Sunday Selections #148



Welcome back to Sunday Selections!

This once-a- week-meme was originally begun by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock, as a way to showcase some of the many photos we all take, but don't get around to showing on our blogs.
Kim spends more time writing at The Shake these days.

The rules are very simple:-
1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to me, River, somewhere in your post
3. leave me a comment so that I know you've joined in and can come over and see what you've posted.
4. hop on over to TheElephant’s Child to see more of her wonderful photos.

Kath and Andrew often join in as well, although Kath has been quite busy lately and unable to join us.
There are several other participants now though:
Jackie K at WorkingThrough It

I usually go with a theme for my Sunday Selections and this week I have something a little different.

As most of you know by now, my home is very small. Each room, (there's a total of three, if I don't count the kitchen, which is really just a one and a half metre bump into the lounge room) opens directly off another so there is no real privacy unless I close all the doors. 
I'm not a big fan of closed doors inside, I prefer free airflow. 
So I bought a cheap, (very cheap) string curtain from Cheap As Chips to hang in the doorway. 
When I found it to be almost useless, I went back and bought another one, stitched the two together across the top, then hung them both up. Now it was better. 

This is looking from the bedroom into the lounge room.

Not entirely private, you can still see through a bit, but there is an illusion of privacy and that's enough. Plus there is still airflow.

here is a close-up of the two curtains. The black thread with silver woven through is one curtain, the other has plain black strings with five strings of silver coloured beads spaced along it. 

When I bought them, they were the only black and silver ones available, and the first one had been opened, then stuffed back into the packet, very tangled. I knew I could sort that out, so I bought it and had it untangled in half an hour. 

One night last week, at bedtime, I turned on the bedroom light and switched off the lounge room light and noticed the shadow patterns made by the strings. 

Pretty neat I thought.

As you can see, the overhead bedroom light is very bright. I can walk around in the dark, I know where things are by now, but if I'm having a light on, then I want to see like it was sunlight. 

this is the curtain and the shadow.

looking through from the lounge room side, it seems darker in there now, possibly I had closed all the window curtains by now. I'd had the blinds drawn down, but light still gets in around the edges.

I changed the lights to see what the shadow looked like lit from the lounge room, the effect is different because the lounge light is more in line with the doorway, while the bedroom light is centred more towards the bed side of the room which is oblong, so as to create a walkway from the lounge to the back door.


Do you have interesting shadow patterns when you turn different lights on and off?





Comments

  1. Everything old is new again. Back in the sixties I used a bead curtain to hide the laundry basket. I suppose before that the inspiration was Bogart/Bacall middle eastern movies, with bead curtains and palm leaf fans.

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  2. I love those shadows. And the dual bead curtains are an excellent idea. Not I fear possible here. A certain cat (yes Jazz I mean you) would play with them. And he plays rough.

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  3. Oh River, I really like the patterns a lot. How clever of you to have seen the possibilities and made a fun post of it. And what a great idea to swe two curtains together. I'd always avoided bead curtains because they never gave enough "cover" - I'd never thought to sew two of them together.

    Here at this time of the year it is very dark (only 4 hours of blue, dusky light a day, the rest of the time it's night), so mood lighting is the way people cope with it all. If you had a single light for the room like we have in Australia, the contrast between the perpetual darkness outside and the stark light inside is just too great. So they use pools of light in different parts of the room - big paper stars in the windows with diffused light shining through it, inverted-v shaped electric candles in each window with low wattage bulbs in them, shaded lamps in the corners, lots of tealight candles in pretty holders dotted all over the room. The look you are aiming for is cosy, with soft light and gentle shadows.

    I admit that when I first came here I'd mutter "Why can't we turn on the bloody light so I can see what I'm doing!" but now I've gone native and I enjoy the subtle lighting.

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  4. It might be interesting when you have a fan on and there is some movement of the beads.

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  5. Great idea and I really like the shadow pattern...shadow art.

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  6. I LOVE the shadow patterns!!

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  7. As a child we had bead curtains on our back and front doors to keep the flies out it worked on our dog too he didn't like the feel or sound of it when you walked into it.
    They worked a treat and lasted forever.
    Merle.......

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  8. What a FAAAAABULOUS find - the shadow patterns are wonderful and your arty shots capture them well!! GREAT Sunday Selections - have a great day!!

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  9. Wonderful to see something completely different. I'd never have thought to do anything like that. I do love the curtains and, like you, I like indoor doors open as much as possible. We have ceiling fans so not centre lights but wall lights instead so no real interesting shadows.
    I do love those curtains and how clever of you to think of sewing two sets together.

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  10. Joanne; I wanted bead curtains, but couldn't find any, these string curtains were a lucky find, not many places here sell such stuff these days.

    Elephant's Child; Jazz would have a ball, for a little while anyway.

    Marie; they're not beads, they are very thin strings with just a few beads throughout, so still not a lot of cover, but enough to satisfy the need for privacy.
    I like the idea of mood lighting, I have a lamp in each room that I can use when I don't need bright light, but if I'm reading or eating, I need enough light. I don't think I could cope with only four hours of daylight unless I had enough light inside. My mum used to have lamps everywhere.

    Andrew; there's movement even with the breeze coming in the back door, not much, just enough to have a shimmer in the peripheral vision.

    Delores; shadow art, I like that.

    fishducky; I'm a fan of shadow patterns myself. Somewhere in my files there's a whole folder of shadow photos.

    Merlesworld; we had those plastic strip ones, I remember sitting by them learning how to plait, then when I undid the plaits the plastic would be all wavy. Remember those on cafes and milk bars everywhere?

    Red Nomad OZ; I'm glad I walked into that shop that day, I'd just about given up searching.

    Mimsie; I remember my mum having curtains hung halfway along the passage from front door to kitchen, so anyone knocking on the front door couldn't see through, family life was private, not everybody's nosy business. A passage wouldn't worry me much, but having my bed clearly visible from the lounge room is a bit much, hence the curtains. I'd love to have ceiling fans, maybe one day...

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  11. I love those string curtains! The black and silver is beautiful and the shadows are lovely. A couple of years ago I searched everywhere for a bamboo or bead curtain to hang over my back door frame as we don't have a screen door - couldn't find one anywhere. I might start looking again!

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  12. Jackie K; the other colour choices were atrocious, the black and silver was the only acceptable choice, black goes with everything and a touch of silver sparkles tings up a bit when it shimmers form the fan. I began my search looking for a bead curtain, but couldn't find one anywhere. A bamboo curtain sounds great. Hope you find one.

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