The True Meaning of Christmas

It's about this time of the year that churches get their knickers in a twist about the true meaning of Christmas. We are reminded that we are celebrating the birth of Christ and that all the tinsel and tat and over-commercialisation is obscuring what it's really all about. This sermon will be delivered by a preacher in front of a Christmas tree and possibly surrounded by small children dressed in vague approximations of middle eastern costume.

Sadly, as far as I am concerned, the church has this 180 degrees out of phase.

The true meaning of Christmas is not about baby Jesus, it's about parties, presents and celebration. In fact most people have got Christmas just about right when it comes down to it. It's the church, which hijacked a pagan festival, developed its own white lies around the festival and has to repaint it each year in an attempt to keep the facade up that has got it wrong. Even "Bible-Believing" churches can happily stand on their heads for the festive season; pointing out even simple falsehoods wins no prizes as a myriad of excuses for continuing the tradition come to the fore.

The shape of an electric field.

OK, so this is part of a much bigger project.
I got the slab like plastic piece in picture one from a charity shop. It's the base unit from a plasma ball and inside it has a battery powered high voltage, high frequency generator. Bit like a small tesla coil - although as far as I can see it's pretty much solid state. Any coils are hidden in a block of epoxy resin inside.

I got it to try to make the violet ray work - which it did after a fashion and yesterday had a thought and wondered if it would make a small neon bulb glow as well. It does, quite nicely. The neon isn't attached to anything, although if you touch the wires the bulb glows brighter. In fact, if you touch the wires lightly you get a small arc of electricity in-between your finger and the wire which burns small holes in your skin.
I then was showing this to a friend who asked how far away it worked, and thoughts turned to plotting the effective range. These photos are the outcome of that thinking. The block is switched on in almost total darkness. The camera is set for 90 seconds (total) exposure and the neon bulb is waved around in the air above the block. What is revealed (unsurprisingly really) is a dome shaped field of energy above the block. I also measured the voltage from the neon's wire: 320 vac.

I'm going to use these bulbs as eyes in my bug sculptures. They also light up quite happily from static electricity. 150 are arriving tomorrow from an electronics wholesaler!
SS

Edwardian Daleks

As part of the ongoing Mechanicals project, I have been looking through old electrical and electronics magazines. In particular I have been struck by the speculative thinking found in the "Electrical Experimenter" magazine. The cover here was published in 1918, towards the end of the Great War and when new technology was changing the way wars were fought.

I find the resemblance between the automatic soldiers in the trenches and Daleks uncanny. I only wish I could actually get hold of a copy (Yes, I know I can pay large sums of money to some US citizen.) and see the detail in the drawing. The jpeg below that I found in several places on the web simply isn't detailed enough. The body shape, in particular the head and the cable/piping around the head particularly resonate Terry Nation's creation. I was reminded of the appearance of the Dalek in the last season with Winston Churchill.

Interestingly in this picture the armaments appear to be machine guns. I realise that this was hot technology at the time, but in other articles in the magazine a death ray either produced electrically or from radium is proposed. In fact there's another cover with walking tanks using radium dearth rays published a few months before hand.

Electrical Experimenter has been a fruitful source of both practical early circuits and edwardian speculative articles. If you look at the early editions they are grounded pretty much in fact, but as the magazine progresses it slips more and more towards speculation. Nevertheless, it's an eye-opening window into what the future was supposed to look like nearly a hundred years ago, and unlike many similar publications, the predictions are closer to what actually happened in some cases.

Ceramics at the Podium, Bath

I have a few small items in the exhibition space at the Podium, Bath, they are there until 10/11/10. There are:

Two of my creatures.

Three small buildings, the "house at the Bottom of the Garden" that's on the being one that I'm particularly proud of. That is an experiment using coils of clay which are then subsequently covered in black clay slip and rubbed down. As you see it here, it has a wax finish, but when the show is over I will burn that off and put a glaze on. The crank clay is too rough a finish to take the wax.

The bowl that I completed on the eve of the exhibition that is made from coiled clay and coloured slip. It's polished with wax rather than glazed as this gives a much softer shine, and one that builds up over time. The finish in real life looks like bone, and is a lot lighter than it looks in this picture. I sanded and polished the bowl before firing it.

The last one here, the blue figure, is called Lament. It's dedicated to Ruth and is her favourite piece.

Thoughts on print buying.

