Crack in the World

The world cracked from side to side..... and around the middle, across the top, and everywhere else!

The terrible blog title comes from a 1964 sci-fi disaster movie, 'Crack In The World', but in this case it should be millions of cracks as I struggle to get some little world earrings made. Producing them is turning into a disaster movie of their own!

I've been wanting to get some of the glass that makes such lovely cloudy effects for while now, and about six weeks ago I ordered about 3/4lb of this precious glass that hardly anyone seems to stock from a European stockist. And yes, that's in old school pounds weight, as glass producers still use imperial measurements as if they are sweet-shops (which, for anyone who works with glass, they are really!)

So I waited, and waited, and waited a bit more. Without going too much into the sordid details after several weeks, a lack of communication from the supplier (which would have smoothed things considerably) I eventually had to take it to a paypal dispute to get my money back. I got the refund, but not the glass I really needed.

So, now it was an order into an American stockist, which turned out to be super fast. They recommended using DHL for a few extra dollars, and considering the delays I'd already had I figured it was better to have the glass as quickly as possible. The last order I'd had from The States came from USPS (US Postal Service) was still moving around in the USA in the first three days, this delivery was picked up from the USA warehouse at 4pm Wednesday afternoon (their time) and on my door step before noon on Friday! Amazing, even more considering the USA is half a day ahead of us too, so they lost time flying it here!

So, kiln on, 23ct gold leaf ready, and I start making worlds. Or rather, I don't. This batch seemed to be reluctant to make the nice cloudy effects, I made a good 20-30 or so to see how they came out, and switched to another type I had that doesn't always make such nice clouds. I expect a few to crack, normally they are straight in half, and the second batch were mostly fine, but the new glass I'd waited so long for was a disaster! As you can see from the photo's, they have some severe incompatibility cracks, normally caused by mixing two glasses with different expansion rates together (COE) which may be the clear I normally use. It's always been fine in the past, and worked with the other glass fine. I have tried emailing customer service of the factory, but they don't seem interested in answering their emails to tell me if they've had anyone else have problems with this batch.

So this means that little worlds are going to be delayed even longer now, whilst I figure this out, or try to get another brand of glass to perform the same tricks I could get out of this one. I've even been giving serious thought to making my own, it'll probably be quicker to get that way! I am experimenting with some new world designs though, so watch this space.

In the meantime, and on a more positive note, I am now finally getting my Etsy shop refilled. I've been posting on Facebook to let people know, although I've been doing so much I'm worried all my Facebook followers are going to start thinking I'm spamming them! There are lots of new pendants, marbles, a few pens and pins, although earrings may be in short supply for a few more weeks, however when there are they may be some more unusual designs, so keep an eye on my status!



Bah! A days work and loads of gold leaf wasted :-(

The pens are finished - and off to amazing desks!

Last week I finally finished the last of the pens, and as a bonus the company printing the boxes for them had them dispatched in record time. I always find it's the one thing that is out of my control that slows things down or puts an unexpected halt on progress, so I was delighted when they turned up a week before I expected them. This meant that I could package them up, and deliver them a full month ahead of the deadline.

Despite the weight I decided to deliver them in person, as I really didn't want these in the hands (or hobnail boot) of a courier company to loose, drop, throw around, and all the other jolly things that can go wrong. Like I said, minimising things that are out of my control that could go wrong! Also for the weight and size of the boxes the return ticket to London wasn't much more than posting plus I could wizz around a few stores to pick up some supplies too.

First stop was the offices of Academia Europaea  who I can now announce commissioned the pens. I am glad, and very relieved, to say they were delighted with the pens, most of which will now be sent to Wroclaw University in Poland where they will be handed out during a major gathering there of Europe's top academics. Apparently many will be given out with prizes and scholarships, and a few as a thank you to some of the special guests as well, which the Secretary of the society mentioned included 'a couple of Nobel prize winners,' which I must admit I didn't quite take in when he told me this. I certainly never expected any of my pens to end up on quite such illustrious desks! As it is their 25th anniversary year they wanted something a little more original and interesting than a mass produced pens and tie pins, so I was delighted to hear that my dip pens fitted the bill. Although the various academic luminaries who will be getting one of the pens don't know yet, so don't tell them!

For me it's been a great commission to do, and it's a real bonus to hear that they are going to be a small part of such a large event to honour the work of some of Europe's leading minds - plus to be in their offices and on the desks when they return home. I certainly never envisioned this when I first had the idea to make dip pens.

