Bumpy Marbles, and Bombs

Little Bomblets! Not quite 40mm long, and make of solid glass

I'm now on the final countdown for Birmingham, three weeks to go, and loads to do! Plus whatever rush (fingers crossed) that Mothers day might bring at Greenwich. Yet I've still been experimenting with some new ideas and techniques.

Bumpy world loaded with metallic lusters

Whilst developing some ideas for alien specimens, I started playing around with some techniques for adding ceramic-like textures to the glass. I've been developing that further, and whilst doing so I thought I'd re-visit planet marbles.

Now I've not really been happy with any ways I've used so far to make planets, other than the little worlds that I make and I've not been able to really upscale those or make really interesting alien coloured worlds in them either. Chucking in these new ideas though has produced some much more interesting worlds, and now they are starting to feel a little more like what I was after. As I was working them I became a bit disappointed how encasing them lost some of the lovely metallic lusters and bumpy matt effects. So the obvious thing was to try some un-encased, and then push them even further! So, here are some of the results, they've been quite fun to make, plus I've been able to even add in some icy white polar caps as well. I posted pictures over on Frit Happens and Facebook, and have been really pleasantly surprised at how well they've been appreciated, so have made a few more and have listed a few on Etsy.

Smooth world, with swirls of white over one of the poles

Whilst playing with this I noticed how like old painted metal some of the colours were coming out, and as I was pulling out a glass stringer from a larger rod noted how 'bomb-like' the shape was. It seemed like a good idea then to combine these, which I think will now end up being incorporated into the head-dress project too. I also tried a quick red one too, and put a loop on it so it could be a pendant, but I haven't got the shape quite as I wanted that one. Not entirely happy with the fins on the grey-black one, but I do like how the surface texture makes it look like a World War II bomb that someone has accidental dug up!

Plastic and Bullets

I seem to have several projects on the go, the problem often is finding time to finish them or just that last component that will make it work. Embarrassingly, for far too many months gathering dust I have some glass from another artist for a collaboration that have sat in a box in the corner of the workshop/office/studio/storeroom that I seem to live in right now. The problem with that one has been finding two odd bits that will bring it to life, plus some old text books that are buried in the attic. I am sure I will get to it (eventually.)



Crown blank neatly cut out by machine

A newer project that has been rattling around my head for a year or two saw a step closer this week to actually getting out of my head and into the real world. It is going to be a head-dress, or a crown, or something like that - it's still taking shape. I'd could describe it, but I won't, because partly it might spoil the magic of it comeing to life, but mostly because I'm not totally sure how it's going to come together yet.

One key part needed was some old bullet cases, but it's taken until my short New Year break to be able to pop along to a local army surplus store to rummage around for some fired blank shells in various sizes. At the same time I bought some blank tiara/alice bands from a haberdashers which were going to form the base. However once I'd got home I realised they were too thin, too flexiable, and also I'd need to bolt parts onto them at right angles.

Faced with having to cut out a crown shape by hand didn't really fill me with excitement. I was debating between aluminium sheet and acyrlic, both are light, acyrlic was cheaper but I remembered the problems I had last time when cutting through a sheet. I used my trusty electric scrollsaw, very carefully taking my time to saw through so I got a neat straight line. When I finaly got to the end the heat of the blade had just re-welded the plastic together again! So, aluminium it would be.

I was going to order a sheet when on Saturday morning I was setting up at Greenwich and inspiration was setting up a few stalls away in the shape of 'The Shed Laser Co.' who make all sorts of things out of acyrlic! I remember chatting to Sarah who said she could cut anything to order, so I described what I wanted, got a quote, and was sorted!


 Monday afternoon I spent drafting on the PC, then cutting out bits of paper trying to get the shape and sizes right, before emailing Sarah with the design - even down to having the holes so I didn't need to drill them out (and risk cracking the plastic while doing so.) Next Saturday morning I was at Greenwich she gave me the crown base, all neatly cut out! If I'd have done this by hand it wouldn't be anywhere near as neat, I'd have been hot and bothered, broken a few blades, and probably just put off doing it! If you want to do something like this too, and need some plastic 'printed' I know Sarah is in the market most weekends, and you can find 'Theshedlaserco' on facebook too! (I tried to put the link, but for somereason blogger doesn't want to!)

