Taking Bigfoot Golfing, Retro Image Thingies and other Potential Oddities

Taking Bigfoot Golfing

Well, having been through a mini frenzy of making odd, not really jewellery - not really anything else, type things involving model railway figures etc, I have stopped to take a breath and have a think about what and where it is all going, and if indeed it has to 'go' anywhere anyway. . .

Blue Bear says 'Hi'

As you probably noticed, the background images I have been using are rather wonderful, out of register, retro graphics of the cheap, far eastern variety. These ones date from around the nineteen sixties and are taken from some Japanese made water transfer sets I acquired from an Ebay source. I think they are beautiful in their unpretentious simplicity and depiction of various, often western (some are of cowboys, so the word Western is apt) cultural artifacts as seen through the lens of another culture and Art tradition etc. I don't imagine that they were ever intended to be admired as artworks as such, and probably you think I am nuts to love them so much ;-) Yeah, well. . .

A Bad Guy brooch

I've been trying to see how they want to be used. I tried putting them together with electronic components and upcycled wire grids and the like, which worked OK, but it felt like I was doing the same old thing that I do with my digital abstract images, without getting a feel for how these new images work with other materials. 

They are nice on their own as simple brooches or buttons, or just as image tile drops with a single hole at the top, but I can't help feeling there is something else I can do with them. I'll get there, I just need to give it time and space to emerge. . .

More Bad Guys

Godzilla or somesuch

TrainDeer

Pairing them with little plastic animals from the same source has some promise, as does using the little animals on their own with other bits and pieces. Sort of surreal dioramas or scenes can be constructed with their own weird stories or non-stories. . . hmmm. . .

I'll continue to mull this over, meanwhile making various beads and such. I'll let you know how I get on. .

cheers, 

Jon x

Blog Neglect Hits new Heights, Ideas are Everywhere, Including the Strange Case of The Mirrors and The Guinea Fowl,

The New Year's Eve gig we played at our local pub had a masked theme, so I spent a happy half hour knocking up this fake primitive mask out of some packaging I had lying around and some acrylic paints. I couldn't really see to play while wearing it, so it didn't stay on long ;-)

Well, first things first - Happy New Year!

May it be full of love, light and creativity and all that stuff. . .

I have been pretty busy with all sorts of things over the last month or two, and as a consequence, not really in the mind set to write blog posts. When you are busy, some things have to be put aside, and as blog posts are a kind of ephemeral extra, they tend to be victim number one.

Victim number two, though by no means an ephemeral extra, has been bead making. I took the opportunity to take a break, as cramming in the the odd hour or two in my workshop, between serious DIY and catering for Xmas guests is not really useful or satisfying.
A break meant that I could take stock and do the New Year thing of taking a step back and looking at where I am and what direction I might take next. This break also meant sacrificing a couple of week's potential earnings, but you can't make the proverbial omelette without breaking eggs. . . Well, you could try, but it wouldn't be any entirely sane person's idea of an omelette really. . .

Some of the serious DIY I have been busy with. Faux panelling with corbels and bits. The right hand door has since been replaced and stained etc, and the wall behind the clock is a gingery dark brown. Very cozy and old looking.

So here I am, somewhat shamefacedly blogging again. Thank you for your patience ;-)

As you may have noticed over the months, my work often goes off on tangents, triggered by something I just discovered by accident, or just came across in the course of day to day life. Sometimes a process, sometimes an object or type of material. I have developed an instinct for noticing potentially useful happy accidents, and due to the positive response I get, the confidence to pursue them further.

Mirror shard, poly clay backing, blue alcohol ink, copper bail

So when I accidentally broke the mirror we had put out in the garden for the Guinea Fowl it triggered an idea. . .
Wait a minute, you put out a what?
It's a bit of a long story, but I will be as concise as I can.

We have two guinea fowl which potter about our large garden and the surrounding area, including neighbour's gardens. Everyone seems OK with this as they are harmless and quite amusing to watch if not to listen to (!).

Everyone that is except our immediate neighbour who was a touch upset by their habit of pecking at his patio doors and leaving a bit of a mess on his doorstep from time to time. Was there anything we could do about this, he wondered.