100 Pens

You may have been wondering why the lack of new shiny in my Etsy shop, or general lack of new posts on my Facebook page. (Or maybe not!) Well, I've been making pens, lots of pens, lots and lots and lots of them. Endlessly. For weeks. And you can't have any of them!

Sometime last year a visitor at my Greenwich stall asked if I might be able to make some pens for a yearly event, which I'd said 'maybe.' Well a few weeks ago I was commissioned to make 100 pens for 'an event.' I'm not at liberty to say who for or what the event is, but the one main thing is that they all have to be blue, maybe with a little yellow. (And no, this has nothing to do with Doctor who!)

It's come at an ideal time for me, a few months before I start gearing up for Expos in October and November, plus all the craziness that happens at the end of the year! However I have had to put all the other projects and sculptural stuff on hold, as well as not having much time to blog, or make extra things to list on Etsy. Even my Greenwich stall is starting to look a little empty.

A few pens, and still a lot more to make!

In a way it's been quite nice not to have to think too much about what to make next during my days in the workshop. Instead of, 'do I make a pendant, and what sort, or a marble?' it's 'what to make next? Another pen! And then another!' I must admit around numbers 48 to 54 I did start getting a bit fed up of making pens, however once I got into the sixties I got back on a roll again.

They are now nearly finished, and hopefully by the end of this week or start of next week I'll have them all finished and delivered (crossing my fingers and toes that the client likes them!) After that I'll get back to some normality and start making lots of new pendants and marbles for the Etsy shop and the upcoming Expos, hopefully including a few new exciting things too!

Green Man Mask continued

I've taken the annealed mask out of the kiln and started work on adding more leaves and details. So far I've learnt;

Getting quite far along, still needs a few more hours yet

1) I need to think more about my work flow.
     I didn't really expect this first attempt to go so well, and jumped around the sculpture a little too much. This has left some areas under more stress as some leaves pull on others, and when I start heating sometimes this stress has caused parts further away to snap. There was quite a lot of re-joining and tweaking as I went back over areas, even just as I finished one of the first leaves came away that'll need re attaching.
    This time I went a little slower, as I added each new leaf I took time to make sure it was well joined, then while it was still hot (and the new join a little flexible still) joined it anywhere else it was touching the main structure to ensure it has at least two firm hold points, then re-heated the first joins just to make sure. I think 'just to make sure' should be the motto for doing this sort of work!

2) Nice work for hot weather.
      I do really need to get more pendants and big marbles made for the next Expo (yes I know it's months away, but foolishly I did book both London and Birmingham which are only separated by a few weeks). It's not too bad until the afternoon when the sun swings around, and the kiln starts getting hotter. This makes a nice change, and as I only need one wheezy old oxycon and the extractor hood on it makes for quite a quite and chilled out working.

3) Tricky to light, ok once lit
      Talking of old oxycons, it can be a bit tricky to get the mini torch to light and stay lit to start with. It might be because it takes quite a while to get all the air out of the oxygen and propane lines, once it has though it seems (mostly) ok so long as I don't have to turn it back off and on again! This is where a stand would be really helpful, if it allowed it to stay lit when needing both hands free.

4) Tidy that workbench
      Actually, I can't really see that happening, I even get around not needing to tidy it when working 104 glass by putting a board over the top of the debris! A separate little work area, with really, really good light would be ideal though, maybe that's a little higher too.

5) More plaster, less filler
      This poor face cast is starting to look like a bit of a burns victim, or something sort of Evil living-dead-doll from an Asian Horror film! The modroc is charring when the surface gets knocked or flakes off, so a thicker plaster/quartz layer might be better. Maybe also use chicken wire for strengthening instead. I mostly used modroc originally because I happened to have a big unused bag, and it makes quite light casts.

Charred and battered cast

6) Stay calm! Make good support underwear and it can be fixed!
      Hard to do when you heat up one area and another goes 'crack,' but that really probably comes down to the initial problems with not making some of the first joins as well as I should have or putting others under too much stress. Having to go back and re attach them has probably made the whole sculpture stronger and better made though. Next time I'll have to think more carefully about the best way of putting down those first leaves that become the scaffold for the rest of the sculpture.

7) Make more leaves
     This uses a huge amount of leaves, which is ok as I wanted to define the shape just in leaves anyway, but I never seem to make enough. When I've looked at Green Man pictures and original church stone sculptures they make most of the face with very few leaves. Sometimes it's one per face area (i.e. one of each cheek, one for the nose) and then stretch them out to make the shape. I wanted these green faces to be more like you might see them, when in a glimpse out of the corner of your eye the overall shape of the branches and leaves in the trees suggest a face, but then when you look it's gone. Or is that just me?

