Perch

Hi all,
In my last post I showed you a picture that I'd drawn of a fish called a perch. He's a miserable looking critter, but I don't suppose I'd be too pleased if my diet consisted mainly of worms.

 Anyway, I was quite pleased with my efforts, but they were soon over shadowed when my wife showed me the hare that she'd just painted.

This is an amazing painting and I guess the devil must have got into me when I challenged her to try painting a fish like my perch to see how she got on with that. "Hares are one thing," I said, "but painting a fish takes real skill."

A couple of days later she showed me this.

I might be biased but I think it's very good. The thing is, she could probably make some money from painting but she hasn't got that sort of motivation. She is happy to paint a bit, make a few things from polymer clay and enjoy a range of other crafts as the mood takes her. Oh what it must be like to be multi-talented.

By the way, I am giving away free downloads of one of my books, "Bun In The Oven" from the 9th of August until the 11th. Please grab a copy and enjoy. To get a copy just click on the BOOKS tab at the top of the page and then onto the book's cover.

Fishy

Hi all,
I keep trying to get around to doing some painting and drawing but wood turning keeps getting in the way. However, I did manage a drawing this week and I'm very pleased with it.

I've tried pencil drawing a few time but have been put off by the shading process. To shade a piece in I would go backwards and forwards across the part to be shaded lots of time. It was hard work and I was always left with a series of line, which didn't look very professional.

Anyway, I was perusing youtube the other day and fond somebody who used home made graphite powder to do their shading and it looked very good. The artist had a couple of very small jars in which were some broken up pieces of lead from her pencils. She had two pots, one for pencils from the high end of the B range, which she used for her very darks and another for pencils at the lower end of the B range, which she used for lighter shading.

So, I destroyed several pencils by removing the leads and crunching them to dust before putting it in their relative pots. I then went about doing a drawing of a fish called a perch to try out my new method. I wasn't expecting much but I was really impressed. The drawing below was completed in less than an hour and there aren't many shading lines to be seen.

Perhaps I'm seeing it through rose tinted glassses but I think it is quite good. I would be pleased to know what you think of it.

Woodturning.
Here's a few items that I finished recently. The first one is a pen with pyrography and stain.

The second one is a bird house made for the mother in laws birthday.

The third was a woodstained vase that I wanted to make look as if it was ceramic.

Lastly, this was a small pot with a shoal of pyrography fish.

Hope you enjoyed looking.

Queen Wasps

Hi all,
Sorry I haven't been about for a bit, but I have been busy woodturning and having some teeth pulled out. Other than drawing designs for my wooden pieces, I haven't had much time for any other sort of art. Hopefully, that's all about to change and I hope to show you some art work in few days time.

Besides that, there are two other reasons for this post. Firstly, to let you know that one of my books,

will be free to download from amazon, until and including Friday 19th on April. Just click on the books tab at the top of the page, then click on the book's cover to go straight to amazon for the free download.

Secondly, I would like to know if anybody else has noticed the horrific number of queen wasps that have been flying around for the past few weeks. Each spring I would average on see, but not always managing to kill, perhaps half a dozen queen wasps. However, this year my wife and I have dispatched well over 100 queen wasps. These are the ones that were foolish enough to have a shufty at the inside of our conservatory or came into our kitchen when we opened the windows. Whilst in the garden or out and about I have seen hundreds more.

So what, you may be saying. Well if I tell you that every one of those wasps will go on to make a nest and have thousands of off spring you might just realise that we are in for a very rough summer. Do not expect to have a nice picnic or a quiet pint in the garden of the pub any time after the end of July.

The facts are that queen wasps, unlike their offspring, manage to make it through the winter. They pop out once the weather warms up in April or May and go about finding a nice place to make a nest. Inside somebody's loft is a favourite. Once they have found their dream des res, they lay thousands of eggs which are incubated and turn into the nasty little wasps that we all enjoy through the summer. They usually start making their presence felt by Mid July and will increase in number until they start to decline in October.

