BEWI are fortunate to have excellent speakers visit our monthly meetings.  Sarah Delves recently captivated us with a history of handbags starting with a brief resume of how she became an expert in this subject. It all started when she had watched an episode a well known Sunday evening BBC antiques programme, which sparked her interest.  She has progressed to Expert Lecturer for the V&A Museum. We learned that the story of handbags begins before the written word in 3300 BC with the iceman and an early version of a bumbag. The talk was illustrated with many pictures, as well as actual examples of handbags through the ages. Sarah’s collection brought to life how bags developed up to present day.  This showed us how wealth and status were denoted by the size of your bag, the smaller, more beautifully crafted, being carried by the wealthy. Ladies’ bags began as pockets, tied around the waist. Sarah showed us her oldest bag, from 1660. This was a “gaming purse”, used for gambling. Henry VIII’s codpiece was used to carry jewellery, hence the term “the crown jewels” as it is in comedy parlance today. Fashion trends dictated how bags evolved through art nouveau, art deco, new materials such as Perspex in the 1960s, and celebrity inspired bags such as Hermes’ famous Birkin bag. Current efforts to eradicate fake handbags have become essential in a trade which the rarest items change hands on world markets for in excess of £500,000.

 

The joy of going for a walk in the forest is that you’re never sure what you are going to see (600 pigs and piglets were busy at the end of last month).  October saw another beautiful sunny day for a forest autumn walk and BEWI members set off from the Rising Sun for an easy 2.5 mile walk.  On this walk, the added bonus that was spotted was the iconic, and easily recognised, toadstool seen in books of fairy tales, elves and goblins, the stunning red and white fungi called the ‘fly agaric’.  Although they may look nice, many species of red mushrooms are extremely toxic and should never be eaten.  The forest is a delight of colours and interest this time of year for all to enjoy.

I didn’t believe you could make beautiful peonies out of coffee filters but Pat, one of members, was happy to give a tutorial on how we could all make these pretty blooms for our homes.  Photographs show how happy members were with the results of their Monday morning artistic efforts at our regular Crafty Girls sessions.

This was our first meeting for the coming year held in the Carpenters Arms.  Jonathan Ellis had kindly agreed to give a talk about portrait photography.  At the conclusion of his talk, he had some of us act as model and others as photographer, using his camera, tripod and reflector board (an old piece of board painted matt white) under his watchful eye and guidance!!

Jonathan gave us lots of helpful tips and examples when taking our own portrait photographs.  He said it is important for the sitter to feel relaxed and at ease with the photographer to obtain a successful portrait.

Other tips were:

• establish where does the light come from,
• the eyes of the sitter,
• to have a neutral background which makes the face standout or if there is a background make it out of focus.

Cecil Beaton’s Coronation photograph of the Queen is an example of out of focus background.

Jane Bown liked to use natural light or positioned lights to get the best effect possible. Here she used natural light in her portraits of Samuel Becket and Dame Judy Dench. When using lights, it is common practice for two to be positioned with a possible third placed behind the subject and sometimes photographers like to use lighting from quirky angles as with these two examples.

Black and white is good for portraits and with digital cameras any light can be used.  Black and white photography is often more telling as with Richard Avedon’s portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.  Here we can see sadness in their eyes and the strain of life.

Jonathan also advised that to take a full face-on photograph is very difficult unless the subject is extremely photogenic and glasses can be a problem – always ensure the light coming in does not create a reflection.

Finally, here are a few we took at the end of Jonathan’s excellent presentation – please see pdf report

Camera Club Blog September 2022 (pdf)

Our monthly circuit started out at the Woolpack public house in Sopley this morning and we wended our way to the lovely St Michael and All Angels Church, where we found attractive hassocks made by Rosemary and Penny.  Further along the route we met rheas and walk along the exterior boundary of RAF Sopley radar and underground bunkers (there’s a very secure fence).  A beautiful morning finished off with coffees and beers in The Woolpack.

Jacqueline and Vivienne kindly arranged an August walk.  Taking into account the much warmer weather we started off earlier than normal walking across familiar New Forest heathland south of Burley with vast horizons and cloudy skies.  Our guide book led us right and left towards two ponds especially popular in the summer months with people coming to relax on the shoreline often with New Forest ponies grazing nearby.  This year however, one pond is totally dry and the other much reduced.  The photographs show the difference between August 2021 and August 2022.

The impact of the extreme heat last month is dramatic.  In an average year, the New Forest has 12 days with some rain in September, hopefully that will help.

Normally this would not be worth writing about but as we’ve all experienced Extreme Heat warnings both Red and Amber over the last month and watched our gardens turn from verdant to brown, it’s great to see the rain.  Of course, many of us have slowed down to stay cool but that’s not to say we’ve not been having fun.  August is the one month without an official monthly meeting however, Gardening Club, Wine Club, History Clubs and Book Clubs to name a few are still meeting.  Our ever industrious Crafty Girls have created an amazing array of items for the New Forest Show. So if you enjoy creating things or sampling some excellent wines or just want to learn something new, perhaps the WI will be of interest.  Next BEWI meeting is on 13th September.

The weather was set to be sunny and very warm as the BEWI set off to visit Sherborne Castle in Dorset.  They were welcomed at the gate by Maria Wingfield Digby to what is her family home, and has been owned by the Digby family since1617, when the diplomat Sir John Digby purchased the castle for £10,000.  It had been built on the site of a hunting lodge by Sir Walter Raleigh retaining much of his influence.  A tour conducted by guides who know every nook and cranny, every secret and every skeleton in every cupboard, was to reveal an amazing history and many treasures within.  There was so much to learn and see,  representing the family’s wide ranging tastes and decorating styles from great periods of four hundred years of history, including fine furniture and porcelain, numerous family portraits and relics from the civil war.  Everywhere there is evidence of the legacy of the great men and women who resided there including a founder of the Royal Society, Sir Kenelm Digby, and a resident ghost in the Blue Drawing room.  Further delights awaited outside where Capability Brown’s magnificent landscaped parkland spread as far as the eye could see, largely unaltered to this day with fine trees, herbaceous borders and a fifty acre lake.  One cannot visit Sherborne without noticing the many images and sculptures of ostriches, which is an emblem of the Digby family prominent on their coat of arms.  The ladies of BEWI were enthralled with this wonderful place, and many left vowing to visit again.

It’s not long until the New Forest Show and Hampshire WIs are busy creating displays for the WI marquee.   The WI theme this year is ‘Step Back in Time’ and there are 14 classes that can be entered from ‘Sweets for my Sweet’, ‘So to Bed’, ‘Village Scene’ and also ‘Through the Garden Gate’ which is to create a miniature allotment.  Each theme allows different skills and crafts to be entered.  Sally, Glynis, Ann and Mary have been amazingly creative with their miniaturised vegetables, gardening tools and everything that’s needed for a prize winning allotment.

We wish them and all the other entrants good luck.