One of my daughter's favourite pastimes is trying to ferret out what I am
incapable of. Her thirst for knowledge in this respect is at least as
relentless as her drive to figure out how things are done. And that's not
even mentioning her overwhelming generosity where it concerns the vast array
of alternative "things to do together", which would probably have me spend
every Sunday knitting if she had her way. There is a limit to the lengths I
am prepared to go to, however, and so I frequently use my initiative in
capricious ways, thus enabling her on the rare occasions where I know her
plans to be beyond my stamina graciously to allow me to bow out.
Although as a gallery owner - a playschool profession if ever there was one
- there isn't much I haven't seen, the fruits of my tinkering away in this
context have been known to be nothing short of stunning. Previous creations
include a set of roller skates made from curtain runners, a miniature
seating unit, support and cushions and all, and only a short while ago, a
tiny 64-page booklet which I put together by folding the tissue paper used
to keep a pair of new shoes in shape many times over, cutting off the edges,
stapling a strip of cardboard in the crease (not forgetting the colour on
the cross-cut, by way of headband) and encasing all of the above in a
pre-folded coloured paper jacket, with a roundel cut out from the face. I
would have written something in it if my daughter hadn't put her foot down.
Another recent creation was the pair of storage facility prototypes which I
cobbled together using bits of shoebox and other discarded materials.
Halfway through the first one I found out that the construction did not
provide for any rigidity: the merest glance at the paper structure was
enough to set the whole thing in violent motion. This looked so
inadvertently hilarious as to have my daughter falling about laughing until
the tears ran down her face. Using a strip of cardboard, I stabilised my
creation with some regret, for I often think in terms of photographs which
on no condition will ever allow themselves to be taken. Sometimes this can
be fixed thanks to the digital bag of tricks. However, in the case of this
particular picture I managed to tip the shelving unit on the right quite
dramatically by placing a counterweight on the top shelf where no-one can
see it - a fabrication, on balance.
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