So please be warned and do yourself a favour. If you see a queen wasp, don't let it out of the window, bash the blighter with a rolled up newspaper, And if you fancy a gamble, buy some shares in a company that sells wasp nest killer products because I predict that they will make a killing this year.

Oh and by the way, take no notice of those who say that if you kill a wasp its mates will smell it and come and get you. It is just complete rubbish, just another one of those silly myths that do the rounds like, "you are never more than 10 feet from a rat."

Another Election

Hi all,
I can't believe we are going to have another election. I doubt very much that I will bother voting this time. I am 66 years old and have never failed to do my duty because I truly believed in democracy. Not any more, politicians a ruining this county because they are all looking after their own ends instead of doing the bidding of those who voted them in. It is nothing but a bloody shambles, but worse than that, can anybody see how it will get any better with another election?

Ah well, that's enough ranting about something I can't do anything about. This is just a quick post to let you know that one of my books, "Bossyboots" will be free from Wednesday 19th of April until the 23rd. To get your free copy just click the book's tab at the top of the page and then on the book's cover. You will be taken straight to amazon for you free copy.

It is a funny book and just what is needed to help the political nonsense we are faced with fade away. Don't let the title put you off because it is a book written for grown ups especially those who have had a mid-life crisis.

The lathe work is still going strong and I will leave you with a couple of recent creations called needle pots.

A First

Hi All,
Just a quick between post to let you know that the first book I ever published will be free to download from the 1st until the 3rd of March.

This is the first time that this book has been offered for free, so please grab a free copy while the going is good, it may not happen again for a good while.

Pen Sales

Hi all,
I can report that this week I sold my first pen on Folksy.com . It isn't the one shown in the link but this one.

I put it Folksy on Saturday evening and low and behold, on Sunday I got an email to say that it had sold. This was a nice surprise because it allows me to reinvest the money from the sale into more pen kits.  I am not aiming to make a lot of money out of this enterprise, but it would be nice to make enough money to buy more materials. It's strange how things work out because when I was younger, and slaving away in a factory to pay the mortgage and keep my sons in designer trainers, I always dreamed of starting a cottage industry so that I could make some extra cash. Now here I am retired, money is not such an issue any more and I think that making these pyrography pens could be a money spinner if I threw some time at it. Can you see how this is strange, because now that I have a product and the skills I no longer have spare time.

I once read that "most people are too busy earning a living to make any serious money" and that is very true.

Since selling that pen I have managed to make another one with harebells on it and put that for sale on Folksy too.

All of the pens I have made so far have been made from what is known as the slimline style kit.
The pens are in two pieces and have a twist action, they are also, as the name suggests a bit on the thin side. This means that I am very limited in what I can draw on the pen because of the lack of size. However, I have just purchased a new style of kit called a "Zeta," which uses only one piece of wood but it is thicker, which will give me more opportunity to vent my artistry.

I look forward to showing you some in the near future. In my next post I will show you my design process for doing the pyrography work. If anybody is interested in making pens like these and decorating them with pyrography they should find it interesting.

No Fishing

Hi all,
Just a quick between post to let you all know that one of my books will be free to download from Amazon over the next three days. The 1st until the 3rd of February to be precise. The book is called "No Fishing In Here: Just Other Short Stories."

Most of you will know that most of my books are about fishing so this one is a change. It contains a collection of my short stories, which are linked together by our emotions. So why not grab a copy while it is free and have a good laugh, or maybe shed tear or two. It is perfect for those times when a longer read isn't possible.

To get your copy click on the books tab at the top of the page and then onto the book's title to get a link straight through to the book on Amazon

Happy reading.

The Torture Of Self Publishing

Hi all,
I think that self-publishing is a fantastic idea because it has given authors all over the world the chance to publish their own content. They have also been able to reap the rewards of their labours. Unfortunately, the good news ends there because self-publishing it is rapidly disappearing up its own exhaust pipe.