I'm not an expert on print buying. I know two people who are*. But I'm still amazed at what people pay for getting stuff printed. Of all the things I get as part of my work, print costs vary the most. As a designer, when I get involved in the print side I simply pass on the cost. Any markup is minimal and I include a management fee if I negotiate with the printer. I think clients are unhappy now with so called agency markups of 20-50% on their print bills.

Having said that I don't always use the cheapest printer and I don't spend hours shopping around. I tend to use people that I've had consistent good results from and from who I know I'll get a good result. Also I want as much automation as possible, I want to be able to upload files and get them in the print queue as soon as they are ready to go. I want the process to be predictable and repeatable. And I want guaranteed turnarounds.

*one of them lives here: http://www.printbydesign.co.uk/, and no, they haven't paid for this ad, nor are they expecting it to appear.

Ruth's 30th Birthday

Ruth had her 30th birthday last week. So I put together a book of cartoons and pictures to celebrate the fact. When she was 19 or 20 Ruth decided to turn vegetarian. So I did a picture of her being a veggie.

Drawing Fairies

I've been asked to teach a six-year-old how to draw Fairies. Having, as far as I recall, never having drawn a fairy before I had a practice.

Actually it was fun. Here's the initial attempts, I beginning to think I could get into this. The paper was first washed over in the pink and then I sprinkled salt and sugar in it to get a texture. The fairies were drawn with a tan-coloured Pitt artist's pen and then I added red and white paint to bring them out a bit.

Violet ray again.

Got it working. At least the comb bit. The mushroom part doesn't want to know. But the comb now lights up a beautiful pink-mauve glow that doesn't quite reach the end. Very happy.

An idea about toys and making stuff

Not sure if this is even the right title, but I think the idea might have something.

I was at my school reunion yesterday and I stood next to a wall where I made one of the great discoveries of my school days. The 1960s spy movies were all the rage and we decided to make our own. Unsurprisingly, I guess, I was the only one who made anything. Crude approximations of tiny spy tvs and the suchlike. But the brought toys wouldn't have been that much more sophisticated.

Now days you can buy a quality of modelling and interactivity in the toy isle that only the best hobbyist could aspire too. And it's cheap.

For example:

Current 5 inch Dalek toy (October 2010)

12 inch figure 1965 http://www.skaro.org/toys.htm

Two Daleks and a Mechanoid - slightly better I had the one on the right, and that was the pinnacle of available toy Daleks - these are all about 7" tall. http://www.skaro.org/toys.htm There's an advert for them I found here: dalek ad 

You can see the difference in quality in these toys. The blue Dalek could easily be duplicated with  cardboard and a bit of imagination. The others are more accurate but still fairly simple. Cost of the grey 1965 Dalek: 4 shillings and sixpence. (Or 14 copies of the 1965 Beano) Cost of the 2010 Dalek, £10 (Or five copies of the 2010 Beano). Not quite sure if comparing the cost of the Beano is relevant. But it is some kind of yardstick.

So we deny people the chance to make things for themselves; by making stuff so well we set the entry bar too high. By setting the price so cheap there is no financial motive to make it for yourself. Finally by making it so explicit we deny the imagination.

The Violet Ray Machine

This is the Violet ray Machine. It was originally made in the 1920's and this one comes with two probe. A standard mushroom probe, and a probe to comb through your hair. 

I have no idea if this works, right now it definitely doesn't because the wires going in and out of the box are badly frayed. However one that has been corrected, and I'm brave enough to connect it to the mains current; it still may not work. Insulation may have broken down, internal cables may have corroded, capacitors which are made with waxed paper may have shorted. Or of course, the probes may have leaked.

The thing is basically a high voltage generator - like a car ignition - with a spark gap to excite it. In this case the spark gap works (I assume) at mains frequency. The probes are probably just partial vacuums - but there may be some gas like argon or neon in there to glow.

Overall I would expect the effect to be similar to a plasma ball, and despite the huge medical and spirital claims made for these things over the years, just as about useless.

But pretty.

A German Typewriter

Found this in a rubbish bin. It works perfectly, has all manuals and tools, and is very heavily built. Unusually, it has a figure one and a zero on the keyboard - instead of using the lower case "L" and capital "O" like the Imperial would force you to. You can also half space, so that if you need to correct something you can either squeeze in another letter or cover up an extra one. The white space on the ink selector is for a correction ribbon.

Here's the test sheet giving the whole font:

The Little Imperial Typewriter

This is the Imperial Good Companion Typewriter that I got a few weeks ago. It's a bit grubby, but it all works. Currently it's having it's metal bits soaked in WD40 to remove the grime of ages.

