Friday Flowers and Brixton Market

These flowers were a much stronger colour than the photo and iridescent, a feast for the eyes in Brixton Market - plenty more of those......

Saloon

Circus and Federation Coffee

Leftovers - fantastic antique clothing etc.

Lamps by Charlotte Squire and Okan in view for Japanese street food.

Rachel and Malika's and below the view from inside their shop....

                      
                          where I hadn't thought I was shopping but came out with a new plastic bowl...

Brixton also has it's own currency: the Brixton Pound, yes really, an initiative to shop locally and most traders accept it and some give discounts, more info here. All the above is very near the tube station, wander in Market Row and Brixton Village arcades.

Accidentally Trendy

I've always liked working on the floor and that's where I'd do all my drilling, but after setting up a work station at Pilchuck Glass School last summer I really liked a hip high bench top for this job and decided I needed a small work table. My old Home Workshop books show how to build one - if you are very dedicated!

The diagrams are works of art themselves. I even looked at workbenches online, then realised I should just adapt a little old chest of drawers and then I could even keep my drill bits and tools in the drawers. How radical - to tidy things out of sight!

I'd looked at a few recently at 2nd hand shops then popped into my local British Heart Foundation furniture charity shop, liked this more than the others, got it for £30 and wheeled him home on a big old market trolley thing - great, no delivery costs. Inside the drawer was a brand name........

.....which I googled, only to find that Uniflex is quite collectable 1960's furniture. This chest has had it's legs changed, you can see screw holes where original legs went. When this mid century stuff became popular (you know those sideboards) I was sceptical as I usually am of fashion, also it's not my style as it's smooth looking, I need stuff that's a bit more rough and ready and will survive spilling your tea on. 

However I love the handles on this, you hook your fingers inside the circle and they work nicely, apparently a signature feature of Uniflex - I learned in this article, but they've been painted over and are blue underneath. Isn't it interesting how pieces of furniture are like buildings, they get adapted over the decades.

I am a bit shocked by how sleek it looks in the studio, when I planned my new workbench I hadn't set out to be so trendy.

Cafe Cats and Cat Cafes

Spotted this well camouflaged cat at Seven in Brixton Market today.

Tiger is from the veg shop behind but has adopted this spot - very wise.

                            At the Scooterworks cafe in Waterloo Bobatina chooses a good seat....

...from which to get all the attention she needs.

In Japan a Cat Cafe is a whole different thing - like a brothel with cats! Lovely cats will join you at the table.....

Before I went to the Hapineko cafe, I had a look at their website. You can look at albums of photos of each of the cats - called "staff". When I got there a Siamese called Mimi made straight for my lap, so of course she was my instant favourite.
These cafes started because cats are so popular in Japan but flats are often small with no outdoor space and people work long hours - so instead of owning your own you can buy a coffee and a half hour in a cat cafe!

Spring!

Winter was great....for some: the studio muse.....not sure if he inspires me to industriousness in this mode or not.....

Kinetica Art Fair

Pascal Bettex

Last month I went to Kinetica Art Fair. If you love mad machines and sculpture that moves or uses light and sound then do sign up for their mailing list, I'm already looking forward to next years. It can be a whole day out as all the makers are enthusiasts and so it's really friendly and you chat to lots of people; there are talks and performances to go to and a great cafe. I find it so utterly heartening that all these people are out there creating this kind of stuff.

Mark Zirpel

I went via a Pilchuck Glass School connection, Scott Benefield, who was going to see Seattle artist Mark Zirpel's stand there with Michael Klein Arts and to his talk. Working with glass is only one branch of his artwork, he makes machines, devised from scratch, using gathered parts of bikes, washing or sewing machines etc.,inspired by all sorts of things - this collection by the solar system and some were solar powered.

                          
I did take some photos here but really it's hard to capture the delight of the works at Kinetica because they're alive and doing stuff - so do go next year, and check out the other artists and info on the Kinetica website.
Paul
Perhaps the machine that impressed me most was Patrick Tresset's portrait drawing robot called Paul, below he's just starting mine.

Patrick Tresset, The Aikon Project

He scribbles and signs his signature with a flourish before resting. I know he's a robot but there was something mesmerising and unnerving about his attention and intention in making a drawing. Do watch the videos on the Aikon Project website.

For some reason he zoomed in on my portrait, others had the full face, I like it's quality: the biro scribbling. To me it's a little unsettling, like he's looked deep into my pupils, maybe because of the zoom-in but what he's really done is just built up tone layers - but how you create a robot to do this is sheer magic to me.