 I say this because I went onto Amazon the other day to see how many free books were available on their Kindle platform. What I found shocked even me. Of course I knew that there were a lot of books being offered for free because I do my own free book promotions from time to time. However, to find that there were over 74,000 books going for free is a figure not to be trifled with. Now don't go running away with the idea that these are all freebies from self-published authors because they are not. Amongst the offering are classics and best sellers from well known traditional publishers.

I was lucky in a way because I published a few books before the free book bandwagon started rolling, so I already have a following. For new authors however, the story is different because with so many freebies about it must be very difficult to make any sales at all. If 74,000 books are available free of charge, what chance does a new author have?

I don't know how this situation can possibly resolve itself, so self publishing with a view to making money is a foolish notion. I know that some people want to write for pleasure and there is nothing wrong with that, but to think there are riches to be made is a big mistake.

I bet that's cheered you would be authors up a bit on a cold January morning.

By the way, I've just designed and finished turning a lovely pen. Here is a picture so we can end on a bright note.

Pyrography on a pen

Hi all,
 Those of you who follow this blog on a regular basis may be confused by this post because it is about pyrography and not about writing or drawing. Well there is a very good explanation for that, I had a senior moment and posted this content here when it should have gone elsewhere. Sorry about that, but if you have ever wondered about pyrography please read on, you never know, you might find it interesting.

I've managed to do another pen this week and rather than just show it to you, I thought it might be useful if I talked a little bit about how I do it. It might not be the best way or the only way, but it is my way and it works for me.

I have been doing pyrography for about 8 years and I have discovered a few things that might be helpful to those who are interested in this sort of artwork, regardless of the item upon which they are doing the pyrography. It might be a pen, a bowl or any other item made of wood or leather.

There are two main issues when it comes to pyrography, that is if you want to do any sort of detailed work. If you want to create stuff that looks like it has been in the fire of London, that's fine, get yourself a blow torch. However, if you want control over your light and dark areas you will need a decent pyrography machine. By that I mean machines like a Razer Tip or a Peter Childs Machine.

I started off with one of those cheap sub £20 jobbies that has the branding iron type tips, you know the one, it looks like a soldering iron on steroids. However, it didn't take me long to discover that I if I wanted to do finer work with some consistency then I needed something better. I purchased a Peter Childs machine and I have used that ever since.

Here is my latest pen.

It has an overlapping banding design that would be very difficult to do if I used the cheap pyrography iron. In fact, I think it would be almost impossible.

The reason for this is two fold. Firstly, the cheaper pyrography irons do not have any temperature control, which means that it is easy to get over-burn. Over-burn is simply when the heat from the pyrography iron does not actually burn, but discolours the lighter wood that you are trying to preserve. If you look at the pen above, it would be difficult to get sharp lines with a cheap pyrography iron.

The second issue is the size of the tips that comes with a bottom of the range pyrography iron. They are just to big to allow burning with any sort of finesse. I use a spoon tip for almost all of my work with my Peter Childs machine because I find that it gives me more control.

Above, you can see the two main types of tip for a Peter Childs machine. I use the one on the left because it allows me to use the back of the spoon for shading and the edge if the spoon for drawing fine lines. It really is very versatile. However, don't get thinking that the Peter Childs machine is restricted to these two types of tip because it isn't. These wonderful tips below, although not specifically made for a Peter Child machine, will work with it quite happily. One has to be careful though with tips because one can finish up buying tip after tip when most effects can be achieved with a spoon tip.

Here is picture of the pen I showed last week, all of the work on here was done with a spoon tip.

Another plus point for the more expensive pyrography iron is the size of the pen. The more expensive ones are about the size of a marker pen and that gives you much more control than the cheaper version which is like trying to draw with a turkey drumstick. You will also find that the decent iron is cooler to hold, whereas the cheap one gets very hot to the touch in a very short while.


