Steampunk Works In Progress (WIPs). . .

Someone wrote to me a little while ago and asked, in no uncertain terms, why I’d not made/posted any steampunky things lately!?

I’ve actually been working really hard on several items but (as anyone who makes these things will tell you!) they often take quite a long time to build, particularly when there is a high found-item quotient in the work, and one is reliant on ‘fate’ to provide just the right component.

Anyway, here are some ‘work in progress’ shots of three items currently in production. They are all very nearly completed, although I’m having great difficultly taking good photos of them to show them in their full glory (I’m addressing currently this issue and hoping to enlist the  help of my talented photographic friend PB to get some better ones).

Firstly is my Steampunk Carrying Case, which is an attractive yet functional case for holding/transporting some musical equipment – I’ve got lots of WIP building shots of this project which will go up on the trusty Flikr site when the whole thing is done:

Steampunk Carrying Case

Next is a snapshot of a new steapunk wall light, made from lots of my favourite material, copper tubing. This is a really interesting piece that folds flat to the wall, yet swings out as a reading lamp over my window seat. Hard to describe and incredibly hard to photograph, I hope to have a full post written on this item very soon:

Steampunk wall lamp

Last but not least is a floor-standing ‘tap’ lamp, made from lots of copper tubing again and a brass tap arrangement found in a skip. This has an aged-appearance, the details of which again will take a bit of explanation. It stands taller than me (and I’m six foot five!) so is quite an impressive piece, but again a nightmare to fit in a photographic view finder:

Steampunk 'tap' lamp

So, as you can see I’ve not been sitting around idly, and I promise to finish them asap and write complete posts asap. Thanks to the person for chasing me up – you know who you are!!

Shed of the Year votes are in. . .

The results of the public voting for Shed of the Year 2009 are now in!

I’m sad to say I did not win, but was delighted to come in the top 5 for my category (workshops) – a huge thanks to everyone I harangued into voting for me, and also to those who just did it when they came across the shed on the site.

I am glad to say that the category was won by the excellent Workshopshed however, owned by Andy with whom I regularly correspond about workshop-type stuff – many congratulations and just wait until next year, Andy!

Here are the listings for the category – more general information can be found on the Shedblog site.

Workshop – a strong category for the serious sheddie

• Workshopshed, Andy, London (winner)
• Fred’s Shed Fred Spaven,Yorkshire,
• Mazzy’s Mosaic, Marianne Andrews, Cholsey, Nr Wallingford, Oxford
• The SHED, Chuck Witmer, Silver Spring, MD USA
• Clivey’s Shed, St Albans

Washboard Addition. . .

Anyone who read this old post on my washboard renovation project, will recall that I was looking for an additional bell/chime/noisy thing to add to the right hand side of the frame and balance out the two existing bells on the left side.

Lo and behold, just round the corner from my house, I found the following lying in the road – I think it’s a small cycle bell, but it may be a metal cover from an engine bolt? Whatever, it’s just the right size and makes a pleasingly different bell sound from the existing two. A quick clean, a coat of black spray paint and voilà:

Found bell

And here it is, screwed into place (there is a small rubber pad between the frame and the bell itself to just help it ring out when struck):

New bell added in place

New candlestick – ‘The Rocket’

Here’s my latest candlestick creation. It’s made from the chopped-off base and legs from an old circular table (found in a skip, of course!) and a rusty metal ring for the candle holder itself.

Here’s a work-in-progress shot, with the items simply placed together to see how the various elements look/fit. . .

'Rocket' candlestick in progress

. . . and here is the final version, in its stained and varnished form (following the removal by paint stripper of the old scuffed varnish). The metal ring has a coat of spray varnish to protect it and stop the finish rubbing off onto the candle etc. As ever, the trusty mobile is there for scale.

'Rocket' candlestick finished

I’m quite pleased with it – it fits well with the other stuff I’ve being doing lately.

Occasional Table Number 2

So here’s Number 2 in the Occasional Table series! (see here for Part 1 and a general explanation). 

I like this piece for two reason – firstly it’s slightly larger than any of the others (good for when a rabble comes round for tea!) and secondly that, when not needed, it comes apart, folds flat, and is stowed cunningly away by hanging it on the back of the living room door – genius!

