squirmelia | Recent Entries

Low tide and lunch time coincided so I headed towards Custom House.

The tide was out enough that the foreshore was a good size, but there was quite a lot of broken glass in the left direction and some sinking mud furthest to the right, but in between, there were pebbles and bits of Bartmann jugs and tiles and other wonders.

I also saw a few bits of seaweed.

It was a very hot and sunny day and as I walked along the foreshore, I thought about how the day was just spectacular and how happy I was to be there by the river.

Later that evening, the tide was up and the steps at Blackfriars already had water on them but a man not wearing a shirt stood in the water, throwing stones.

I looked at my finds when I got home and was convinced that what I had previously thought was a clay marble was actually an eyeball. It looked sort of white with a pupil and with red veins, and for a while I didn't want to touch it, before I convinced myself again that it really is a marble.

I found some interesting sherds of pottery on the foreshore - nice raised patterns from Bartmann jugs, a pipe that has initials, Westerwald stoneware fragments, another piece of flint, and some Metropolitan Slipware.

A goose waddled up to me, inquisitively. The other geese, mostly Canada geese and a few goslings, lay on the beach, and I tried to avoid going close to them. The swans also loomed large. It was as if the swans and geese were guarding a patch of foreshore. When the tide went out a bit, I cautiously moved between them and the foreshore, not wanting to scare them away. “It's okay,” I told one goose, ”it's okay”.

One man, who I thought must be a pro mudlarker, quickly reached the third beach along when the tide was still fairly up, but it seemed that when he got there, he just took his top off and sunbathed on his own private beach, and I'm not sure he was mudlarking at all. A second man tried to get to the third beach along but wasn't paying enough attention to the boats and the waves splashed at him and he ran back.

I saw an ant.

The Canada geese swam away in a line and I watched as they floated past on the waves.

A white butterfly fluttered around the foreshore.

People were paddling in the Thames.

I was picking up pottery sherds.

A man said, “hello”, but I wasn’t sure if it was to me, as my back was to him and the sound of the waves splashing on the shore was loud at that point, and I didn't look around.

I found a lot at Limehouse:

A button, a cowrie shell, a stone that says “oy”, the most squiggly piece of combware I’ve found so far, a sherd that would have said “Staffordshire England” and another sherd that says “pottery”.

I like the colours of the pottery and glass I find in Limehouse - the sherds that are pale pinks and blues and yellows, and the glass that is light blue.

It was nice to walk by the river on a hot day and the foreshore at Blackfriars was entirely mine to start with, but then it suddenly got busy with people: children picking up stones and throwing them into the river, people taking photos, people sitting on the beach, and so on.

I did not pick up the blue Croc that is still at the top of the Pile, nor the coat-hanger, nor the bricks that say Starworks on them, which it seems are from Glenboig in Scotland.

I did pick up a sticker that says “trick or treat” and a star that was also probably once a sticker, and my first Lego brick! It's a little blue one.

I also found a cute piece of combware, and two larger pieces of misshapen greenish sherds that look like they may once have been part of the same thing. At first I thought one of them was a crab.

My plans for mudlarking on Saturday were thwarted when all my trains were cancelled. It took me three hours to get to Lincoln’s Inn Fields where I was going for a picnic so I didn't have time to mudlark as well.

On Sunday, I broke a bowl, dropped it on the floor and it smashed, and I held up a triangular sherd and wondered whether people would find the sherd from my bowl in the future, with a peri-peri flavour. I wondered if I should take it to the foreshore.

On the Sunday though, the trains were running again, so I headed to Blackfriars. The blue Croc was still there that I saw on Friday. I walked along a wooden plank that had washed up. It was a hot day but at that time I was the only one on the foreshore.

I picked up more small black tiles, but one had the corner damaged.

I heard music from a busker by the station.

I was no longer feeling how I used to when I started mudlarking, no feeling of Flow, no clearing of the mind. I wondered if I'd grown bored of it and should play more Ingress.

I seem to have trained my eyes to spot pottery sherds but I would like to find other things more as I have a lot of sherds now.

I found a cork and when I got it home I realised it said “Kylie Minogue” on it. I hadn't realised Kylie Minogue wine existed and you can buy it at Sainsbury's.