So if you are thinking of taking up pyrography, getting a decent pyrography iron is the best way to go. In my next post I will tell you what the second issue is that I have discovered about pyrography.

Much of what I have said here can be found by clicking on the pyrography tab at the top of the page so please go there if you would like more information on the subject. And please feel free to ask any questions about pens or pyrography.

Shop is Open

Hi all,
Just a quick one to let you know that I have reopened a shop on Folksy in order to sell some of my pens. They will mostly be the ones with pyrography on because nobody else seems to do that. I have called the shop Sam's Pens because that is what my wife calls me, or should I say that's one of the things she calls me.

I have done another couple of pens this week, so that I would have a few in stock.

This is the first one and features some bull rushes, or reedmace which is actually their proper name. A bull rush is a different plant altogether, but because most people call the reedmace a bull rush the name as stuck.

The pen is a twist action pen with gold plating.

The second pen I did this week is one of my favourites.

It has a leaf design and to be honest, the photo doesn't really do it any justice. I think these pens make great gifts and are supplied in a faux velvet pouch. I gave away nine pens for Christmas presents this year and they were all received very well.

From an art perspective, doing pens is keeping me busy trying to come up with new designs. Finding something that can be sensibly drawn on the small surface area of a pen, which can than be burnt in with a pyrography iron is a bit of a challenge. However, it is that sort of challenge that makes the whole thing worth while, once something becomes easy, it usually becomes boring.

I'd love to hear your comments about my pens or my new shop for which I made my own banner.

Pyrography Pen

Hi all, I've just finished turning a new pen which I am quite pleased with. It was turned from a piece of maple and I added some pyrography to it. I think it gives it a unique look. One thing is for sure there isn't another one like it anywhere in the world.

It isn't perfect by any means because I had to redo the finish and when I was sanding it back I lost a bit of sharpness on the pyrography. However, this project proved what can be done on a pen with a pyrography iron.

I am now left with a dilemma. I like turning pens but I can see that pretty quickly I'm going to get overrun with them. This leaves me with only 2 choices.
Choice one is very simple, stop making pens. Choice two, tells me that I should reopen my shop on Folksy and sell some on there.

What do you think? Your comments are welcome. To see my other pens please click on the pen's tab at the top of the page.

While I'm here I like to let you know that I have another free book promotion from the 11th to the 13th of January. The books is the first one in "The Fishing Detectives" series "Carp Rustlers" and it can be downloaded free of charge from Amazon. To get you free copy, just click on the books tab at the top of the page and then on the book's cover. I hope you enjoy it

Illustration

Hi all,
I have been busy with my lathe turning pens, but I have also made time to do a bit of illustration for my wife's book called, "The Whoots."

Let's get one of the pens sorted first because I'm particularly proud of this effort. It was turned from maple into which I had inserted some coloured pencils. I had to sacrifice the ends of 5 of my Derwent Inktense pencils to do this project, but what the hell, it's all about art and creativity.

Here is the pen.

Luckily, I had drill bit that matched the pencils perfectly otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do it. The only real problem I came up against was during the sanding procedure. The sandpaper picked up the colour from the pencils and then deposited the pigment on to the bare wood. Eventually, I solved the issue by dripping some thin CA glue on the coloured pencil ends, it soaked in deep enough to seal the colour while I did the sanding. Hope you like it, I'd love to see your comments.

The illustration I did was for the front piece of my wife's book and therefore the first illustration. The book is about group of very small creatures (only milliminches high) who live in a hestimonium bush. Their houses are built onto branches within the bush and a serviced by a lift which goes up and down the centre of the trunk.

I've never done any illustrating before, but though it would give the reader as sense of where the creatures (Whoots) that the book is about actually live.

Just one last thing. My favourite book out of all the ones I've written, "Bossyboots" is free to download from Amazon until the 6th of January 2017. To get your free copy, just click on the books tab at the top of the page and then the book's cover. Please grab a copy while it is free and have a good laugh.