Hopefully there will be more on this head-dress/crown/head-art-installation in forthcoming blogs as i make up some more parts of it.

Sawdust January

Well, as expected, January hasn't gone quite to plan, but then I never really expected it to! The original plan was, tidy and sort out the work-spaces, make lots of stuff, work on some new experimental stuff, and do lots with the huge glass order I placed two weeks before Xmas.

I've managed to find time to make a few new marbles too!

The one big hold at the moment is a big order of coloured borosilicate glass, which left the USA warehouse on the 12th January. By 14th it had got to 'forwarded to exporter,' where it seemed to remain until 2nd, when on-line tracking said 'arrived in UK.' I finally heard today, on month later, it might have actually got through customs and just requires me to pay up for tax and duty before I can git my mitts on it!

In the meantime I have got some small degree of organisation going in the workshop. First on the list was the ever expanding quantity of jars containing frit and powder. I have quite alot of old baby food jars with special lids for plant micro-propagation (long story!)  These are ideal as they are designed to be removed with one hand, so I can easily pop the lid off one that I need to use whilst the other hand is holding a rod of hot glass ready.

Before

What I obviously needed was some kind of spice rack. I'd previously tried a 'lazy Susan' rotating stand to hold them, but it just seemed to take up too much desk room. The result isn't very neat or well made, but it does the job! The before and after photos show how much tidier it looks already!

I didn't realise how much frit I'd acquired, some of them only have a little left, so I'll use those up and start transferring over to all having the same jars. Luckly the commercial small 4oz Northstar jars are about the same height too, as I know I'm going to end up with some more of those too!

After

The slightly bigger job was to sort out rod storage for the incoming 26lb box of glass (yes, I went a little crazy with the ordering, but I figured it would keep me going for quite a while.)  It also became a bigger job as the table that it was going to go under had a strengthening bar that was in the way. In the end I replaced the table completely, it was quite old and rickety. A pack of 40mm plastic pipe chopped up into lengths has made a nice neat 60 storage holes, but I've left space above as I'd like to extend this later on. I probably should have gone for slightly wider tubing, some of the colours may have to take up 2 slots for now, but the 50mm came in dull grey rather than white. At the bottom I've left wider sections to keep the more bulky supplies of tubing.

Apart from this the other major January job has been to get the dust off my Etsy shop. If you check my Facebook page regularly you may have noticed I've gone listing crazy, as I try to get lots of variety and a range of items back into my Etsy shop. I've been aware for a while now how little I manage to list, Greenwich seems to have taken up an awful lot of time and energy this past year, so I'm taking a few weekends off over the quieter months to try and catch myself up in advance - if that makes sense!

New Fan, New Aches but No Toxic Gases

Well I finally got the new fan installed on boxing day. The original plan was for a day off (I've heard of those) and go out, but it seems it's business as usual when OH got called to work instead, so I figured I might as well use the time productively.

I was going to get a boxed acoustic fan, to keep down some of the noise, and know they are quite popular with many lampworkers, although I wanted something with a bit more power. I'd almost settled on one when I came across some reviews on a hydroponics forum, for which many of these fans are made. The reviews were good, but many of the mentioned a TD-Silent being the best and most reliable they'd come across. Price-wise they seemed pretty good for the money too, the one I wanted only had a 19db level too, so took a deep breath and placed my order.

I didn't quite expect something that looked like it had fallen off a military jet! I didn't get around to taking a picture, so here's a quite You-Tube link for those considering one! TD-Silent video

 The one I got has a massive 200mm intake and outlet, so the first job was stripping out the old fan, which it turns out might have needed a bit of a clean!



Old fan from the original cooker hood

 I've kept and used the switches from the original unit, it wasn't until the new fan turned up that I found it has two speed so needed more switches to control it. At the same time I took out the lights (which were in the wrong place so never used) in the cooker hood and just about anything that might block the airflow.


Straight up and into the outside world for you Mr nasty toxic carbon monoxide!

