I decided to go full-star for the upcoming march in Liverpool on Saturday 23rd March as I am in need of a bit of sparkle, especially after the death of a beloved friend and fellow campaigner, but due to the awful weather forecast there was also a need for waterproofing.
I had a sneaking suspicion that the weather would not be in our favour, so I had ordered some blue and gold star welly-boots and a large blue umbrella in expectation of a downpour - because, like a true Brit, I will not be deterred by the inclement weather!
Grumpy cat, Kafka, inspecting the boots for quality control: His feedback states that the gold moons are superfluous and should be removed at the first opportunity.
I actually have owned two "EU umbrellas" which actually had the EU emblem printed on them - but they have both mysteriously disappeared during events I have attended. Obviously, the plain blue umbrella I ordered, needed sparkling-up, so, I also bought some gold star party garlands which I plan to sticky tape to the umbrella. I decided not to do this in advance, because of the likelihood of the strings becoming tangled during the journey and because my little "helper", Boudicca, kept attacking the garlands when I took them out of the packet.
Mischievous cat, Boudicca, as per usual, treating my creative materials like it's another toy for her to play with.
In addition to the new wellies, I decided I will wear some old apparel - a top with the EU emblem in iron-on stars and a blue, velvet cape which I had sewed sequined-star-patches onto, back in 2018. I also stumbled across some butterfly clips in Lidl and decided to turn them into BEUtterflies with blue and gold acrylic paint and gold sequins. This was very fiddly to do, but quite fun.
I think they add a sweet, fairytale touch to go with the elven hooded cape. I do need to stay under the umbrella though, because I can imagine they will get very messy if they get wet!
The next step was to make the placards. I decided to go with an Oscar Wilde quote 'We're all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars' (with a ring of stars floating above the text) which seems to accurately sum up the state of the UK at this moment. I always make my placards double sided (for extra visibility), and I wanted to make a more targeted message relating to the upcoming general election, so I went with 'Vote Tories Out #GE2024' (the o's replaced with the EU emblem). These were made with watercolour paints, so I will have to sticky-back-plastic them to ensure they are waterproof. I really hate doing this as its extremely difficult to get the plastic on smoothly and I have nearly ruined some artworks by messing up the lamination process.
The only remaining thing still to do is re-dye my hair as the bold blue has faded into a pastel-turquoise. However, I've run out of hair-dye, so I will have to pick some up on my way to the station tomorrow and do it at the hotel!
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