Well, other than having a quiet word with them, which wasn't an entirely serious idea, or getting rid of them, which was out of the question, we couldn't really come up with anything. So we did a bit of research.

Guinea Fowl are social creatures and live in quite large flocks in the wild, so we wondered if the reason they were hanging out by, and pecking at the windows was because seeing their reflections made them think they were amongst other Guineas.
So as an experiment we put a couple of spare mirrors we happened to have left over from our house move, out in the garden.
This did seem to get their attention, and they did spend time in front of the mirrors so we hoped for the best.
The neighbour hasn't complained since, but he has found a new partner recently, which might have mellowed him out a bit ;-)
(he looks after two boys in their early teens on his own, which must be a bit stressful)

So crossing fingers, that has amicably solved that little issue.

Not easy to photograph any of these mirror thingies. . . The copper came out looking a bit brassy in this pic

Now, to the happy accident part.

One of the mirrors was leant against our household compost bin. This bin is rather full and the seams are opening up somewhat. It needs emptying but I figured a well aimed kick might help close it up a bit. Only it wasn't a well aimed kick, it caught the mirror and smashed it to bits. (it was cracked already to be fair, so I didn't claim my 13 years bad luck). I was on my way to the waste bin with said bits when I had a 'Hmmm. . I wonder.  ." moment and headed for my workshop instead.



A mirror is basically a sheet of glass with silver nitrate on the back, so, I figured, that backing could be scraped off in such a way as to make interesting patterns. I carefully broke off some small bits of mirror and reached for the Dremel and the grinding bits.
It worked quite well, (I quickly realised I should wear a face mask as inhaling fine glass dust is not such a great idea.) so I made a few drops/charms using this technique. Extending the process to involve polymer clay backing, both coloured and non coloured.

I'm enjoying these little 'man' motifs. Kind of petroglyph - ish ;-)

So there you have it, how Guinea Fowl related disruption can lead to creative innovation of a modest kind ;-)
Which supports my long held belief that the wonder of life has a lot to do with it's random and absurd moments. . .
Until next time, which will not involve a wait as long as the last time,
Cheerio
Jon x

They combine nicely with other objects, so you may see more of this sort of thing in the next few months

How Rough and Distressed Can You Stand? More Biscuit Stuff and Actual Shards. . .

Click the pic the visit my shop

Well, I've been experimenting again ;-) This time using 'the other' way of transferring images. Namely, using Kato Clear Liquid polymer clay and a heat gun. 

The interesting thing was that I could transfer directly onto the wood rather than a polymer clay shape. 

(see my last post for an explanation of what these wood shapes actually are)

The other interesting thing is that using this method you don't have to have laser prints, you can use inkjet prints, even on photo paper.

For the charms/beads in the images above and below I deliberately went for a rough, distressed look. I split the wooden 'biscuit' twice, to get a splintered texture on both sides. They are three ply so this is possible, if finicky to achieve. I splurged a bit of Kato Clear on one side, squashed the image down onto that then blasted it with the heat gun for about 20/30 seconds, or until the paper started to go brown and before the wood started to singe. . .

Click the pic the visit my shop

Then I dropped them in water to make the paper easier to scrape off the baked Kato. (the image is transferred onto the thin layer of Kato clear, not the wood base) This was a bit problematic as the Kato started to peel off the wet wood. I let it dry somewhat and then stuck it down with gorilla glue. You may want to wet the paper in a more gradual way, trying not to soak the wood. Lesson learned.

I then painted the wood with alcohol inks diluted with rubbing alcohol to add a subtle tint to it. The backs were painted with alcohol inks or acrylic paint. I varnished them, more to protect the wood than the Kato, as Kato is very tough. Below are some 'half biscuits' I made using the same technique. And the same pattern. . .

Seriously rough and battered looking, especially the ones at the top of this post. Too rough for public consumption? A niche market for sure ;-)
Also the top ones are extremely light weight, not sure if this is a good thing or not. I would probably make a polymer clay backing sheet another time, to add a touch more weight. . . dunno. . .

Click the pic the visit my shop

The ones below are polymer clay fronted, normal image trans method half biscuits, with a cool organic distressed looking image on them, which was of course further distressed by me. . .

