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!

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.

Real-life SteamPunk For Dangerous Ladies

I can't think of anything more Steampunk than these! They are beautifully made antiques, with plush boxes, and one even has decorative motifs cut into the side. They are wearable, and gadgets with a real use even though not a very nice one!

I am not sure who would want to wear a revolver as a ring, but seeing the recent fashion for Steampunk's wearing all manor of pistols and ray-guns I am sure this will inspire someone to create a non-lethal version! Many thanks to Alain of www.littlegun.be for his kind permission for sharing his pictures of these wonderful antique with you.

Yes, they are real revolvers! The first one was made in London in 1870, and the box says it all! Mind you, can you see many blokes loading those fiddly but -oh-so-cute!!!! little bullets?! I am not sure if the recoil would do more damage to the wearer rather than the victim, but then would you cross anyone who wore a loaded gun on her finger? They do say the female is more deadlier than the male, and here we have proof of that! This first one even has seven shots rather than six!!!

Alain has pictures of two others, one is called 'Le Petit Protector,' and another more decorative one is unnamed. He has loads more curios on his site too if you want more crazy Victorian gun inspiration - even a miniature canon that fires at midday by being triggered from a lens on a sundial!!

Oxygen

I was about to reply to a comment left by Ephemera to last weeks blog, but it started me thinking about the different ways creative people need to ‘fill the well’ of creativity.

For writers, although they claim to need a log cabin in the mountains to complete their work, when what they really thrive on is life. That constant being out there, milling with people, having new experiences, and the discipline of routine to keep their lives and mind in order (and I live with one, so I know how disorganised they can be without a routine!) It is all this experiences and people they meet that both keep their feet on the ground whilst providing the back of their heads with new ideas and characters; it is what fills their wells.

For people like me visual language is more important, which I think is why we suffer the daily grind rather than revelling in it; unless luckily already employed in a creative career, which then we would unlikely be compelled to branch out into our own workshops and studios. For us the routine of seeing the same faces on the same trains, in the same offices, sat at the same screens, becomes the slow death of the artist. We turn inwards and more often than not it’s self-esteem that suffers first ‘if I was a better artist, I wouldn’t be here,’ and so the slow rot begins…

So last weekend we went off for a day at the seaside, Walton-on-the-Naze, which is a lovely bit of crumbling coastline just beyond the bucket & spade hell (for me) of Clacton. The railways bus-replacement service turned it instead into a surprisingly enjoyable adventure as we got the slow route drive around country lanes and villages we’d normally speed though on the trains. A big plate of fish & chips, walk along beach to the Naze tower, and then back home. I didn’t feel like it had blown the cobwebs entirely away, but certainly felt like I’d been away for a week, not a day.

However to combat the daily grind, which has been rather more oppressive than usual, I have taken the rare step of taking an entire week off rather than just an odd day here and there. I also raided the piggy bank and finally invested in a much needed 2nd oxycon unit. These are a great alternative to oxygen tanks, which although they produce a better flame they are very expensive and dangerous to have around. Oxycons take oxygen from the air and condense it, not as pure but it means when they are turned off there is hardly any compressed oxygen in them so they are safe! Here is a picture of my current one, I shall take some time to also tidy the workshop and find a new home for the second one. This will allow me more control over the colours in boro, when there is not enough oxygen in the flame, the flame ‘steals’ oxygen from the hot glass making some colours turn muddy and even change colour! I have one lovely metallic black that each time I’ve tried using it, it’s gone cream instead! I am looking forward to making some marbles with that one in it’s true colour soon, plus a few other very special new bits of glass I am still awaiting from USA; more in another post about those soon ;-)