All in all this has been an interesting project, although it's not finished the next questions are 'do I make another in coloured glass,' and 'do I leave clear or sandblast it to a frosted finish?' And if I did frost it, it then leaves another decision, to then leave it as it is or paint it which leaves a nice matt finish? Mind you, as I don't have an airbrush/sandblaster yet it's probably not really a relevant set of questions!

In other news I might only be at Greenwich this Sunday (or not at all, I'm not sure if I can make it yet) so I am hoping to get some more marbles listed into my Etsy shop this week. As usual I'll give a heads up on Facebook to let you know when I start getting them listed.

New Toy & Green Man/Woman Sculpture

It's been a bit of catch up since the last Expo and class, mostly I've been getting my head down and making new pendants and marbles for the stall. Hopefully they'll be some new marbles trickling through into my Etsy shop again in the next few weeks as well.

However I still want to try and make time to keep practising and improving my sculptural techniques. For a while I've quite fancied a hand torch, something that can go to really fine pin-point flame to tweak and work on details. Of course I couldn't quite justify the expense, it's not just the torch but all the new pipes and connectors too, plus I couldn't decide which one would be best for me. After chatting about hand torches during the course, and then seeing a cool photo of an American artist standing before a three foot sculpture he was assembling with a hand torch, I looked a little harder and came up with a Smiths Mini Torch at a bargain price.

New Little Torch

Although really made for metal work, it's quite popular with some glass artists. Although the flame really is tiny, it's nice and compact, has a tight hot flame, and best of all comes with it's own light and small hoses already attached. The hoses were the clincher, not only did it save an extra expense of new hoses, I didn't fancy having to hold a torch being dragged down by the normal heavy propane hoses.

Work in Progress, glass leaves being added using a plaster former

It's taken a few weeks now before I've had time to play with it though, apart from playing catch up I'm just confirming a very large commission which will keep me busy for weeks (holding breath and touching wood that it comes off, more on that when it's all confirmed!) However there has been an idea that's been kicking around in my head for a while, and this seemed the ideal tool for the job!

These are some 'work in progress' pictures, of a Green Woman mask that I've been making using the little torch to assemble the leaves which I made using my Lynx torch.

Top view of the mask removed from the former, with a leaf beside it



Off the former, this needs to be annealed before I carry on. One of the 'blank' leaves loose beside it

Little torch with it's tiny flame next to my Lynx running a fairy small flame

Before starting on this I've been wondering how to put the leaves together to make a good 3D shape. I figured a former would be the way to go, but I certainly couldn't afford a custom graphite shape in this size. Bellow is a quick run down on how I put this together, using plaster and mod-roc (basically bandages impregnated with plaster-of-paris, which many model shops stock for making hills and mountains on train sets etc.) For the mould I used the packaging from a paint your own mask kit from my local 99p shop! I was going to use the mask, but the plastic blister pack it came in was ideal as I didn't have to plug up the eyes and mouth cut outs, and it was waterproof!

Mask mould, I left the mask underneath to add some support and strength to the mould

This is my first real go with the torch, and it's quite a liberating way of working, although I could really do with a safe stand where I can leave it when lit if I need both hands free. It's a bit temperamental to light and keep lit until the gases have settled down. I found that I can even use a thin stringer to help 'weld' or 'solder' two parts together, and that if I get really close it's fierce enough to even 'push' the glass. I certainly need a bit more practise with it, maybe once I get time to finish this mask off I'll have a go at another once, with coloured leaves this time. It certainly opens up some interesting ideas and new ways of working.

 
 

Bellow is a quick run down of how I made the plaster blank, for anyone who wants to try something similar. Do use the torch on this at your own risk though, this is an experimental technique, and the plaster and modroc WILL get burnt as you work!

 

First layer, I used plaster and quartz (equal parts) which is a formula usually used for making kiln casting moulds. I hoped it would provide better heat tolerance for the 'working area' of the cast

Mod-roc, cut into strips and rough squares. Just pass this through a tray of water to moisten and then slap it on!

After adding some more plaster I started building up the sides with modroc and re-enforcing the main part of the cast with the modroc

Add more plaster before the last has set in the hope it all sticks together well!