From there it was time to seal up the sides of the chimney. Originally I'd intended to use a big 200mm pipe I'd bought for the job, but since the old cooker extractor had a nice chimney that was nearly the same size I figured it would do just as well. A quick trim of some spare aluminium sheet, then a little duct tape to seal any gaps and holes and the job was nearly done. Or so I thought! A joist was in the way so everything came down so I could move the whole canopy over just 3 inches!

Shiny! There really is only one exit, but the mirror inside of the chimney makes it look like three!

After another hour or so of clambering around in dark and dirty, and very uncomfortable, spots to get a small bend of flexible tube attached and sealed, the job was really finished. It's not a very tidy or as neat looking as I'd wanted (I went a bit overboard with the duct tape!) and needs a bit of trunking to hide away the leads. It is quiet though, and a quick test with an incense stick showed even on low power it whisked it away with no problems. On high power I barely even saw the smoke leave the incense stick, it was just gone! Not as quiet as I thought, there is quite a rush of noise from the air moving, however when stepping just a few feet away I could hardly hear it, a huge improvement on the low rumble the old one used to generate.

Needs a bit of a clean, but despite the bodging it has nearly doubled the amount of air this old cooker extractor hood can remove

I'd expected it to take two days to get everything in place, so was pleased to get it done, despite the odd set-back, in a day. However today I've woken up with so many aching muscles and bruises I've got hardly anything done, thus getting chance to sit and blog, so maybe my original schedule was right after all!

I still am not sure if I'll be back to Greenwich between now and new year, I am sure I'll get around to a break sometime in the next few weeks if not! I hope you have all head a great Xmas, and may I be the first to wish you all a happy 2013!

Put a chimney on it

I can't believe I've not even got Xmas over with, and I am already planning next year!

Ducting (centre) and one of the pair of Oxycons I use behind (right). Top left is one of the kilns I use.

The last few weeks have been quite busy, and I've still hardly managed to get my Etsy shop up and running again, but, fingers crossed, I hope to start working on that again in the dark days of winter. I am not sure if I will take a few weekends off in January yet, even if I do there won't be any let up as I've signed up for another big sci-fi festival in March!

I am getting used to the bench looking this untidy!

 This time it's Birmingham NEC on 16 &17th March for the joint MCM Expo & Memorabilia festival. If that goes well I'll hope to book for the one later in the year as well, not to forget the two London MCM shows as well! I'm already confirmed for the 24-26th May. Plus of course most weekends at Greenwich, which as you may/maynot have heard is now NOT being redeveloped, instead they are going to repair the roof and fix some of the cobbles to make them a little bit easier to walk and stand on - especially good for those who get to stand there for 9 hours or so!

Amongst all this I also need to do some work on the workshop space. Yesterday I took delivery of a new oxycon (for those who don't know what that is, it's an ex-medical oxygen concentrator that takes oxygen out of the air to help boost the flame I use.) After a few initial problems once I got it up and running I realised just how wheezy the oldest one I use had become, I use two paired together, already I am noticing how much hotter the flame is.

 The other job is also to upgrade the extractor fan as I've never been very happy with how well it works. I already have one part of the new chimney, a 200mm diameter steel pipe and connectors, and  I am just waiting for the fan and final parts. At the same time as installing that I'll take the opportunity to have a bit of a spring clean, put up a few shelves for jars of powered and crushed glass, and maybe even organise some better racking for glass rods.

Somewhere amongst all this I'll be trying to get plenty of new pendants and marbles made for the Expos, Etsy shop and Greenwich stall, plus I have a few sculpture projects I've been wanting to find time to have a go at. They say there is no rest for the wicked, but I certainly don't remember ever being so wicked to have earnt so much to do!

Where's my workbench?

The apple loving demon from 'Deathnote' with friend! Note the girl with an axe strolling past in the background!

Well once again the MCM Expo at the Excel centre was mad, busy, slightly crazy, hard work, stressful, but fun! There were a few more problems this time than May, not helped by it being so packed, but I'm not going to dwell on those because it still remains one of the events we enjoy doing the most! It was ultra packed on Saturday, and I didn't really get a chance to take many pictures, but here are a few to give you a flavour of the event. The Expo's video team were around and about, they even filmed my aliens, so they might appear on the next Expo Youtube trailer! A big thank you to everyone who came and saw us, and thank you to all the lovely comments on facebook, emails and Twitter. I haven't hesitated to book already for the next one in May so we can come and see you all again!

