Draw Ring - What is it?

[prism]

I've just heard Mark Lawson on Radio 4 interviewing Rachel Whiteread and talking about Draw Rings. I don't know what they are, but as Whiteread is an artist, can I assume they are some kind of gadget used by artists in the pursuit of their craft? Or perhaps small groups of like-minded artists like the Blue Rider or the Cubists?

Then again, I have heard mention in the news about troops "with draw ring from Afghanistan", so maybe it's a piece of military equipment, or a wacky ethnic cooking pot?

All suggestions gratefully received.

Perhaps they are like embroidery rings, to keep the paper nice and flat while you draw on it.... though quite why the troops in Afghanistan would need a lot of them is another question of course. Unless they are keen on calming hobbie like needlepoint?

It's probably from the same dictionary as the filing cabinet labelled with Draw 1, Draw 2 that used to be in my office...

With draw ring from Afghanistan? I think you'll find that people are talking about the troops withdrawing, ie pulling out, from Afghanistan.

Omicron - I think it's a tongue in cheek dig at the mispronunciation of the word 'drawing'.

Aha, it did amuse me this morning though...

That's a very interesting explanation, Euphemia, but I don't think it can really be true, as Mark Lawson doesn't have much of an accent, and I've heard plenty of other radio presenters able to say "drawing" without pretending it has two letter Rs in it.

No, I think the only sensible explanation is that we're talking about an unusual object (one of 100 historical ones perhaps- I wait with baited breath), and my money's on AMumInScotland's version of the truth.

The trouble is, if I try to say 'drawing' without the 'r' in the middle, it sounds like a posh word plonked in the middle of my common Estuary-accented sentence. So I can't win whichever way I pronounce it.

I'm Irish, and I would find it difficult to say it with the R in the middle.
Accents are fully things.

We have H's where I come from too, so I never have to wonder is it a hotel or an hotel (always a hotel)

I just don't think I could say to my DD "oh that's a lovely draw wing".

But you're not saying draw wing, youre saying draw-ing.
Or should I say, I am.

The mystic power of this word amazes me. Here we have presumably paid-up pedants talking about "the R in the middle" as if there actually was one, offering complicated explanations involving accents derived from Greek letters, possible embarrassment about poshness... all to avoid the correct pronunciation of the word "drawing", or to excuse deviation from it. What an astonishing feat of public misconception.

Yet I bet everyone here, rhotic or not, can say "skiing" without chucking in an extra consonant, and as well as that, were there to be such a thing as a "draw ring", people would suddenly find they could refer to that thing you do with a pencil and a piece of paper with no trouble at all...

@ ski ring