The ribbon is missing, I have it; but I'm looking out for a new one and I've got the spools in my bag so I can check against stock. If worst comes, I'll simply re-spool another size.

When I've got it working as well as I can, I'll use it to do the typesetting on my website.

Whilst surfing the web looking for more information on the typewriter, I found this blog: http://preciouslittlebirdy.blogspot.com/ 

The writer Angela had also got hold of one of these and very kindly scanned the manual for me. Thank you.

Making paper look old

I sort of like grunge. But only sort of. Actually I like old, worn, rusty, but not too old or worn or rusty. There's a 'used' feel for something where either mine or other people's hands and time have softened the edges and made it lived in and then there's the rust and decay of neglect. Don't like that at all.

But this is about paper and making paper look and feel old. But not in the sense of making a forgery.

The first thing is to select your paper carefully. You need a mildly absorbent paper, cheap, thick paper seems to work the best, although I have had starling results with quite expensive rag water-colour paper. Paper that doesn't absorb colour evenly is good. Coated papers are poor generally and if you need to size the paper, then doing that afterwards is a very good idea although the results maybe unpredictable.

Secondly your staining medium. Most people will say cold tea at this point and they would be right. I have tried all sorts of paint, stains, inks, dyes and so on, but at the end cold PG Tips seems to come out the best. I do however use Winsor and Newton burst seinna and raw umber as well.

To apply, first soak the paper and let let dry to a heavy dampness. Then using a tea bag as hot as possible, wipe it all over. Finally tear the teabag open and sprinkle the tea leaves all over the paper. Sprinkling with salt will give a grainy feel to the paper and make crusty little bits. Leave to dry, and then brush off tea leaves and salt if you've used it.

If you want a deckle edge, buy paper with a deckle edge. Tearing doesn't look the same.

Here's a picture I drew of a beetle on our wedding anniversary that illustrates the paper.

Here's some close ups of the paper surfaces:

This is a general view of the surface.

Here you can see the effect of a tea leaf stain. This one diffused.

The beetle's foot, drawn with water soluble pencils, contrasts nicely and feels the same as the paper itself.

Here's a salt stain. The paper is crusty at this point, which makes it tactile.

Mrs. Spicer

A quickish sketch of my genius, gorgeous, generous, garrulous, girl. (Girl gotta google garrulous, methinks...)

Some more creatures from the past.

Here's another drawing from the recent excavations. In this one you can see more clearly the internal structures and organs. Although both the use and mechanisms are speculative, it is beginning to look like that these creatures operated collectively, and intelligence was a result of group interactions rather than the individual.

Wireless Electromagnetic Louse.

Found around natural fossil reactors in Africa and Brazil. These louse-like creatures are based on metals and silicon as well as carbon. They appear to feed and breed on the radiation produced by these billion old year natural reactors and died out when the uranium decayed to a stable state. Noticeable is the coil and capacitor formations inside the animal although these have decayed and much research is required to determine the method of function. No known examples are now alive, although curiously complete specimens often twitch when exposed to strong electromagnetic fields

Some recent drawings

A couple of recent drawings. The one below is inspired by a visit to Portsmouth's submarine museum. More tube, pipes, dials, and less space than I have ever seen (or not seen) in any movie about submarines. Admittedly I haven't seen them all, but the lack of space in a real submarine was intense. There were twenty people in our tour. Seventy people lived in the sub. I'm impressed, although I couldn't stand the claustrophobia.

The last diploma course...

Slightly excited as I just found the last vacancy - possibly ever - for mental health training this year. The diploma course is being discontinued, but some reason I was scanning UCAS and noticed that the University of Surrey has one space left. I have no real idea what to do next, so I've emailed them. Maybe I'll call in the morning. It wold mean moving pretty soon, but it would be good.

Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor

After a few days of hard work I have now re-certified as an ACE (InDesign) and have just certified as ACI, that is Adobe Certified Instructor. Feel a bit pleased with myself.

Serendipity

Decided to go to the car boot market today. Found a 12 inch glass dome on a stall. £6.00. Been looking for one of those for some time, so pleased!
Also found a 1940s typewriter and a coin sorter that doesn't do 5p coins - it's worn.

Followed that by discovering we have a local grotto built about 200 years ago. Did Photosynths of that and a statue there. You can see the Photosynths here: http://photosynth.net/userprofilepage.aspx?user=stephen_spicer

**UPDATE** Microsoft have closed Photosynth down sadly. I don't have the original files anymore either. :-(