Month: December 2024

Pinch Pottery Pt:2

Back in September 2024 I wrote this post about pinch Pottery: Pinch pottery

It’s been a few months and I’ve just decided to finish it off and give it some bright colouring and a sealant coat or two. I want it to represent a bright sun if I can, but when I get to actually paint it, it could well turn out looking totally different. Here we go.

This is one of those things I think my wife dislikes but she knows it means a lot to me, even though it is a poor quality and there are probably kids of 5 or 6 years of age that could produce something a lot better. But I made it, it was made at a time when I was grieving and gave me a lot of pleasure. It still does and this will probably remain in my workshop when I eventually get it up and running. It makes me smile when I look at it and i love it. It’s simple, it’s how life should be.

This is how it originally looked:

Alf
Reminder

I started painting the base Yellow, and the inside Orange, with the dog done in white with a black outline. This is what I have so far.

Just started to paint.

I’m using acrylic paints here. I’m going to put a line of vine type effects around where the yellow joins the orange. At the moment I’m letting the piece dry for the next 24hrs and then I will try some touching up and repainting what I have already done. The yellow coat is quite dull as it is being absorbed quite literally into the clay base. I’m kind of hoping that the next coat will not be absorbed so much, fingers crossed.

Multicoloured madness

I’ve gone with a yellow scheme for the underneath and a red – orange on the inside. I’ve tried the same type of painting that you find on narrowboats on Uk Canals, when they paint the buckets and metalwork with flowers. I’ve used this effect around the rim and from one angle it looks like he is looking over a hedgerow. It’s exceptionally basic, but it’s brightened up a piece of pottery that would otherwise sit in the corner unnoticed, discarded and unloved. You can’t miss this now, it just stands out.

First coat of lacquer
Fast drying enamel clear coat lacquer

The final task is to give a nice coat of lacquer to protect the acrylic paint. I’m going to use some fast drying lacquer that I have sitting in the shed at home. About two coats will be sufficient.

Before and after
Side decorations

I’m pleased with the outcome, it’s made me happy, and I smile whenever I see it. It’s kept me occupied and busy, It’s special to me and that is all that matters. It’s adult pottering and nonsense at its best. But it’s my nonsense.

Thanks for stopping by.

Old Photos

What makes you feel nostalgic?

Probably the one thing that makes me most nostalgic is viewing old photographs. Not the many thousand you have on your phones (Though many are relevant), I mean the many thousands you have stashed away in boxes, in loft spaces and under beds. Those pictures that go back generations sometimes.

Old memories

Black and white, Polaroid many different formats, all forming a pleasant picture of how it used to be. Times were simpler, I know we had a lot more Illnesses and afflictions back then, but we were amongst the last generations that actually went out and had proper “play time” and were able to venture every where, oh how times have changed.

When I look at the old photos the first thing I do is turn the picture over and see what paper it’s printed on, having worked in the paper and film production process at Kodak for many years, I often have a wry smile to myself recognising where the paper was probably made. And in those old days you very often had date stamps on the back that would allow you to instantly age a photograph.

The photographs usually come out when someone stumbles on them, that rare occasion, or when you stumble across them when spring cleaning.

It’s one of those little treasures you know are there, but your mind forgets them until it decides to surprise you yet again sometime in the near future.

Have a great day.

Release Your Inner Ansel Adams With The Shitty Camera Challenge

Loved this post regarding the reuse and repurposing of old cameras. I know its social media based, but you can’t have it all your own way. I’ve got about 70 candidates that could quite easily be adapted for this purpose…

Social media microblogging has brought us many annoying things, but some of the good things that have come to us through its seductive scrolling are …

Release Your Inner Ansel Adams With The Shitty Camera Challenge

Was three, now two

What relationships have a positive impact on you?

This kind of makes me laugh. I was talking to my nephew yesterday and we were talking about Antisocial media. He was quite proud to tell me he had 875 friends on Fakebook and was quite putout when I told him he was having a laugh. I asked him to name as many of these friends as he could in 30 seconds, and he could probably reel out about 10 or 12 max. And there is my point, people on social media are not friends and a positive impact on you, nine times out of ten they are there to have a nosey around your life or to try and big up their own lives by stating “Oh look at the friends I’ve got. They’re not friends get over it. They’re doing it for likes.

That’s me off his Christmas list now.

Myself I can count my true friends on my hands. In fact I only need the one hand, in fact I only need two fingers, it was three before August but a death put paid to that relationship.

Now it is two. My wife who I trust implicitly, what she has done for me is just unbelievable, without her I would have been long gone many years ago, she has saved my life. Literally.

Second is my buddy Dave, i probably hear from him twice a year but we are there for each other we would truly go into battle for each other, this bond is strong and its roots go back to our childhood.

Trust is the foundation of a good strong relationship, it is a back bone, break it and there is no more stability.

875 friends eh? They’d all run a mile if you ever needed them.

Peace to your day.

Alfie Moon

Alfie Moon

Jan 2021, Covid in full effect and I’ve been brought a new set or art stuff for the previous Christmas. Using pencil and pastels I attempt a picture of our dear late family member, Alfie, familiarly known throughout the family as “Alfie Moon”.

Do You Know Vail Code?

Alfred Vail (public domain) We talk about Morse code, named after its inventor, Samuel Morse. However, maybe we should call it Vail code after Alfred…

Do You Know Vail Code?

Firework night

Firework night

This was another iPad piece I did in 2023. I was experimenting with a new art app at the time and just produced this mess that I titled “Firework night”

Sunspot

Sunspot

Another iPad painting from 2012 when I must have been losing it. I just thought it would be good to do a play on words with “Sunspot” hence the Sun was drawn with a pimple on the surface.

Digital killed the film star

Me having a moment

This picture was painted on an iPad. I did this one back in 2012, I’d just received notification that my pension pot with Kodak had almost halved due to them declaring bankruptcy and moving production back to the USA. Sod everyone else who worked for them worldwide.

We lost out big time and that’s why I had a rant in this obscure painting I did at the time.

River scene Charcoal on paper

River scene charcoal on paper

A simple river scene, first time attempt with charcoal.