Shells!

I received the following today from my friend TS’s husband…

Shells!

Lots of spent shotgun cartridges, all with lovely clean brass ends.   So, what to do with them now!?

I’ve a few ideas so far (attractive end caps to 22mm copper pipe, buttons on a steampunk keyboards, etc,e tc) but I’d welcome any alternatives from people out there!?

Please post me some comments… I’ll post up the best/most unusual. . .

New guitar stand (for 70p!)

Here’s a new stand I’ve just made for my acoustic guitar – and for the grand sum of only 70 UK pence!:

New guitar stand!

Does anyone know the discount outlet chain of TK Maxx – I always think of it like a super-sized jumble sale that has no admission charge! Anyway, in my local branch there is an end-of-sale-sale, ie the time when they get rid of all the old rubbish that no one normal would ever buy! Lurking at the bottom of one of these sale bins was the following – I’ve no idea what it is but suspect it was either part of a magazine rack, or something to rest  fire irons on/in. All I know is that it’s made from a good heavy iron, and had a price tag of only 70p!:

Original unknown item?

Taking it straight home, I realised that the ‘gutter’ of the bottom section was just the right width to fit my acoustic guitar (which is always falling over as I tend to simply prop it up against the nearest chair, table, door or pet !). Since the battered old thing is my pride and joy (and pretty much irreplaceable these day) this has always seemed a pretty crazy way of behaving.

To fashion this unknown item into a fancy new guitar stand for my beloved acoustic, I cut some slots in each long upright (to facilitate the slight bending back of the upright struts) and making a third stabilising leg to support the resulting shift in weight balance out of an old 90 degree shelf bracket and (as always) a cut down drill bit. All welded together, I think the whole thing only took me about an hour at max… Here are some photos of work in progress:

Upright struts having been cut half way through and bent back

New elements welded in place prior to painting

Close-up of split electrical cable used as padding/protection

A coat of black spray paint, the addition of some soft pads here and there and some split electric cable on the bottom struts to act as cushioning/protection and, voila!!

Very satisfying. . . here it is in use (in testing phase):

Stand in use (back)

Stand in use (front)

Kent ’sound sculptor’ unveils ’sharpsichord’

Check out this fascinating story re Kent sound sculptor Henry Dagg:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/8481926.stm

Seems he was commissioned to make the piece in 2006 – it’s taken four years to make, and it can so far only play two tunes!! And I think it takes me a long time to accomplish anything… OHG! A wonderful piece of engineering / art of course – amazing!

BBC News - Kent _sound sculptor_ unveils _sharpsichord

New Occasional Table (Number 3)

Here’s a little something I recently made for SR as a Christmas present:

Occasional Table Number 3

It’s made from my old stalwarts (discarded long drill bits) welded together to form the frame, with a top made from a stoneware floor tile. It’s quite a solid little piece – I had to use a lot of struts in the design as the tile is pretty heavy.

I painted it a primer red colour this time (usually I stick to black) to match the decor of the room it was made for in.

I have to say that it went down very well, and does its job as a place to put the tea, biscuits and the occasional use as a foot rest pretty efficiently!

(see the birth of my Occasional Table fixation here…)

A fantastic read (if you like biographies, guitars and cars!)

I recently acquired a copy of the following book about Billy Gibbons, the famous ZZ Top frontman. Well known for his crazy beard and general rock ‘n’ roll leanings,  he is less well-known for his love of amazing custom guitars and good design in general (hot-rodded cars are his other love, seemingly).

The general tone – from numerous quotes by a range of people interviewed for the book – is that he is a true artist, in whatever field he cares to indulge. . .

Rock and Roll Gearhead

The book is a fabulous coffee-table style thing, full of things biographical in nature, rock trivia and wonderful photographs. I’m less interested in the car side of the book, but the guitars are items of rare beauty. Here are some taster photos, but I really recommend you just go out and buy it (it seems to be incredibly cheap on Amazon for some reason at the moment!?)

a sample of the guitar pages

Paris Steampunk Diary Part 1

Just before Christmas I spent a couple of frenetic days in wonderful Paris. Trusty camera in hand, I found the following things of interest . . . (I meant to post these ages ago but got a bit waylaid!)

Iin getting from Gare Du Nord to the hotel, the very first metro station I had to change at was the fabulous Arts et Métier. Imagine my amazement at getting off to instantly find myself in a fully steampunked station! Designed by the famous Belgian comic book artist François Schuiten, it’s a fascinating place to stand and wait for a train! My pictures don’t do it any justice at all (the lighting in there is obviously not great for taking photos!) but hopefully the below give at least a partial impression:

Station sign

Along the platform

gears!

What's through the round window?

There, I fixed it!

I came across this wonderful ‘DIY’ blog the other day: http://thereifixedit.com/

There, I fixed it

The reason I put DIY in inverted commas becomes evident when one visits the site – it is actually a collection of the most amazingly bad examples of DIY / jury rigged solutions to common problems, what in the UK we would probably call ‘bodges’ but on this site they call ‘Kludges’. A kludge is defined as follows:

Kludge – An ill-assorted collection of poorly matching parts, forming a distressing whole.

Have a look and see – I guarantee you will be addicted in no time!

Top card. . .

I received many great greetings cards over both Xmas and my birthday this year.

Here’s one of my favs- from the excellent Hazel Bee company:

Hazel Bee card

I loved the shamed look on the recorder player’s face – I think it’s how I look when I tell people I play folk music!!

Happy New Year 2010. . .

A Happy New Year to everyone!

Having survived yet another New Year (not my favourite time of year to be honest, although I had a really lovely time in the amazing Cobblestone pub in Dublin, drinking Guinness and champagne, meeting some lovely locals whilst listening to a great traditional music session) life is slowly returning to normal. . .

This is despite it still being deep in snow here in the UK - all very pretty, but I think we are all getting a bit fed up of the general inconvenience!

As always I have made lots of NY resolutions, most of which will probably remain un-realised. However, armed with the following gifts to help me along the way (a single malt and some chocolate tools!) I’m hoping it proves to be a successful and fulfilling year to come  for us all:

Essential supplies for 2010!

Happy Christmas to all!

Well, it’s been a long, interesting and (at times!) challenging year!

I’ve really enjoyed the second year of my blog – it’s been great receiving the comments and feedback from you all out there…

Season’s Greeting to you all, and here’s to a peaceful 2010…

Happy Christmas!!