Click the pic the visit my shop

I also made some earring charms from actual shards, gasp! Not faux ceramic, but the real thing. I broke one of my image transferred tiles (more about them in my next post), and decided to try filing down and drilling a couple of the resulting shards to see if they might work as earring charms or some such. I think they look pretty good.

Click the pic the visit my shop

Kittens? What kittens? ;-) Oh, you mean those ones. . 

Well we have introduced them to the outside world, insofar as our garden counts as the outside world. They have had fun, strictly supervised of course, prowling through the herbaceous border and running madly after each other in that patented kitten way that they have. They had calmed down a bit when I took the pic. Not for long, mind.

The guinea fowl continue to fascinate. The fascination was mutual actually. The scale is deceptive in the pic as the kitten is smaller than he looks and the guineas are larger. 

It all ended amicably with a mutual orderly retreat. Albeit with some less than melodious sound effects from the guineas. . .

In other news, DIY continues apace but i will spare you the WIP pics for now. I was turned down by Norfolk Craft Soc (humph!) but will (probably) try showing my stuff to some local galleries/shops to see what they reckon. Research is needed.

Anyway, until the next time,

cheers, Jon x

White Point mutterings, a Cool Cutter Set and a small Varnish Revelation. . . Oh, and NEW SHOP!

The image is also a link. . .

Well, the exciting news first. . . Vic, from up the road fixed my lawn mower. . .

Yeah, OK, that's not really the exciting news, though it did mean that I could finish my assault on the nettles and knee high grass in the orchard. . .

No, the potentially exciting news is that I have started up a new shop at another selling venue!
My ingratitude for the special gift of invisibility bestowed upon my shop by Etsy knows no bounds. ;-)

The images all link to the relevant page in my new shop. . .

I did a bit of research and found a site that is reasonably cheap per month, has no listing fees or sales fees, has usable themes, has the ability to import Etsy listings and link to them etc, and has good and quick customer support (unlike Etsy).
It has very little traffic of it's own, but I figure that if I am going to get stuck into generating my own traffic, I may as well point it to my own standalone shop rather than the train wreck (imho) that Etsy (especially Etsy Studio) seems to be set on becoming.

Except this one hasn't been listed yet. . .

So I have spent long hours working my way through the 300 or so listings I imported into my new shop, tweaking the seo and taking out any etsy links etc. I am about half way through the process so I think I am ready to share what I have been doing with a hopefully sympathetic audience. The site I chose is called 'Indiemade' and has been set up with sellers of handmade stuff in mind.

https://jbdrusticorganic.indiemade.com/store    is the link to my new shop.

Please feel free to check it out. If you feel moved to let me know what you think, don't let me stop you. Anything that bothers you about it, or that is confusing, please give me the benefit of your opinion. Many thanks x Meanwhile I shall continue the tweaking. BTW, all my newer stuff is on there, and at least most of the pics on this post are all linked to those items in my shop. Efficient or what? Phew. . .

Pic is a link as before. . .

So, on to the mutterings. . .
I've been having trouble getting my photos consistent between my camera and my computer. I am setting the white point manually, so that the different colours of the beads I am photographing don't affect each pic differently, but however close I get the colours on my camera screen, the exposure and white point seem way off on my computer. At least they are fairly consistently way off, so I can bring them back in Pshop to a certain extent, but it is a bit of a pain. The monitor is calibrated and all that so I am not quite sure what I am doing wrong if anything. Never mind, just moaning, I'll sort it, ignore,

And this one. . .

As you may be able to tell from the photos sprinkled lovingly throughout this post, I have bought a set of interesting shaped cutters. They are meant for working with leather, but are great for polymer clay. They come in sets of 26 or so and can be found on the usual big online venues for around ten pounds.

This one too. . .

So far I have just used them to make relatively crisp and clean image transfer charm type things, but I will explore further, texturing and distressing and all that.

And of course, this one. . .

My small Varnish Revelation is only a personal revelation, as most sensible people would have worked it out ages ago. . . I started applying Varathene varnish before baking! gasp! It does brighten up the resulting image a bit and seems to prevent any fading during baking. Obviously, the down side is that any distressing of said beads after baking might be harder. I haven't tested this yet, but I will in due course.