My next problem now is trying to get equipment back to Greenwich, and getting back to normal, along with making new stuff ready for the run up to Xmas! And before the Expo I didn't think I had enough hours in the day!



Getting Aliens ready for the show

I'm slowly running through the lists of things to do as well, so this all means my Etsy shop might have to stay closed a little longer whilst I catch up with myself. However I made many more alien specimens than planned, so I think some of these might be in the shop very soon, and maybe even one or two at Greenwich as well.



Shakey picture of the Aliens, the top picture of 5 Martians shortly afterwards found a new home

Metaloides space lobster framed

Safe here from 'The Walking Dead' This was taken in a nearby bar on Sunday night where we stopped to grab dinner!

Along with all this I have come away wanting to re-visit some ideas I'd not had a chance to play with, and to make some very new products ready for next May and to go into my Etsy shop. One in particular I'd started on a few weeks ago, which got put on hold as I had to put together new stands, organise supplies and so on, I am really keen to get back to. The first trials worked really well, but along with lack of time I have another problem. I can't find my workbench! It's buried under the debris of weeks of pre-event chaos!

When I grow up, I want to be a Mad Scientist

Blue Lobster-Octopus thing.....

As I try to get ready for the next big sci-fi Expo, with one eye on getting ready for xmas too, panic is setting in that I'm not making enough. So as I work later, the music is getting louder and faster! Amongst this I'm playing alot of 'Rob Zombie' and many of the songs have lots of sound dubs from old horror films, all of which takes me back to when I was young, and was allowed to stay up on Friday or Saturday nights to watch horror films - of which I thought at the time the Hammer horrors were the best!

This also reminded me of the great school playground debate of  'what do you want to be when you grow up?' I thought I wanted to be a scientist, but part of me knew that still wasn't quite right.

Different angle of 'Blue Thing'

Modern scientists wear white coats, work in big bright clean laboratories, and work in big teams on complex little bits of science written up in learned publications no-one can understand. I couldn't quite put my finger on it at the time, but I knew that wasn't the type of scientist that I wanted to be. I wanted to be more like my hero's at the time; Peter Cushing or one of the 50's black and white scientists dashing around in the dead of night. I wanted to be the sort of scientist that works in a tweed waistcoat and cravat, whose laboratory is a dark dusty basement of a castle, whose colleague is called 'Igor' and helps dig up supplies from the graveyard next door, and communicates discoveries by wildly shouting 'It's alive! It's aliiiiivvvee!!!!' Yes, I wanted to be a mad scientist.

Body parts or the blue lobster before being grafted onto the body



seroastrumare duotripodes, which means 'two legged star-seaweed' all mounted up ready to go to the Expo

Of course most people don't then grow up to be firemen, policemen etc, and certainly not to be a mad Victorian scientist, and so I went and did more (mostly) sensible things. I guess this is what drew me originally to the SteamPunk genre, but it's only now that I am starting to really fulfil my childhood ambitions of creating insane creatures.



A new Red Star Spiral
 

 I do indeed have frock coat, cravat, waistcoat etc, but tend not to wear them whilst working as they are rather hot to work in! However if I was in a draughty farmhouse, castle, lighthouse, windmill etc, then it might well be worth me taking that up as work attire. Of course, what I really lack right now, is an abandoned castle/lighthouse/farmhouse/windmill to continue my experiments creating life from glass, re-creating creatures that may have swum alien seas or ancient Martian canals.

Queue mad laughter.... a sneak preview of some new limbs I have made for an even larger, even madder creation...
 

So, if you have a property that matches this description, ideally in Suffolk or North Essex, and it's at a very, very, very low rent, then I'd be delighted to hear from you! Of course if it's not too close to any villages with pitchfork totting locals who could rally into a lynch mob that would be even better.....

Isolated lighthouse at Orford Ness, an ideal location?