Another secret genre?

I was hunting for a book for a friend and went into a Waterstones near Glasgow Central Train Station and discovered another whole section of books I'd never heard of. I know romantic literature is popular with young ladies and they all love a vampire, so I guess it was an easy jump to create "Paranormal Romance".

Cannibal & Zombie - part 2

Finally I found an Artstore in Glasgow that sells big tubs of plaster, I got tired of buying tiny expensive packets of plaster and my favorite type of plaster "Stonecast" is no longer produced.



First cast from the mold, notice how dirty it gets from clay residue on the mold.

The cast trimmed down to fit the plate frames I found.



First coat of ochre paint, I'm trying to steal the colour theme from the cover art of Les Baxters "Ritual of the Savage".



Darker colours added.

Blues and further greens, then I took a wee break from finishing the piece, and then rattled through finishing it, I forgot to take pictures of it until I added all the final painting and given it a final coat of gloss varnish.

This finished cast will be winging its way to Australia for the "Gasoline & Garterbelt" Artshow in March.

Knickers to Re-Cycling!

In tribute to the "kred-eet cHruinch" (I'm not pronouncing or spelling this over used phrase this year, like Rumpelstiltskin or Demons, to name a thing is to have power over it so I refuse to use this depressing little phrase) I engaged in some Making-do-and-mending today.

This is my favorite white shirt, it has a lovely hula girl emroidered on the back, with a real wiggly grass skirt. Its made by Dragonfly and I found it reduced in TK Max years ago and wore it on my wedding day.

As you can see the skirt has frayed and looks really moth eaten.

Once a few years ago my wife challenged me to buy her some sexy pants for Xmas, well I failed with these tasseled showgirl pants. She never wore them but I have identified them as a suitable source of replacement hula girl skirt tassels.

Advert your eyes vicar, the lady has no skirt on, I had to unpick the original skirt from behind.

Finally the replacement skirt sewn on and the shirt is ready to be worn again, after a wee wash as its a bit musty from being at the back of the wardrobe unworn for so long.

Rarg a Steampunk Pin-up?

Ever one to experiment with fashion, my good friend Rarg (him that I painted the Wogan picture for) was telling me the other day, that another friend of his had pointed him towards a Steampunk website which had taken the pictures of him at the World Beard and Mustache championships and made it into a wallpaper.

So I tracked it down to Steampunk Wallpapers..

Description: Do you Tire of Being Confined to this Dismal Earth? Do you Envy the Birds their Careless Flight? There is Hope! Enlist in the Aerocorps Today! Penetrate the Very Firmament! See the Wonders of the Sky! You Will Fly, Guaranteed.*

*Landings not Guaranteed.

"Generation" Exhibition

Back when I was a teenager in Orkney, we were often taken to see the graduate show at the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness in Orkney. I often wondered what art I'd be exhibiting there once I graduated art college.
The Arts Centre hasn't done a Orcadian graduate show in ages so I was lucky enough to discover that they had stated doing them again and sent off some art.
So if you fancy catching my animation "The Kong Tiki Affair" and looking at a couple of Sleazy Cheezy posters then pop along.

Generation
Orkney Art Graduates 2001 -2008

An exhibition highlighting the work of new artists, designers and makers from Orkney who have graduated with a degrees in Art and Design over the last 8 years. Since opening in 1979, Pier Arts Centre graduate exhibitions have regularly featured the work of Orkney's artists, showing more than 70 artists to date.

21st February to 4th April

Further Messin' Around With Mud

Frighteningly I'm half way through my ceramics course so I'm having to plan on what I can finish in the time left. For the last two weeks I've been glazing my first mug and working on a new one.

This one is based on my design for a Cthulhu Tiki mug.
A snarling tiki face rising above the ruins on R'lyeh , imagine if you will the type of mug that would be used in Trader Vic's, if the Trader had been equally influenced by the dammned idols of Cthulhu as Polynesian Tikis.

Slabs of clay around a cheap glass bud vase I found in Poundland.

Re-using that nose design from my last mug.

Looks a bit like a cyclops moai.

The other face on the back, continuing the joined face theme.


Sharp pointy teeth.



Thats as far as I got that week and then I dropped it, so I had to do a bit of repair before I started more details.
Adding the slabs around the base.



Strange layers of slabs.



I used the tines of fork to add the texture on the body of the mug, once its dry I'll clean them up and remove any little bits of clay. I've seen a lovely dark chrome glaze which would add a lovely other-worldy look to the mug, that or some ichor like drip glaze.

Come to the Sabbat

"BLACK SABBATH are tired of being called a Black Magic group - and being likened to Black Widow.
Lead guitarist Tommy Iommi phoned from Birmingham to clear up the confusion. "People are bringing us down saying we are a Black Magic group. I think they must be getting mixed up with Black Widow. We don't to any sacrifices on stage and we're not on a Black Magic kick".

From the liner notes of Black Widow's "Sacrifice"

Gotta love the psych-prog music of the midlands other early heavy metal band with "black" in their name. Finally I've gotten a copy of their album "Sacrifice", no more will I have to rely on a friend to smuggle a rare copy out of his dad's record collection, when I want to listen to it. It was getting ridiculous, his dad lives in Hastings, that's a two day round trip just to listen to it.

Where To Buy Me Presents.

Cheeky Tiki, Britain's premier tropical terrorists have a snazzy new website.
Often when people make an excuse about not buying me tiki mugs as presents they say "you've got so many I don't know what to get you", well I don't have enough Cheeky Tiki mugs, top quality mugs and there in the UK so no airmail shipping hassles.

Cheeky Tiki's New Website

Lux Interior R.I.P.

Bugger now I'll never get to see the Cramps, unless some midnight movie mad scientist has a reanimation serum they could use on him. There the only band I know of that would welcome a undead singer.

Lux Interior Obituary

Another day playin' in da clay.

More fun, almost finished another mug, this one is based on the three faces bucket mug but mine has three joining snarling mouths..

I think this face is too human looking face on so I'll try and fix it next week with some texture...

See the human-ish face is much better from the side.

This is my favorite face and I only created it in a rush, to fit the space left by the the other two having taken up too much space.

You get some lovely abstract half faces where the two faces meet.

I think this face needs fixed as well.

Oh well we'll see what we can do next week.

What Was Done To The Drunkin' Sailor

"Drunken sailors" have been removed from the lyrics of a nursery rhyme in a government-funded books project.

Grim news has reached me that "Drunkin' sailor" is to be replaced with a Grumpy Pirate in a new government sponsored songbook. I don't often rise to these "political correctness gone mad" stories, as I grew up in the seventies and remember when racist and derogatory language used to poison our minds, but being from a nautical family I lament at the loss of the references to burial at sea and brutal floggings in Children's rhymes. Next they'll make "ring-a-ring of roses" not be warning about bubonic plaugue.

So I hear by warn the world that every child I meet that sings te Grumpy Pirate song will be taught by me the few verses of "The Good-Ship Venus" that I can remember, you have been warned.