My great grandfather's photo has been with me for some time and I have always been fascinated with the similarity I feel exists in our looks. I never thought to do anything about it until my 'facebook' friend from Italy, Cristiano Bottino, posted his photo of himself and his relative. The copycat character which sometimes invades my very being, came to the fore and induced me to do something similar. I told him I wanted to make such a copy. My great grandfather made violins and I had two of them given to me by my mother. One was his last and my mum used to tell me he had stopped making 'fiddles' when he put his thumb through the back of his work of art. The violin remained unfinished with that terrible rent in it. It must have been soul destroying for him to realise he had lost control of his craftman's hands ! The violin here is not that last instrument ( I gave that to my nephew to hand down through the generations ) - some nice feeling about that idea for me.
The violin in the photo is another of his and when I am standing in front of his photo with it clutched in my hand, I feel a connection to him. In fact I started speaking to his image when I got it on the wall and here in this photo I feel he is supporting me.
My friend, Jannica Honey, a professional photographer who has made all my website and publicity photos spent time with me this morning fiddling in another way !!
She suffered my tiny amateur's camera and took this shot on which she worked her magic via photoshop.
If you need her services, email her at jannica@jannicahoney.com
It was great fun to go through this process where i had my hair cut shorter and wore a shirt and vee neck sleeveless sweater to be in sync with the way my GGF was dressed in his Sunday best shirt and waistcoat all those decades ago. Thus I am of my time but echoing his time.
I am going for a psychic reading tomorrow. I wonder if he will contact me. I am sure he must be happy with the respect I have tried to give him.
Of all the chairs in my Arthouse I think these Italian cardboard chairs are the most commented upon and my guests get anxious when I suggest they try sitting on them. There is a common haunted look that comes to their faces and then a relieved look when the chair does not crumple immediately. I bought these pieces in a show at Stazione Leopoldi in Florence while I was attending Pitti Filati Yarn Show. I struggled to put the first one together. It took me two hours of sweating and swearing over my lack of the Italian language to follow the instructions. You might think the clear photos would be very helpful but for a poor speaker of Italian, it was a sweaty nightmare.
The next two identical chairs took me about ten minutes each !! 
I like this sofa designed by Le Corbusier. I was lucky to find this bargain in New York after the original clients for it had rejected it. They did not like the colour. I like the Union Jack and the silver cushions surrounding the white wide cushion with the Wallace clan crest.
