And the winner is....

After a whole year of being totally amazing and awesome, Pig Pen had their annual awards ceremony in December. So my good friend Ben (who runs the night) asked me to make one of the trophies.

Thinking about it, I noticed that whenever men win something, they get big, shiny (but ugly) permanent memorials - like trophies and cups. But if women win something, they get a bunch of flowers - which (although beautiful) are ephemeral and disposable. **Cue outrage at gender politics**

So I wanted to make a traditional trophy, but mix things up a little by creating it out of flowers. The process was fantastically epic, but the final result wasn't exactly how I was expecting. So let me take you back through the mists of time...

...to the very beginning.

After I did the boring glueing and drilling bits to get the frame sorted, I started carving the Oasis (which is florists foam). If you've never done that before, go out and get some immediately. It's so satisfying, and a sharp knife goes through it like butter. Actually, it's easier than butter. It's so therapeutic. I could go on all day about it. Honestly. But....

Pretty soon, I had the main shape - minus the handles (which were super-70s floral ones from eBay).

I kind of ran out of time, so I had to put the handles on at the club. Which I did. And I was getting really excited about how it would look with the flowers on it.

The flowers go on - still looking good.

Oh.

When it was covered in blooms, it kind of turned into a shapeless, slightly creepy beast. Ha! I like that it seems quite alive though. So that's good (if unexpected).

Learning for next time: make the shape much skinnier. Or make the object much bigger. It's a really nice effect though, so I'd definitely be up for doing something like this again. Perhaps as props or wearable accessories for a photoshoot. Anyone want to commission me?

Nice pair.

After a posting drought, I've got a flurry of projects I've been saving up for this VERY MOMENT. Actually, I'll come clean. I've just been a bit lazy. But I digress!

So, two Christmases ago, I took on the challenge of re-upholstering a chair we had knocking around. I'd never upholstered anything before, so it was a very steep learning curve (translation = I had a tantrum, and swore I'd never attempt it again). But a year later, I'd forgotten all that and got stuck in reupholstering its twin over the Christmas break. And the super-depressing fabric that was on there before looked like rejected prop from Abigail's Party, so I really had no choice.


I began by rigging up a mad-professor/carpenter fetish rig to fix the frame and make it sturdy again.


Then I made the cover and started nailing it on. Last time I did this, I hammered in the nails all the way. And then the other half of the cover didn't fit properly (hence, the tantrum). Thankfully, I remembered to NEVER DO THAT EVER AGAIN, so it was fine this time.


I didn't want to enter the OCD nightmare of trying to get the two chairs to match exactly, so instead they're kind of the positive and negative of each other. Which looks great I think!

Posh googly eyes.

I noticed the other day that the top right-hand corner of the eBay homepage has a ticker counting down the days to Christmas (41, btw). Which means Christmas is nearly upon us...kind of. But for me, the Christmas shopping panic starts a little earlier than for most people. The reason being that my Dad's birthday is at the start of December, so it makes sense to buy all the presents and send them all in one swoop. Ie, RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!

Anyway, when I was in New York I bought one of my favourite things ever - an eyeball stamp. I love it! So for this year's presents, I rolled out the lining paper and got stamping. Which was hugely satisfying for the pedantic/neurotic side of my personality. Anyway, without further ado - here are some nice pictures.

Plus, for added neurosis, I cunningly concealed the name labels among the pattern.

Awww.

Ice Cube! (As in the rapper. And actual ice cubes. Does that count as a pun?)

New York is HOT in September. Clammy, shirt-sticking-to-your-back, unattractive damp armpits hot. And I love it! Which is why I decided to flee the creeping London autumn and spend a week sweating it out in NYC with my friend Paul (who is awesome).

Paul is one of my favourite collaborators EVER. And together, we devised some ice-jewellery to combat the Manhattan swelter.

(Moulding clay by Nearby Art Shop. Water by New York Tap. Fridge by Paulie and Andrew.)

Icy knuckle duster.

Iced out. Oh yeah!

I miss New York. I miss summer. Waaaaaah!

Cufflink EMERGENCY!!!!!!

Not a common emergency. And debatably, not an actual emergency in normal life. But when you're in rural Poland for a wedding, and half an hour before the ceremony your other half realises the left their cufflinks at home, and their shirt won't actually work without them,the situation can quickly turn ugly.

Anyway, after unsuccessfully scouring the hotel for a spare pair. I scoured our room for something that might work. Luckily, I was wearing a vintage blazer, and the previous owner had left some black and white ribbon in the pocket, which instantly transformed me into a bridal MacGuyver.

The original ribbon. Without any scissors or sharp objects of any kind in our luggage (thanks, Ryan Air), I used a cigarette lighter to burn the long bit in the middle and make two pieces.

Carefully knot one end....

And then knot the other (with varying degrees of success - it's quite a bit harder than it looks!).

And crisis averted!

This particular drama was actually swiftly followed by the classic pre-wedding 'I-can't-get-my-bowtie-to-work-how-come-it-worked-before!?!?!?-emergency'. But let's not get into that one.

Into the Hourglass

Posts have been a bit thin on the ground here lately. Mainly because I've been super busy with the meadow (which has been incredible) and life/work/moving flat has been getting in the way of making stuff. So to (sort of) make up for it, here are some pics of costumes I helped out on for The Hourglass Social Club. I put up sketches for this a little while back, but they haven't been made yet, so these were a kind of stop-gap. To be fair, a friend did the bulk of the actual costuming, and I chipped in by doing the styling and making some accessories: The Pickled Shopkeeper's beard, a ripped rag petticoat and bustle for the pie seller, and a sort of weird hairpiece/hat thing made from a platinum hair weave. Which sounds wrong, but looked awesome! I'll finish up the other costume bits shortly, probably. And I'll post them soon, kind of.

G is for Guerrilla

Urban gardening is taking over my life a bit at the moment. So hot off the heels of the Mabley Green meadow, I did a bit of guerrilla gardening with my meadow co-conspirator Rowland, and floral-intervention celebrity Richard Reynolds. Who's really nice!

I have to say, gurerilla gardening is sooooooo much easier than permissive, inclusive gardening. From start to finish, it took two hours to seed a big strip of ground and a huge mound of rubble. And it meant we got to do fun stuff like climb 10 foot fences and scramble around on demolition sites. Though doing so gave me a gnarly, guerrilla-sized bruise on my knee.

No pics (apart from this one I took on my way home). But more to come if/when our seeds grow.