It’s also made entirely from skip finds. The folding metal legs came out completely intact from a local skip, the top is a piece of nicely figured plywood from another (stained with some walnut wood stain and a couple of coats of Danish oil) and finally edged with some strips of galvanised metal taken from a discarded wine rack (painted black and nailed around the edge of the plywood to form a slight lip)

The top is secured in place to the legs by means of four screws, the heads of which slip through holes that were already drilled in the top of the legs. As an added security measure, I have put four flat magnets (which look like washers, complete with countersunk holes for fixing) which cam from an old pull-up advertising banner. They are surprisingly strong and help hold the top in place.

There is also an old picture hook on the underside of the top that allows it to be hung on the back of the door – the legs are hung up by means of two brackets, permanently affixed to the door itself

Here are some (not very good!) photos :

Occasional Table No2, mobile phone for scale

Occasional Table No2 deconstructed

Folded away and hung on the back of the door

Last chance to vote for my shed!!

Public Voting for Shed of the Year 2009 ends this Sunday June the 21st at midnight!! I am sure you have all voted for ME, but if not, please visit the link here!!

Vote for Shed of the Year 2009

View the original post about the Competition here >>

New Folk Festival website

For a few years now I’ve been involved with helping do the publicity for my local folk festival. This year the print design work has been done by our local Council, so instead I got asked to design a website for the event. It’s now live, and at the following address >>

St Albans Folk at the Festival website

It needs a bit of development here and there, but I hope the format will allow it to evolve into an informative and usable site over the next couple of years.

My first Moleskine. . .

I’ve just been given my first Moleskine notebook (by my friend TS , who says I never mention her in my Blog posts!) and I must say it’s every bit as good as the adverts / general consensus seems to indicate.. . .

‘the legendary notebook of Van Gogh, Chatwin, Hemingway, Matisse and Céline’

. . .as the blurb goes.

My first Moleskine

Check out the excellent Moleskine websites here >> and here >> – it’s amazing the range of product they produce and what people do with them around the world!

However, I am now suffering from ‘the fear of blank canvas’ feeling, so well known by artists throughout time. What should I use my shiny new notebook for? I have a feeling it should be something more monumentous that a mere shopping list repository – I do have a secret project in mind, so maybe this should be recorded and documented?

Who knows, stay tuned and I’ll post up what happens. . .

Occasional Table Number 1

In the never ending task that is the re-vamp of my living room (see lots of previous posts for endlesss referencees to this Herculean endevour!) I’ve been making some small tables for such essential items as cups of tea, tea pots, mobile phones and a variety of remotes for the television I never get a chance to watch!

I thought I could get away with just one such table, but as always the project has become a self-propelled monster and I’m currently up to a total of three (and counting!).

So here’s the first one – it’s based on an AVSATS tray from IKEA, but which I found brand new in a charity shop for £1! It’s just the right shape and size for bringing a pot of tea, milk jug and two cups into the sitting room, and I thought it would be really nice to then put it down on to it’s own set of detachable legs to form an instant table.

Occasional Table Number 1

For ease I’ve put a few photos on my newly created Flickr steam which show the basic stages in construcion – it’s little more than a framework of metal legs (made from worn out drill bits – very long ones, the kind one uses to drill holes straight through the walls of buildings and out the other side), welded together and painted black. I made some feet from sections of copper tube filled with lead, and added four copper tube ’sockets’ onto the base of the tray into which the legs simply slot. Job done!!

It’s proved really useful already and well worth the £1 investment! 

A reader of a previous blog post of mine (thanks Andy, of the excellent Workshop Shed site!) told me about the IKEA Hacker site and I think this new project maybe fits the bill of the kind of things they feature – I’ll write in to them and see what happens!?

Porthole update

Here’s a quick shot of my new ‘porthole’, but following some judicious cleaning and polishing. . .  I’ve still no idea what it is / what to do with it, but it now looks so lovely and shiny that it may well just remain on show as a bizarre talking-point / ornament.

Cleaned up porthole

(I also remembered to include something to indicate its scale in this shot!)