Aye well, it's all a learning curve,

Cheers,
Jon x

Bees down the Chimney, and Image Transfer Fun

I have known for a month or two that there was some sort of bee/wasp activity up at the top of our chimney stack. You can see them weaving about in that particular way they have when coming in to land, as it were. About ten or twenty weaving around at any one time. I was hoping it wasn't wasps, as they would make their presence felt around the fruit trees and around our outside dining table a bit too much. And that many wasps coming and going would mean a very big nest. As we were relatively undisturbed by wasps I guessed it was bees. No problem, I like bees. They don't bother us and we don't bother them. Live and let live etc etc.
So I didn't put two and two together when for the past four or five mornings I have found six or seven, very soporific and sad bees in our living room, crawling around the french windows to the garden. I was puzzled. I couldn't work out how they would have got in from outside as they weren't there when I shut the doors up at night. I couldn't locate anywhere in the floor or wall or skirting board etc where they might have come from. Odd. . .
Then my wife heard a faint buzzing coming from the wood burner. Mystery solved. . .
Our chimney is lined. It has a metal tube all the way down it which ends in the back of the wood burner, which is not in use yet and the doors firmly shut. The rest of the chimney space is filled with that insulating foam stuff (I think). I guess one or two bees fly into the top of the tube and fly or fall down all the way to the back or wood burner. From there they manage to find a way out and make a break for the french windows. Not sure what bees do in the winter, but I won't open that door until the weather gets colder just in case.
We should try to dissuade them from nesting up there really. Not least because we need some remedial work done on the flashing round that particular chimney stack, and I don't think a roofer would want to risk disturbing them. I shall consult our friend who keeps bees, he will have some advice I hope.

Anyway, bee issues aside, I have been forging ahead on the bead front. Trying to get image transfers to stop being sticky for long enough to handle them without smudging and getting the ink transferring to my fingers. . . I think I have solved it. I managed to wrap images round a round bead without smudging. Seams were another issue, but there are ways round them too, which I am exploring. I want to make a short tutorial on image transfers and what to do with them. Or at least take you through what I do with them to get the look I get. If I mention it here I might feel honour bound to actually do it. . . ;-)

So I have made a series of image transfer tube beads using somewhat more complex and random digital images of mine. They have turned out quite nicely, allowing that the relative neatness takes some getting used to for me. Never fear, the compulsion to grunge things up is never far away. I just want to know how neat the process can be. That gives me options. I like options. . .
'til next time,
Jon x

Do you like scr - scr - scratching?

Apologies to A Tribe Called Quest for the title. (I think that's who it was. It was a while ago. I feel old now. Actually I felt old anyway. . . ;-)   )
In my search for the authentically rustic, if such a thing really exists, I like to go really simple. What is one of the most basic ways of getting a design onto a bead? Yup, scratching it into the surface, that's what. I have messed around previously with this process, but with limited success. I scratched a design onto a a bead that had been covered in black gilder's paste, which looked nice, white design on black, but didn't like renaissance wax being added to the mix. Gilder's paste and ren wax don't get on, the wax takes the paste off unless you apply it oh so carefully.
Actually, the ones pictured below were unwaxed. Embarrassingly, the gilder's paste on it's own was not very robust, as I found out after having sold some. (Sorry Claire, lesson learned. .) This was a good while ago I have to say.

 So I tried scratching a design onto baked white clay, and then filling the scratches in with black ink or wax or whatever. I found that scratching into white clay with my trusty craft knife blade thingy, (one of those snap off multiple times ones, you know. . .) that I found it hard to see what I had been doing, being white on white and all. Painting the bead with dilute alcohol ink first helped to show what was scratched and unscratched, so I did that. I tried a few ways of filling the scratches with black. First, oil pastel, rubbed into the scratches, then 'fixed' with a heat gun. I thought it might melt into the scratches, but it didn't do it very well. I sanded the excess off to reveal the scratches and sealed with ren wax. Ren wax hates oil pastel too so things got a bit smeary. I tried black chinagraph pencil, as I had found a box of them for £1 in a local charity shop the week before. Same result really, only ren wax really hates chinagraph pencil.
What I did was to make use of the ren wax's tendency to dissolve gilder's paste, and apply g paste fairly generously, then use ren wax to on top and rub the resulting black stuff into the scratches. Then let it dry and sand off the excess. Ren wax on top was fine if applied fairly quickly without rubbing too much.
In hindsight, the easiest way might be to use black alcohol ink and sand off the excess. Ren wax is OK with alc ink, not best friends but ok. In future I will also try black acrylic paint or acrylic ink I think. Anything black that gets into the scratches will do the job though.