I found a red piece that could be a bit of brick or tile that looks like it says “Taylor” on it.

I found some glass that looked like it said “ord” on it. Ordinary?

I found a sherd that says “don” and presumably once said “London”.

--
I headed to Wapping after that, as the tide got lower.

While I had been to the Prospect of Whitby (the Pelican Stairs) before I hadn't been to the other bit of Wapping - accessed through the New Crane Stairs.

The steps there were missing at the bottom, replaced with boulders, so I used the green slimy wall for balance.

I thought I was alone there on the foreshore until I noticed the people fishing, with their lines cutting off part of the shore. I walked in the opposite direction and walked along the foreshore to Wapping Pier.

I saw Canada Geese and goslings lying on the foreshore.

I passed one set of stairs that had been removed - Wapping Dock Stairs. There were a few concrete steps to start with but the metal stairs that were once there were no longer.

King Henry's Stairs at Execution Dock, near to Wapping Pier were actually just a metal ladder.

I walked back to the New Crane Stairs.

I saw a duck with five ducklings following, moving fast across the foreshore.

I saw a man in the Thames, water up to his shorts, spear fishing.

I enjoyed Wapping as it was somewhere new - maybe that was the problem earlier, lack of novelty at Blackfriars. It also felt vast and quieter without all the tourists walking past.

I found a lot of pottery sherds in Wapping - I am collecting blue and white ones currently for a mosaic, but there was one that looked almost like a nose, one with a letter ‘E’ and various pieces with patterns I haven't seen before. There was also some glass that had degraded and looked so pretty.

I attended an Ambient Lit workshop at Voidspace and we were asked to take a walk and take notes and photos. I took a random card and it said “dog” on it.

–

I am a dog.

I walk through a puddle.

I sniff a bag of rubbish with a coffee cup in.

I am curious about a traffic cone.

I am looking at the road and pavement a lot. There's an intriguing drain cover, I look at the bottom of a bollard.

Another bag of rubbish I sniff at.

I see people waving their arms about and wonder about barking at them.

I walk past a flower on the pavement.

I am lingering longer.

I go up a narrow alleyway and end up at a dead end, so turn around.

I haven't seen any other dogs. I hope to.

An interesting Ironworks sign on the pavement.

A drain cover clonks as I walk over it.

There are no balls to chase.

I bark at some pigeons.

I sniff something on the ground.

I chase pigeons

I want to bark at the policemen.

The ground says Shallow.

I think I've found another dog! Woof! Woof!

I run away from my owner to get back to the theatre on time.

It was a hot day and I went to Cousin Lane Stairs to start with and took my hiking pole this time to get over the boulders, which worked well, but I am still wary of the tide there as I haven't spent enough time there to know how long it's safe for.

The Banker pub just at the top of the stairs was busy with people enjoying the sunshine and their beers. One or two people sat on the foreshore for a bit, but I was the only person on the foreshore across the boulder, past Cannon Street railway bridge.

The first thing I found was a plastic card that had a sticker saying “Billy Hicks”.

I also found what looks like the top of a teapot, a few other sherds, and a little yellow bit, which was probably once part of a brick and is now perhaps a Thames potato.

My second location was near the Millennium Bridge and there were a few mudlarkers there. I watched a cormorant enjoying the water.

I picked up an oyster shell with a circular hole in it. I don’t usually pick up shells but I recently read that they may have been used as tiles.

I found a white sherd with a lion mark on it, a sherd with colourful flowers, and a yellow piece with a pie crust edge. I also found another brown star to go with my brown star collection.

“Have you found anything good?” I was asked as I reached the top of the stairs.

My third location was back to Blackfriars and it felt cooler as I walked across the bridge. There was a nice breeze and also some shade under the bridge.

It was nice to just walk along by the river, but then the thoughts came, too many thoughts. I guess that’s the thing with mudlarking - sometimes it clears my mind and I can just focus on the foreshore, and other times as I can’t distract myself by looking at a phone or anything, the thoughts pile on in.

On the top of the pile of bones was a plastic blue shoe, a Croc.