Home Improvements

I know you've been wondering how they are......and look how much the dray has evolved since all the paper and plastic etc came in and they shredded it. It's so tempting to do a pastiche on art critic waffle on this.....in keeping with the 'fibre arts' movement this installation blends a subtle mix of colours and textures and creates a true reflection of the way we live today - yes Art Squirrel has forged something both luscious and impoverished that reflects the contemporary urban struggle, yet recalls jazz improvisation and employs chance to make decisions commenting on survival itself, this is life on the edge.........Stop, no what I really wanted to say is look how much it's changed from it's early days.

People actually get paid to write stuff like that you know......

Rainy Days

Don't you love it when you come across a poetic snapshot like this: the word "expert" with a fault....

and a ready-made impressionist picture perfectly smudged like a rich watercolour or soft chalk drawing, little gifts to the camera to remind you a dull day is never really completely dull.

Sneak Preview

Coming to a London branch of Penhaligon's soon......

All Day Breakfast

Mmm, think it would take all day to eat that.

Practical Jokers

I love useful implements that look comical. I bought quite a few old kitchen utensils over the years - I never knew when I started making chandeliers that all this stuff would become collectible kitchenalia. I have used some of these in wall lights, but funnily enough the spoon above made it's way into my kitchen and I use it alot - usually kitchen things migrate the other way - to the studio.

I love the simple mechanism of this spatula thing, that widens it - I presume its for turning something like an omelette over, but I'm not entirely sure.
LOOPY IDEAS

I got this whisk at a street market, it's ridiculous how much I love the tiny loop it has to hang it on the wall, genius, similarly I love the way the finger holding bit is made on this curvy slicer. I'm always looking for technical solutions in my work - the simple ideas are always the best!

Flowers on Friday

Even though I don't need to acquire any more paintings and I wasn't trying to expand the collection of amateur flower paintings - I had to get this last time I was in the Paris flea markets. It looked a little sad, like it needed a good home. It's dated 1933 and the colours remind me of clothes from that era.
Often images - paintings, drawings and photographs - work better as a series than trying to pick a single favourite. Especially photos I think, I love to see a black and white contact sheet as a group of interest whereas it's hard to single out one best image. Anyway this little painting (less than 10" high) is in the hallway now with other pals.

Also from Paris (sorry to be a Paris bore!) but a few years ago is a similar sized painting - an hommage to a Vincent Van Gogh painting, I wasn't madly in love with either of these by themselves but as part of a group they have their place. I do love the passion of an amateur painter so much more than a po-faced concept.

This one seemed to go well with the hyacinth. they lean in alternate directions so balance each other out and seem related by their yellow bases.

Getting the Weekend Newspaper

As I was getting my Saturday newspaper, so was Cyril, in several mouthfuls, preparing for the incoming Siberian weather. I have so much admiration for this little guy because he's so industrious - out of all the squirrels he's the best builder, constantly recycling, so if you think the squirrels have taken over the blog, file this under eco home, interiors, recycling humble objects, ingenuity, making-do etc., plus they are extremely CUTE.

But if you do think I've gone squirrel mad - here's confirmation, I have acquired a few squirrel things, I got this perspex ring from nonesuchthings at the last Lovely Merchants sale, couldn't resist. Their next sale is on Sunday 12th Feb in Camden with food downstairs this time, see their blog and Christina Wilson's Sweet Nothings blog to keep up to date on their info and events.

Love him!

Finding Time

I'm hoping to find time......

......to take this little chandelier to Lost and Found. I call it a mini 6 Cup as I've used mini espresso cups and it has a single pendant bulb rather than 3 candle bulbs on my usual sized 6 cup. I like to make one-offs like this when I find odd sized components that are hard to repeat.

It's time to restock my work and see what's new in this lovely shop....

Open on Saturdays from 11 - 5pm at 77 Tower Bridge Road, London SE1 4TW

Soft Furnishings

I'm sure you'll be wanting a squirrel update! I saw as many as 5 at once the other day, one in the dray in my window box and 4 dotted around the courtyard below. They've had some territorial spats but don't really fight. The squirrel who built the dray is the only one I can really tell from the others, he is much snowier behind the ears and has a bald patch mid-tail, I call him Cyril and he shares the dray with a pal sometimes and chases off others. After the main build with leaves they moved in plastic bags, tissues, cardboard etc. even this ball of wool....

...it even matches their coats, I wish they could knit (a waistcoat!) but it's since been chewed up and is spilling out the side of the home now as the dray constantly changes. One of the reasons it's such a thrill to have them so close is because it's so urban here: I watched one bury a whole piece of toast in a plant pot yesterday. I may do some spring watch type posts later on as there are so many creatures actually inside our building, wrens and blue tits nest and foxes scavenge too. I found a dead fox out the back on a hot summers day so I had to bury him on the railway bank, by climbing up there I found enough blackberries for a crumble, I love these wild oases in the city, it's a totally different kind of wildlife out the front of the building!!