You could use dark brown alc ink, as in the examples above, and then paint with a lighter colour.

I like the result, only I worry that they are on the verge of looking less like arty 'primitive' beads, than ones that have been attacked by a ham fisted eight year old with attitude. Are they too 'crude'? They could be done with more 'care' but I am not sure that is the point of them. Their crudeness and simplicity 'should' be what gives them their charm. I may be wrong though. What you guys fink?
Jon x

Well, Christmas and New Year and stuff got in the way didn't it?

Kind of a long time between posts I know. But never fear, I am still here. Large as life and twice as ugly, as the saying goes, though of course that saying is referring to somebody very unlike me, oh yes.
Anyway, I hope you had a good holiday season and a good new year. Mine was nice. Three F's - Food, Friends and Family.
It was particularly hard to get back into the swing of things this new year for some reason. Christmas being on a weekend, and the new year tying up the next weekend didn't help. But I am back in a modified form of 'work mode' now and have been making stuff.
Despite previously talking about not making loads of beads, and instead, making some jewellery pieces, I have been making loads of beads. . . Yeah, well, I am going to follow my inclination in 2016 and let the second guessing and planning go hang. I am 'following the fascination' after all. Of course my inclination might change, and I might want to actually do the second guessing and planning thing, but only if I feel like it and it feels good.
I am lucky in that I am not making beads and jewellery as a way of making a living. I would like to increase the amount it makes me but it is only part of my (modest) income stream so I can play the self indulgent artist with a bit more freedom than some. And anyway, a lot of advice out there urges artists to please themselves before trying to please others, and that way attract a genuinely interested audience. I can see the logic there. The basic drawback being the hows and wherefores of attracting said audience. 'Marketing' I think it is called. I find it hard to raise my feelings about marketing above 'necessary evil' status I'm afraid, but I shall keep trying. There has to be a way that suits who I am better than bugging people on FB etc.
OK, so where are the pics of these beads I have been making? thought you'd never ask.
Here you go.

Image trans beads made from bits of digital image transfers rolled round a baked core.

Printed tube beads, using inks and my digital image texture sheets plus some alc ink.

These look like sweets but are entirely inedible. image trans patterns applied on chunky beads with a bloomin great hole in the middle. Kato Clear liquid as a varnish. Faux ceramic humbugs.

On the other hand. . .

Despite what I said in my last post, about just making what I like when I feel like it and what the hell coz I'm a Nar-tist! . . . I think I have reached a certain saturation point with the little squares.

They are very cool, and have a myriad of uses, hence all the cufflinks and earrings I've been making. But I am in danger of churning them out if I am not careful, and anyway, I have now got 50 earrings listed in my shop, which is enough to be going on with I think.
I have sold some, but I have been overcompensating I reckon, so no more earrings for a bit. though, that said, if I get a cool idea I might do a U turn on that, but I shall try to avoid little squares, exquisite little things as they may be.

I shall turn my attention to more organic, rustic stuff. Probably. Different sorts of beads and maybe a bracelet or two as that is something I haven't tried yet. Maybe some more complex, weirder stuff if the spirit moves. Upcycle some bits and pieces perhaps. . . Not short of scope or ideas round here anyway.

August has been pretty good sales wise, and I have even sold some prints in my other shop, which was pleasing. I need to turn my attention that way too. To my prints, and my tiles and coaster designs. Knock out some more of them, as they do sell in their own slow way. Plenty of scope to big them up a bit and stick them on pinterest etc more often.

Ay well, onwards and upwards and they say.