I found a piece of glass that says “PER” on it, which could perhaps once have said “SUPERIOR”.

I found a nice piece of combed slipware, that has a red outline.

I found some nice pebbles and another small black tile to go with my collection.

Wednesday involved no mudlarking, as the tide was too high, but I did walk along the river past Queenhithe, where you are definitely not allowed to mudlark. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and has the remains of an old dock there. There are signs beside it and a mosaic, but although I’d read the signs previously, I'd never paid too much attention to it.

I could see sherds and pipes and oyster shells on the foreshore from standing on the path beside it though.

The PLA map has Queenhithe marked in red, but intriguingly on their map, it looks like you could mudlark just to the side of it, or in front of it, if the tide was out enough. I would worry though that I wouldn't know where the line was between allowed and definitely not.

A butterfly landed on a feather. A little egret flew away. The crows cawed loudly. And me? I was asked if I'd lost something.

I hadn't, of course, I was looking for sherds. Today's finds:

Last time I looked there, I found my first piece of pipe! I also found a sherd with "Maddock" on it, and I found out that John Maddock was a Stoke-on-Trent potter who started in 1830, and John Maddock & Sons continued until 1980.

Some more sherds, mostly blue and white:

I had read that it was possible to get onto the foreshore at Fishmonger’s Hall Wharf but when I got there, I found a ladder which I was reluctant to climb.

I peered over and could see people on the foreshore.

I walked along the river further, wondering if there was another way down, until I found steps outside the Banker pub. Cousin Lane Stairs according to Google Maps. They were decent steps and I headed down to the foreshore. To get to a further bit involved going underneath Cannon Street railway bridge and climbing over a few boulders and I used a soggy algae covered wall for balance. Next time I might take my hiking pole.

It was only about 20 minutes since low tide, but I felt unsure about how long it would remain accessible for. It didn't matter though that day as I didn't have time to linger.

I only picked up two sherds:

I was going to visit the Thames Barrier and wanted to go mudlarking on the way, but didn't quite manage to.

I started at Woolwich - the first set of stairs I looked down were too muddy and the foreshore was similar. The second set, I walked down but they got muddier and I started slipping so turned back. A man saw me doing this and told me there were steps further on that would be better. We walked together to the steps but then found them padlocked.

The steps nearest to the Thames Barrier, outside the Hope & Anchor pub (now closed) seemed to be missing steps and also looked very slippery, so I gave them a miss too.

So mudlarking 19 did not happen that day, and instead the day after.

I headed to Rotherhithe and it was blissfully quiet, I was the only person on the foreshore.

I found a few pieces of shoe soles and picked one up, wondering if anyone had worn it or if it was just surplus.

I found some pottery sherds and a few pieces of glass, and a few bits of pipe.

I headed back up the steps.

“Are you okay?” a man asked after I'd taken my gloves off and wiped my nose.
“Yeah”, I said, nodding.
“Are you a tourist or you live around here?” he asked.
“Neither,” I replied, and he walked off before I could elaborate, seeming annoyed. Then he started cheering random joggers who were running past, who looked at him confused.

I headed to Limehouse after that and there were Canada Geese and goslings, and swans.

I found my first face! I am not sure who he is, although he looks familiar somehow. It may have been part of a Bellarmine jug.

I found quite a lot of sherds with words on:

“Oat” - A part of what looks like a small white pot that says “oat” on the bottom. It seems there was once a face cream called Oatine, so this little pot likely held that. It looks like Oatine was sold in the UK from 1905 to 1960s, but was most popular around the 1920s. Article I found on Oatine: Oatine: The food for the complexion.

“unt” - a small sherd with what looks like “unt” visible. The letter before could have been a “o” so perhaps it spelt county or mount?

“ho” - a sherd where most of the glaze has come off and all that is left looks like it spells “ho”.

Also glass shards with words on:

“ark” - this shard was obviously from Noah’s Ark.

“c.” - a nice letter c and a full stop, but whether the rest of the word was Isaac or maniac or automatic, I don't know.

“by” - possibly, or it could be “ry”, but I think it looks more like “by”.

One where they are obviously letters but what remains of them is too difficult for me to tell.