Alternating now with layers of plaster and modroc, this adds both lightness and some structural strength

It's really easy to smooth out the modroc with a fingertip, be careful not to get it too damp though

Top up to the top, and smooth over so it will lie flat when de-moulded. It's a working cast and this bit isn't going to be seen so no need to make too much of a fuss of neatness.

Broken chin! I made the quartz/plaster layer a bit too thin, and then didn't push the modroc down enough so had a void under the chin which then flaked off. You learn by mistakes!

The finished cast. Now leave to dry, I left this near (but not on) my kiln for about two weeks to make sure it was fully dried.

 

I know Kung-Fu - Jennifer Umphress class

There is a bit in 'The Matrix' where Keanu Reeves is plugged in, and they start uploading martial arts information into his brain. When asked how he feels, he just says, 'Woa! I know Kung-Fu!' Well, I sorta know how he feels now.

Jennifer Umphress working on an Octopus

This weekend I went for a short 3 day course at Diana East's lovely studio at the Old Dairy in Narborough. I felt very lucky to be able to get lessons from Jennifer Umphress who produces some really stunning sea life glass sculptures. It's so rare to get a chance to take borosilicate lessons in the UK from someone of her calibre, so the first pleasant surprise was Jessica Landau  had come along too to act as Teaching Assistant! So, combined with it being a really small class, we got really well looked after and the opportunity for some really intense teaching, almost one-to-one on many occasions. We actually discovered that Jennifer normally teaches this course over two weeks, so we really were getting the intense full-on version. Typical that I had a cold that weekend, and a cough that occasionally interrupted my lampworking!

I won't go into full details now, I'm pretty tired, but they were such excellent teachers, and refreshingly open about sharing techniques and skills with us. I'm also not going to post loads of photo's of what I managed to make, as they aren't as good as I know I can do with some more practise. I was really intent on trying to learn as much as possible, I know the real work comes now as I practise, practise, practise all that we covered - and we covered an awful lot!



Turtle

The first day we made some little cute whale sculptures, which had a really tricky fold technique in their tail (literally!) A bit of practise on those and xmas tree decorations, and it was straight in to making turtles and pendants. The next day was jellyfish, which gave me a chance to brush up on my techniques for these and see how I could improve, and then into some 'woooooaaaa' moments as Jennifer demo'ed a huge seahorse sculpture, which was incredibly elegant and stunning - and then it was our turn!

Sea Horse

Quite nerve racking and tricky to do, I'm certainly going to have to practise that one! Luckly Jessica was on hand to help save one from becoming just a melted blob of scrap glass! Jessica then showed us how to make a small pendant size version (it was incredibly tricky and delicate) before one last demo of the day from Jennifer, of a manta ray, which was just open-jaw-stunning!



Manta Ray, the picture doesn't do justice to it!

After a lovely meal with everyone on the course at the local Indian restaurant, (which bizarrely doubles as a hotel where a few of us stayed), I woke on the last day with ideas already buzzing around my head of ways I could use some of the new techniques. We were straight into making huge Angelfish though - I loved making these, they are both chunky and elegant, and have room for some experimenting too.



Jennifer then took some time to talk us through and show how to do some incredibly clever stuff to mount our work, I think I could actually feel my brain filling up at this point! They were both so open at sharing skills and techniques that I've seen used on sculptures that I'd not imagined I'd be able to easily learn, or anyone would be so happy to share. This was some serious glass 'Kung-Fu!' Along with my brain filling up, so was my note book, every page has techniques and snippets of information that was gladly imparted to us. We were desperately running out of time (and oxygen) but there was just enough of both for us to learn how to make little octopus pendants, before the final demo where Jennifer made one of her signature 3D octopuses. Although she said we'd probably not need to see each leg put on as it might be boring for us, none of us moved! It was quite awe-inspiring to see, I did get a few photos but my phone camera was just too slow and shaky.


Taking a hot octopus in hand!

After buying a few colour rods (errr, ok, many rods) we all regrettably said goodbye and headed off. It both flew past, but was so full and inspiring, and it was such a treat to spend so much time with so many fellow UK lampworkers too, and chat about the world of glass. In fact there was so much more that happened and we covered in such a short time that I can't cover in such a short post!

I certainly have a lot to do this week after the expo,  I don't know where some of these new techniques and ideas will take me, but I certainly feel that I've got the confidence to go and now take on so much more - now that I know glass Kung-Fu!


My notebook, this is how many pages I filled during the weekend!

