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Titanic Story

     In 2012, the Mary Black Gallery held a juried show of Nova Scotia  Designers Craft Council works referencing all meanings of the word Titanic, called Titanica. I was honoured to have my work, "Recovered Memories,"included in the exhibit. In putting together my exhibit, I researched the Titanic story and reached the conclusion that I wanted to present a modern day twist to the story. I was fortunate to be able to collaborate with a number of other artists, scientists and historians.

     I was intrigued by the seminars conducted by Steve Blasco, scientist at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax. Steve was one of three scientists who travelled in a submersible to the wreck of the Titanic. He recorded his adventure on camera. I was influenced by Steve's stories and pictures to create this exhibit. See a picture below of my interpretation of "the jewelry box recovered off the floor of the ocean." I tell people that this is just fantasy, not real, especially the artifacts :-).

      I told John Hubbard, a Nasa engineer and  friend, what my concept was and asked for suggestions. One of John's hobbies and passions is working with hobby train creations and making pen display cases out of cigar boxes. He made the lined jewelry box and suggested that the water be fake plastic water that they use for lakes in model railway displays.See https://cigarboxpenstorage.wordpress.com for more of John's pen boxes.

     The antique jewelry items were up to me to research and acquire. This was done through various antique shops in Halifax. I tried to keep the items within that time period leading up to 1912.

     I needed a picture of the Titanic that was not copy written. John reached out to a graphic artist, Asitha Mirando in Sri lanka, who worked with us to reproduce a likeness of the Titanic. I think he did a terrific job.

    I reached out to John again for his ideas on an appropriate pen for that period. John collects and researches vintage pens and writes for the PENnant, the magazine of the Pen Collectors of America . I had a Victorian style fountain pen and John suggested that I use a material called casein that was in use in the late 1800's up until about 1920 when it was replaced by a new material called celluloid.

     I put all the elements together and the result was the exhibit "Recovered Memories".

See Titanic for another replica Titanic pen.

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