I found a terracotta coloured stone that looks like it has a little pink heart on it.

I found a button and a blue circle of glass with two holes, which could have been a button also but it could have been on a necklace, perhaps?

Limehouse finds are colourful!

A busy day of immersive theatre and when I left it was pouring with rain, but when I walked through Blackfriars Station to the other side of the river, it magically stopped raining and I headed down to the foreshore!

It was quiet, as people had been put off by the rain.

Earlier in the day, in an Ambient Lit workshop, I had pretended to be a dog and chased pigeons. “Woof”, I said to the pigeons on the foreshore.

There were patches of metal objects, nails, screws, objects once used.

I picked up pipes, pottery sherds and pieces of glass, and also a tiny heart shaped sticker. Thanks for the love, dear Thames.

It was just before low tide and the foreshore was busy with people, teenagers on a guided mudlark tour, and others searching.

The foreshore emptied and then there were more geese than humans and the goslings pecked at the wall, green with algae.

That day, I kept finding stripey pottery sherds. As I was going to meet Ingress players afterwards and our team colour is green, I started to concentrate on picking up green sherds. Green triangles!

I found another pipe with an “S” on it, different to the last. The other side looks like it could be a “P” so perhaps it was made by Solomon Price.

Another piece of Staffordshire Slipware, some more pink slag, and a sherd with a letter “E” on it.

It seemed appropriate to go to the Mudlark pub after that to meet friends and show them my bag of finds. On the walls of the pub were pictures of the foreshore and of pipes.

Mudlarking - 15A

It was lunchtime and not much beach could be seen. I’d gone down an alleyway that didn’t smell pleasant, and then down steps, and past flies. I walked back and forth on the small patch of shore anyway, while the tide went out and the beach gradually grew.

I found a small piece of glass, a blue and white sherd, and a mysterious brown metal object. It is not the telescope I imagined it was when I picked it up.

A man sat on the steps, but the tiny patch of foreshore was entirely mine that day.

–

Mudlarking 15B

An after work trip to the foreshore, low tide was a few hours before.

A religious looking poster floated in the water, but later appeared on the shore.

An Egyptian goose walked by.

I found a tiny green plastic bottle with a swirl on it and I wondered what it once contained.

I found another square small black tile that looks modern, but I have about 4 now. Maybe I’ll find enough to make a space invader mosaic eventually.

There were a few broken pipe bowls, and what I thought was a piece of green pipe, but now looks like something else.

I found a stone with delightful stripes, or is it a fossil?

I found a sherd with a piece of writing on it on the foreshore and found it looks very similar to a cute pearlware Child’s Alphabet Mug, circa 1830 on an antiques website.

I like the verses on it:

"G was a Gardener who works many hours.
H was a Hot-house to hold his choice flowers

A was an ass so stupid & dull.
B was a bee with her honey bag full.”

Full mug and photos here: https://junoantiques.com/childs-pearlware-alphabet-mug-ref-1382/

The rest of my finds included some more Staffordshire Slipware, a very speckled sherd with a bumpy texture, a piece of blue glass, and various other things:

I attended a Field Recording class and made a contact mic:

I tried using it on various things: putting it inside a cheese grater I stroked with a feather, on a frying pan, on a balloon, on a washing machine.

Here's a recording I made of a cheese grater and a washing machine:
https://soundcloud.com/user-592158466/cheesegrater-washing-machine

I also bought an EMF listening device, but haven't used it yet.

The theme was pixel sorting, so I just sorted by colour. It was a bit disturbing to see my face kind of falling off and rearranging itself by colour.

This is part of the Central Line. I used a tube map as input and when the red colour of the central line was found, it was replaced with a 'C'. Didn't get around to adding any more lines.

Genuary 28

The prompt was "Infinite scroll" but I mostly made boxes move about and didn't do anything interesting enough to share.

Genuary 29

I created a program in Piet by drawing pixels out, and it printed a question mark. I then cross-stitched that pattern. The colours are difficult to make out from the photo, but there are 63 squares that are red, one that is maroon, and 9 that are pink. I do want to do more of this cross-stitch and fill the empty space, but ran out of time.