London MCM Expo May 2013

I've said it before, and I don't mind saying it again; Thank you! Thank you to everyone who came and saw us at the Expo at the Excel centre this weekend, who took time to chat to us, who bought something from us, and of course those who just looked amazing! Thank you!



Outside the Excel Centre on Saturday night 

It has to be the most amazing Expo for us yet! With wider aisles, better spacing, and more exits/entrances it was so much easier to get around this time. Of course for us Expo started months ago, with me making extras that I've been putting aside ready, mostly larger sparklier marbles! That didn't stop me from last minute panics and glass melting, and the almost expected propane tank running out on Sunday morning! The local garage had run out of canisters, but luckily a local garden centre had one of my 'emergency back-up size' in stock, so a quick dive there and I was back in business! I managed a couple more kiln fulls by Wednesday evening, including a couple of new Aliens designs too, although neither ended up being mounted as I wasn't happy with them. I did have a very few Aliens, but not as many as I would have liked to have taken.

Wednesday night and Thursday morning was all last minute packing, and 'what have I forgotton' panics, before the evening drive to London. We decided to stay over the night before this time, as it meant we didn't have the early morning start and then drive through rush hour, and we could take more time over setting up. However we were really surprised to see how many Expo-goers had already turned up too, after checking in to the hotel as soon as we walked outside saw a group of fully dressed Jedi going into the corner shop opposite! I got a very quick snap, which doesn't show they were also carrying their light sabres too! So, now you know, Nisa shops are favoured by Jedi's!




Jedi's heading to Nisa

Friday! First a tense ten minutes whilst I tried to book for the October Expo, then a hour to navigate the complex Excel loading bay system, get our passes, unload, park, then finally begin to set up! We were luckly to be on a odd end where the stall next to us had to suround their stall for security (they sold knives and swords) so it gave us a handy wall to display the few aliens I'd bought. It was great to feel rested and able to take our time to set up, but the time still flew and before I knew it they were announcing the doors opened in thirty minutes!

And then the doors were open, and after that everything became a wonderful neon blur! Lots of people to talk to, many of them who'd seen us there last May and had come back again, including one Lady who'd deliberately come along for an Alien for her birthday pressent! On Saturday it was so busy they even opened the doors ten minutes early, but the new systems kept it feeling open and not crushed. I barely got chance to take any pictures, but I did get a quick shot of the Excel on Saturday night, which had turned into a lovely sunny day. Before we knew it, it was Sunday, the Expo was over and it was time to pack away and get home for a soak in the bath, a pizza, rest, and catch up on all the boring admin I've been ignoring for the past month as I've been manically melting glass! That hasn't stopped me from starting to plan for October's Expo though......



Our stall set up ready on Friday

Exhibition!!!

The exciting news is that I have some of my Alien Specimens in an exhibition, starting on Friday! The collection is entitled 'Glass' and features work from 30 different glass artists at the Cuploa Gallery in Sheffield from 3rd May to 16th June.

cupolagallery.com

This is quite a major show, it's been quite a surprise to see myself (and a picture of one of the Aliens) featured in press releases and emails from other mailing lists I'm on of upcoming exhibitions. I really wanted to go up for the opening night, but I just don't think I can make it as I only found out I was including a short time ago (thanks to some lost emails) and it seems all the trains and hotels rooms in Sheffield seem booked that weekend. This was by selection only, so I was delighted to hear I'd been chosen!

 One lobster didn't make it, thanks to the post office, and arrived upside down in a box clearly marked 'this way up,' one of the gallery directors told me he saw the driver offloading it, and was surprised that only one was broken. Not as bad as one artist though, for whom every item he sent arrived smashed. However the lobster I know can be rebuilt, and will give me the excuse to make some tweaks to it that I wanted to make.

This does mean I won't have very many aliens to take to the MCM Expo in London, but space is limited there this year, and hopefully the ones in Sheffield will now find new homes, then I can use the proceeds of their 're-homing' to fund making some more new and exciting ones!

Alien Sea Huntress

Or it might end up just being called Sea Huntress, or The Huntress. In my mind it's just 'why have I got this crazy necklace idea in my head? I've got enough half finished projects already without starting another one!'

