottage
Rubbings of buttons, a canvas bag decorated with buttons and the outside brickwork of the shop itself.
These are quite abstract and textural and give the buttons a completely different representation which I find interesting. Textures is something I'd like to play a lot with when it comes to creating the illustrations for my picture book and I can draw inspiration from these rubbings...
Reflection
• The day didn't go exactly as planned as I finished a lot earlier than I anticipated, the weather was freezing cold and Tami was fed up of walking up and down the same main road while I took photographs and sketched. Most of the time she can do really well but I think as this was a new place that we've never been to before she didn't know where she was guiding me and to what end!... I was relying heavily on my phone for directions to the button shop, to Betty's tea room and back to the train station which is a very scary thing when you can barely see! If it wasn't for technology and for my Guide Dog, I wouldn't have even been in the town I was in and that is something that keeps me humble and grateful.
• Physically visiting somewhere has really highlighted the impact it can have on your research - your senses, memories, emotions towards a project - rather than just looking in books and going on the internet. I now need to process and filter through my research and decide where I want to go next.
• Going forward in my project, I now want to explore the aforementioned button societies and how people interact with buttons.
• I booked my journey online and opted for digital tickets rather than physical ones. Being severely sight-impaired means that I lose things easily and having an extra, little papery, thing to worry about can only spell trouble! While this means I don't have an extra piece of ephemera for Monday's group crit and feedback session, I do enjoy the digital illustration attached with my tickets of a female passenger showing her tickets to the ticket conductor! It has a simple colour scheme matching the corporate colours and uses basic vector motifs to effectively convey the story.
• As a disabled passenger, I have to book assistance with Network Rail so that they can ensure I am on the right platform, put on the correct train and in the seat that works best for me and my Guide Dog (enough leg room, close to the doors, etc). The team at Leeds are always really helpful and assisted me a lot last year during the Access to HE course, so I know them well - but there was no assistance at all at Ilkley! Thankfully the train driver spotted me and helped me off the platform and outside the station. I couldn't get over how empty the train was - Tami and I practically travelled the whole journey ourselves!
Interviews
Shop Worker:
Customer #1
Customer #2
Customer #2 very kindly took my e-mail address to send along some of her photographs of the grape buttons that she enjoys collecting. She sent me so many photos of the pieces from her collection - and all I could think was, "Wow! This lady really likes grapes!"
It was wonderful to talk with this lady and really understand her passion for button collecting, propelled by the loss of her husband and featuring the motif from her childhood. The presence of buttons in her life allows her to go out to button societies and fairs, meet like-minded people and build her collection - rather than stay indoors and mourn. This shows me that, again, buttons are memories and keepsakes and even give people a purpose when / if they need it.
Photos
Sensory Reactions
• See: Rows and columns of buttons, from ceiling to floor, organised in varying shapes and sizes, hue and colour. Felt like I was standing inside a mood board!
• Hear: Mostly silence, with the quiet din of traffic and electricity from the ceiling lights. The tinkle of the door bell occasionally as a customer entered the shop. Reminded me of a library. The occasional snore from Tami as she slept under the chair in the button room.
• Smell: There was a very distinctive musty smell in the shop that, again, reminded me of a library. Smelled like the past preserved in a shop. Probably caused by the vintage and antique buttons made of metal that have oxidised over the years.
• Feel: Friendly, welcoming and peaceful atmosphere created by the lovely shop worker. I felt overwhelmed in the button room surrounded by the sheer mountain of buttons! A sense of insignificance. Even morality - these buttons will live on. But it had an almost spiritual, sacred and mystical presence about it; like I was in a church of buttons or at an altar / shrine.
Observational Sketches
• After my visit to Duttons for Buttons, I went to Betty's Tea Room for lunch and made a few more observational sketches of food and people. It was nice to escape the cold weather again as my phone told me it was now 2 degrees outside! Good job I had my scarf and gloves with me!
Sound Map
Rubbings / Frottage
Rubbings of buttons, a canvas bag decorated with buttons and the outside brickwork of the shop itself.
These are quite abstract and textural and give the buttons a completely different representation which I find interesting. Textures is something I'd like to play a lot with when it comes to creating the illustrations for my picture book and I can draw inspiration from these rubbings...
Reflection
• The day didn't go exactly as planned as I finished a lot earlier than I anticipated, the weather was freezing cold and Tami was fed up of walking up and down the same main road while I took photographs and sketched. Most of the time she can do really well but I think as this was a new place that we've never been to before she didn't know where she was guiding me and to what end!... I was relying heavily on my phone for directions to the button shop, to Betty's tea room and back to the train station which is a very scary thing when you can barely see! If it wasn't for technology and for my Guide Dog, I wouldn't have even been in the town I was in and that is something that keeps me humble and grateful.
• Physically visiting somewhere has really highlighted the impact it can have on your research - your senses, memories, emotions towards a project - rather than just looking in books and going on the internet. I now need to process and filter through my research and decide where I want to go next.
• Going forward in my project, I now want to explore the aforementioned button societies and how people interact with buttons.
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