Friends in funny places..

Sometimes you don't see a friend for ages and then you see them referenced in a Guardian book review...

Stripping is a serious business. I recently met the director of the Ministry of Burlesque Academy, which provides classes in, among other subjects, fan dancing and glove removal. The young woman was also working towards her PhD on the adult entertainment industry in Edinburgh, called "The Private, the Public and the Pubic: Naked Power in Scotland". Her stage name is Gypsy.

More tease than strip

Shaking hands

I don't read tabloids so I missed this image when it was published..

..its as disturbing as the Elvis/Nixon handshake. 

From left to right Peter Sutcliffe (serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper), Sir Jimmy Saville (Radio DJ and Chidrens TV presenter) and Frank Bruno (ex-boxer and pantomime favorite). Its just wrong if they got Boy George to join them they could form the Evil A-Team.

The Last of Messing around with Clay.

I got the last of my mugs back from ceramics and they've come out quite lovely. 

This is my Cargo Cult version of the traditional Tiki Bob mug, it glazed in earthy oxides with a gloss interior. I've had a bit of intrest from fellow collector and may produce a limited run of these mugs this summer.

This is my Crargo version of the Trader Vic's Aloha Coconut Bowl I'm going to see if anyone will swap me an original for my handmade version. 

Big nad Clever Swearing - NSFW

Went to see Armando Iannucci new film "In the Loop" last night, it has some of the best swearing and honest depictions of politicians your likely to see on screen.

This clip below is Tuckers's Law which was too sweary for the film, thankfully somebody posted it on youtube..



..I think I have an embroidery project to undertake.

The fruits of messing around in clay..

My ceramics course has been finished for more than a week now, so I guess I better show what I've made. Mostly all the mugs have been fired and glazed now, so this mug was my first, a scowling tribal warrior mug, with a two tone outer glaze and a translucent gloss inner glaze.

Then we have my three face bucket mug, it has a black under glaze that I sponged back and then covered with thick toffee like gloss glaze.

My third mug is based on my Cthulhu Tiki mug design, again with the two tone glaze, which took two firing to get right. The terracotta clay shows through the top glaze quite a bit, so even though the top glaze is green and gray lots of red shows.

I moved from using te terracotta clay into using paper clay which is lot more forgiving and more importantly is a white clay, so the glaze colours are more true.

I glazed this Monster Moai with a black undercoat that I sponged back and applied an opaque green glaze on top. The glaze didn't work as I thought and after it was fired the glaze cracked and continued to "Plink" for two weeks after.

I made two more mugs but am still waiting for them to be glaze fired, so hopefully I'll be posting them after the easter holidays.

Another Giant fish?

Having blogged about the giant pink plush shark I spotted in a local stream, I was interested to read about the South American armored Suckermouth found in a river in Leicestershire...

...Damn that one ugly fish.

BIG UGLY FISH FOUND IN RIVER

Fix it for me!

Its quite the week for geek furniture, Trekkies can now spend £1856 on a replica Captain's Chair but I noticed on eBay a better way to spend that money..

..its the 1977 "Jim'll Fix it Chair", now you can lord it over small children like a benevolent super villain. It even comes with an original badge and ash from Sir Jimmy Savile's cigar.
Ah how times have changed a children tv presenter who's trademark was to always be smoking.

BUY THE "JIM'LL FIX IT CHAIR" £2450

As a child I could never decide on what I wanted Jimmy to Fix for me, I had a vague plan about a life sized fiberglass hipopotamus that was also a submarine/motor home but I could never explain it in words.