recycling found copper

This is made from an old copper electrical contact I found while crossing the round, it was on a traffic island with one of those illuminated bollards. the copper had this wonderful green patina but because I could not figure a way of keeping it and making the pendant wearable it had to go. The pendant is on waxed cotton which can be adjusted to desired length.

celtic earrings

I don't like the term "celtic" it's used to label things that really are something else with an equally ancient and rich tradition, but it is a convenient label. This simple design was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be with my work area now littered with bits of coiled copper wire.

In the picture above you can just make out a cat working its way up the tree towards a crow that is sat squawking at the top. The cat got about two thirds of the way up when it realised the bird was almost as big as itself and really didn't give a shit about the cat, the poor moggy then decided discretion was the better' and made its way back down.

new hobby

About a year ago I started dabbling with jewellery making, its a slow process as there does not sem to be any classes about locally, everything I have learned so far has been from the internet or from my brother-in-law(who also has a few odd hobbies). Here is my latest creation, a copper cuff made from sections of recycled pipe and rivetted together with a piece of 2mm sterling silver wire

so its been a while, you know how it is, you get carried away with an idea and it runs for a while and then you get bored, or the inspiration dries up or whatever.
I think some of the problem was trying to stick to so narrow a field, and its not like I know a huge lot about anything to dedicate a blog to it, so I think that I will be a little more relaxed and ramble on about whatever I like, and just maybe I will continue to keep writing......or maybe not, we shall see

happy st Georges day

I know I haven't posted for ages but I've not had anything worth saying, hope to remedy that soon. I see Quireboys and wolfsbane are playibg in London come December and hopefully I can get to that gig, also my wife is dragging me off to see U2 in August (each ticket four times the cost iof the bands I want to see...figures).

have a good one

new model army killed my camera

Suffering from post-gig hearing loss and a serious lack of sleep, I will attempt to write about New Model Army at the Astoria on Thursday night. Possibly the last gig they will perform there before it is knocked down, one of the casualties of the London cross rail project. It was also the first proper concert that I have taken my daughter too.
Being one of my favourite bands I was unfamiliar with only two songs (that I can remember), and it must be the first gig in 19 years where I didn’t drink (much). I will not go into play lists, for a start I can never remember everything that was played and in what order though they did open with Here Comes The War and finished with The Green And The Grey. As always with NMA it was a great atmosphere and a great way to introduce your offspring to live music. Thanks to a friend of mine she was also introduced to heckling and (at his persistent insistence) pogoing. In fact, he was so drunk he fell asleep on the tube, he tells me he cannot remember where he got off, what time he got home, or how much his taxi cost. Considering he lives in London my daughter and I probably got home before him and we live in the wilds of Essex.

I took a few photos at the gig and got some video of my daughter jumping up and down to Wonderful Way to Go but my camera seems to have stopped working and not only has it deleted everything but will no longer even switch on. Bollocks.

But a good time was had by all

117° - Izzy Stradlin

As I sit here on this cold October night, wearing two t-shirts and a woolly hat (indoors) I believe it is time to follow up on one of my latest Izzy Stradlin purchases. Now I like a bargain as much as the next person but this one rocks in its own right.117° goes for fairly large sums on Amazon, over £25 the last time I looked but a while back I got it for £4.26 including postage. What’s more it is a very pleasant listen.
Released in 1998 it now seems lost in the great musical archives in the sky, a nice laid-back album that you can do all manner of none strenuous tasks too.
This is now one of my favourite kitchen albums, also good for sitting at the computer and relaxing in the bath, not challenging, just good old rock and roll.
It’s a pity all his more recent releases have all been on i-tunes, I think CDs are much nicer, that tactile element is important (well it is to me) as is the ritual of placing the disc in the player, flipping through the little booklet (even if its only once) are all part of the experience.
Of all the post guns’n’roses stuff I have heard so far this is definitely my favourite.

a ray of light

I try to keep politics off this blog but I must say I am well chuffed with the House Of Lords throwing out the 42 day detention bill. Some principles still exist.

Now we just have to hope the sneaky bastards don't push it through under some other guise.