Navaro album Number 2 – it’s finally here!

Finally, after over a year of work and waiting, the new Navaro album Home is Where Your Heartlands is now out…

I have a single pre-release copy, and I have to say the packaging and general presentation (the work of photographer and designer Chris Crawford) is wonderful…

Here is a small shot of it, complete with a picture framed set of the artwork that each member of the band received/signed:

Navaro - Home is Where Your Heartlands

The album also features a varied of guest musicians, including the old stalwarts Gareth Thomas, Guy Fletcher and Mark Stevens from Little Johnny England.

The band also got together for their first rehearsal in many months – here is a quick shot from the studio:

Navaro get back to business!

As always, you can get in touch and hear more from the band on their website here >>

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‘Finds’. . . and new category is born!

Anyone who knows me (or who reads this blog) will know that finding discarded items – in skips, on the street, in charity shops (not sure it strictly counts if you have to buy them?), donations from kind friends etc – is a major part of my life! It’s a strange yet fascinating lifestyle – sometime you go weeks without finding anything good at all, others yo u can hardly move without tripping over some piece of discarded treasure!

This week has been one of those lucky times – and here are just s selection of things that have magically turned up!

1 Steampunk Light Switch

Look at this beauty!! A wonderful gift from my mate Bru (see number 3 below for more donations from this excellent chap!), he apparently found this in his daughter’s loft some years ago. I have no idea what to do with it at the moment – it needs a bit of a clean up (looking at the corrosion in the first picture I wonder whether to leave it as natural patina, or give it a bit of a polish? Decisions, decisions!) but I think would be great as part of a steampunk creation, or simply as-is as an ornament:

'Steampunk' Switch - notice the corrosion!

'Steampunk' Switch - iPhone for scale

2 Old Desk Drawers

I have just found this (and another smaller one) in a skip – clearly some nice old drawers from some kind of desk. I really like the rusty metal handles, and the overall look, feel and scale are really pleasing also. I think a new carcass (possible with a modern painted finish to contrast nicely with the old-fashioned look to the drawers themselves) would work really well. The drawers are very long – I think I might need to cut them down to a reasonable size to stand any hope of fitting them into my tiny flat!

I will add this to my (growing rapidly by the day) list of things to do/make:

Desk drawer with handle

Very deep drawers!

3. Plumbing Bits

Again from good old Bru, here are some plumping bits that instantly gave me some ideas.

The copper pipe looks nothing special at first glance (I find lots of this kind of stuff all the time) but it is a really strange diameter? Normal pipe is 10, 16 or 22mm, but this is something else – in the 12mm range. Never come across it before, but I have been looking for ages to make myself a new bedside light – this might be just the thing?:

12mm copper pipe find

Will give it a go and post up the results. . .

Finally, here is a ball cock plus arm – again a common find, but I really like the whole shape of this one. I have made several lanterns from plastic globes and ball cocks, and it is surprising what a fantastic glow effect they make with just a tea light popped in (try it yourself on a dark night and you will see what I mean). I already have a hanging ball cock light I use whilst camping (light, portable, fun!) – it struck me that with this recent find I could make one that stands up on some sort of pole, maybe adjustable in height? Again, am going to give this a quick go and will post up results:

Ball cock plus arm for making into a lantern

Anyway, it strikes me that I have so many of these ‘finds’, that it might be worth me adding a new Category to the blog specifically for them – just to make it a bit easier to keep track of them all! Hope you enjoy. . .?

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Steampunk fan?

I have just seen this lovely old fan in my excellent local charity shop (see another find from there here >>)

steampunk-style fan

Unfortunately I don’t have the spare cash to get it on a possible whim at the mo’ – although I think it would make a fantastic modification project…

If anyone out there fancies me obtaining it for them (it would make a lovely ornament as-is), get in touch and we can talk terms!!

PS: although it is an electric fan, I am guessing from the look of it that the electrics are long since shot to pieces – I’d say it was purely for ornamentation therefore, rather than functional?

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My mate’s show reel

My friend Tom Dussek, voice over artist and character artist, has just uploaded his new acting showreel to YouTube.

The reel is composed from footage taken from a series of student files he has recently acted in, but is a good indication of the kinds of things he does…

Tom Dussek showreel

Tom has more recently been known for single-handedly doing all the voices for the award-winning Blue Toad Murder Files video game >>

Check him out!!

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Towersey Diary 2011

So, I have just come back from my annual visit to my favourite folk festival, the Towersey Village Festival.

Despite the rain and slightly cold / muddy conditions, once again I had a really nice time at this fabulous, very friendly festival.

Apart from hanging out with some very nice people, hearing some amazing folk musicians and generally having a chilled time of it (and maybe having a pint of ale here and there!), here are some personal highlights:

My steampunk flag

Now in its second year, it is still working really well – I fitted some improved top lighting to it this year which acts as a ‘beacon home’ when trying to find the tent late at night!

I really love this shot as, in the background, you can see one of the wonderful Red Kites that have been so successfully saved from extinction and re-introduced into the local area:

Steampunk flag and Red Kite

The flag managed to stand its ground under the rather high winds of the weekend, even when we had a bit of an accident with a stray gazebo one night! I am a very proud father!:

Flag in Crisis!

Tim Edey’s guitar

A real highlight for me was seeing the amazing Tim Edey play three or four times across the weekend. I have been a fan of his for a very long time, but it was great to see him up close and personal – he even played my guitar for a moment or two after a workshop he gave which was great to see / hear. His guitar (an old Takamine nylon string) is one of the most beaten up things I have ever seen!! I thought my trusty acoustic had seen some action but his is out of this world – it is the only guitar he owns apparently and he had even had to glue bits of it together before the festival!  Here is a ‘not very good’ shot of it – there were too many people crowding round him unfortunately:

Tim Edey's guitar

Skip finds!

As with any festival, there is quite a lot of rubbish left over at the end of it! At Towersey, the recycling is excellent of course, but I was delighted to find the following things dumped by the bins!

The bottom item is a fold away camping table / seating, that literally has just lost a few bolts from some of the limbs. Although I was delighted to find it, I am slightly incredulous that someone would discard such an item for such a simple breakage – I realise they couldnt’t fix it there and then, but surely taking it home to fix in The Shed wouldn’t have been too much of a hardship!? Rant over…

Skip finds!

The tubes at the top of the photo are bits from a broken aluminium gazebo – I am guessing another victim of the high winds! There are so many struts broken on this item I can forgive the people who threw it out – however there is lots of lovely scrap  material there that I can put to good use. Hoorah!

Flag throwing

No, I’ve no idea what it is either but these guys were great!:

Flag throwing

Beer

Finally, here is my trusty tankard – I am such an Old Folkie!! I have even fashioned a carrying / hanging device for it this year from two carabiners (which you can’t see in the photo unfo) but which seemed to work really well:

Beer and tankard!

So, home now for a warm shower and a dry bed – bliss (but looking forward to the 2012 Festival already!)

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