This nearly did stall, and I know that I could still be tweaking it, but I'm trying to get back to one of the earliest lessons' I learnt with glass - stop, move on; that's as good as you can do for now, learn by it and take those lessons to the next thing you make. Easier said than done, I even posted some earlier pictures on Frit Happens to get some feedback to see what needed tweaking. I almost ended up with too many ideas of changes, so after a dozen more times threading and unthreading it, moving elements around, adding and taking them away, it ended up going very nearly back to how it started. I did find adding a few small Tibetan spacer beads helped some of the claws sit more neatly, which ended up being the main tweak. I wasn't going to put the spike in the centre, and just have the two claws facing each other, but when I did it was just crying out for something major between them. I even had to make beads for it - yes beads! I hardly ever make beads, and I hated the first ones, but then remembered some 'bumpy' style ones I'd seen somewhere, so made some like that which I really liked, and as a bonus kept more of the metallic lusters.

It's been an interesting project, and bizarrely came from working on the Alien monsters, where I'd developed some interesting ways of adding colour and texture. With this one the colour has a really, really, high silver and metal content, so in real life has some wonderful metallic lusters. Oddly though parts of it show up as yellow when light shines through them, but green-blue when the light hits it straight on!

I am still deciding if I should list this on Etsy, or take it along to the May Expo. When I make things like this, I tend to think 'would this look like something someone of 'Farscape' would have worn?' If the answer is yes, or at least possiably, then I think it's right.

Talking of which, I have some news about the Aliens, but it's not confirmed yet, so you are going to have to wait until the next post, but I will post on my Facebook page as soon as I know it's going to happen.

In the meantime, here's lots of pictures of the necklace.

Etsy Reloaded

I am having a tidy up of my Etsy shop, ready for an onslaught of new listings later today! This is partly because of the new postal prices - I'm actually putting international prices DOWN - and also because I've run out of propane, so I can't melt anymore glass until a new tank is delivered!

For a while now I've been charging more than I wanted to on international deliveries, after having too many going missing in the post I've upgraded to 'signed for' service. From customers responses I noticed they seem to have got there a little quicker, however I was partly subsidizing this and it still made postage very expensive and off-putting. I also had the unexpected problem that many USA customers have PO boxes, and as PO boxes can't sign for parcels I couldn't use the Royal Mail's International signed-for services anyway! So, as soon as I can figure out how, I'm going to start offering it as an optional extra instead, or just pay for it myself if it's a larger order. Oh, and go back to crossing my fingers when I go to the post office.

It's just as confusing for UK deliveries too, lots of the old smaller weight options and sizes have been removed, so it looks like everything I am going to post will fit the 'small package' size - so long as I don't overdo it with the bubble wrap and make the envelopes more than 8cm thick! It does allow me to post up to 1kg though, so for most UK deliveries in my Etsy shop it will now cost a flat fee of £3 if you buy 1 thing or 20!

Still confused, or confusing? I'm just glad I don't work at the post office, the Ladies at my local branch are the ones I feel sorry for as they try to unravel all the new size regulations. It was so much clearer and easier when it was just a matter of weighing a box!

In 'other news' I've been playing around with my second 'little kiln' which goes up to much higher temperatures (shown here at a chilly 880degrees centigrade! I've had it up to 958 deg C for these casts.)

Cooling down from 950deg C, this was taken as it hit 880 deg C!

However it's still not going to plan, although I've had some unexpected success with some beads I slumped into flat cabochons, I litterally popped them in at the last minute before firing to take advantage of some spare space. I've just fired some more, a few will be cropping up in my Etsy shop too.

 

Birmingham Comic-Con

Well, I am back! The Etsy shop is half re-opened, I'm still tried, but still buzzing with ideas after this weekends MCM Expo at Birmingham's NEC. Instead of too much waffling I'm posting lots of photo's here that will hopefully give you a taste of the event, and the always amazing costumes that so many people put together for these Expos that transform them into such colourful events. Ellie has a smart new camera and even managed to get a video clip ( You Tube Video ) of one of the 'parades' of characters - everyone from Darth Vader, Indiana Jones, Xena, to 'Top Gears' The Stig!!! There was even a stall of an R2D2 builders club, with lots of R2D2's wandering around the venue!

A very large and very empty NEC

Home for the next two days, the last set of tables on the end of this row
 

Of course, after a three hour drive the first bit of transformation needed was the hall itself! We got there by 2pm on Friday, ready to unload and put everything together, and transform some unexciting wooden tables into our stall.


A short video of The Parade

R2D2's from the builders club, note the massing Star Wars Stormtroopers at the top right of the picture

Another R2D2, this one hiding in a corner

Fight! Fight! Plenty of chances for some mock posed super-hero/villian fights!

An unlikely group!