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!

Birmingham, here we come! (What have I forgotten to pack?)

Well, it's been months in the planning, and then lots of last minute running around and I am still wondering what I've forgotten! It's the Birmingham MCM Comic-con this weekend, and not only the first big event of the year for me, but also the first time I've ever done this show so am not sure what to expect! Hopefully it'll all be good things, and if it's anything like the London show it'll be full of amazing outfits and really lovely people to chat too! I've got some really nice new large marbles, plus new Aliens Specimen pictures too! OH (Other Half) is on hand again to help out on the stall, and in return I've promised her a trip(s) to some of Birmingham's legendary Balti houses! Yum! As you can see from this quick snap everything is packed (I hope), I guess I've either forgotten something as it feels like this time we've got less to take, I think I've got better at packing!

 I can't wait, although I am still wondering what I've forgotten.

Ah, just remembered..... clothes, toothbrush..... I haven't packed my suitcase yet!

T-Minus 8 days... and counting...

In a few days I'll temporarily close my Etsy shop (so if you have you're eye on anything please grab it before next Monday!) as we're off to Birmingham for the MCM Comic-con & Memorabilia Expo at the NEC on 16-17th March. This is the first time I've been at this event, so not sure what to expect - appart from the chance to get a really good Balti curry of course!

New test alien lifeform

What is familiar is the impending chaos and worry I haven't got/done/made something, even this quick shot shows how I'm already getting burried under boxes and bits. As it was, I was going to write this blog a few days ago, and not had a chance to until this morning.

Somewhere, I put it down here somewhere....

 Quite a few things have had to go on hold, including inventing new Aliens, however I couldn't resist the chance to show you this little fellow. He needs a little more work, as this was a test piece, then a few more to keep him company and then a nice rock to mount the colony on. I'd imagine he's a sea urchin, the tendrils ontop will have stinging points to catch any unwary alien fish, and grip onto rocks on the shoreline. I have been rather inspired after seeing a post about the Cambrian explosion of life, http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/18/weird-youth-animal-kingdom/ . This was a weird period when nature threw some very odd creatures together, it seems however strange some of my alien fauna and flora are, nature has got there before me with some really strange strangeness!

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!