Blythe House

On the day we went to Blythe House it was absolutely freezing, and I felt ill. I walked up a hill and bumped into stella also lost on the windy roads. We knocked on the wrong door and spoke to a really posh and smiley young man who pointed us along to the next door of a building which was for the most part concealed by a big old fence. With pointy bits up the top. On the inside, despite everyone there being jolly, I still felt like I was visiting a high securty prison. We were escorted to a little cold room, where we all sat around a large, grey, primary school looking table. From there we were taken to another room to view the books. The corridors were decorated in the most random ways, some had tiles on the walls, and most had big iron staircases going downwards. I felt as if I was walking around the haunted hotel in the shining and i kept expecting to see the sisters asking me to come and play.

In the viewing room there were plenty of huge books, some covered in plastic sheeting, some just falling apart slowly. We were given an introducation to what Blythe house is, how to use the facility and about the bits and bobs we were about to look at. Alot of them were more fascinating in a general sense rather than something i could see actually helping along my work. Alot of records of big stores fabrics they had stocked throughout the years, and trend forecasting from the 60's to the 80's. The only book that i would have wanted to grab and take home was an odd, small in comparison book on the wall next to the door. It had tiny bits of every type of fabric imaginable, stuck in by glue which now looks more like dark wood varnish. It had no order, and i couldn't really understand what it was for. It had pages empty with just the horrible glue marks. It had pages so full of random materials it took me a good while to sufficently stroke them. I loved the velvets, i want to make velvets! This led to a very interesting conversatin about how to make velvets and how it is possible at college. Oh yes! From another book i learnt about how the blurry floral prints ive seen are made. It is by printing on the warp.

Overall it was a fun and i learnt alot. I can see how it would really help if you had a very certain idea of what you wanted to research otherwise you could just end up getting lost in there and never coming out.