Monthly back-up day. Found an old frame in a charity shop yesterday, and a copy of the short fiction anthology Waterloo Sunset by Ray Davies, so I read this while the computer chugged. The writing is so-so. Later, I did some online reading about Ray and The Kinks. The stories are generally character descriptions, and I realised that the same is generally true of his songs. My songs are more visual; like my writing descriptions of scenes or images, which chain to form a narrative. With Ray, the characters and their behaviour drives the story.
After this, work on the frame. It was a lovely find, must be 100-125 years old. The very rusty attachments gave way to a very faded print and some even older holes; this frame was made for more than a print:
It has a beautiful aged patina; those brown stripes are genuine age in the gold, an effect that modern frame makers aspire to emulate. Some parts had a few flaws though, the gold scratched off, and all of the gesso on the corners flaked away. Today, I tried to fix those a little, and filled in the wider gaps in those front corners. It's difficult to preserve the patina, but I did my best, and the frame is certainly better than before. It's hard to find a filler that fills well but is very smooth, with tiny particles. Most filler that fills well is too thick, but that is hard to sand or smooth.
After that, work on the song production for 'Smashing My House Of Cards'. Small steps made today.
