This week has been good, a lot of downloads of Went to Woo a Porn Star for some reason, but never mind.  It is a nice story, I was a little bit annoyed at the crap formatting of the online version so if downloading it, please get an alternative format to the online reader.

So far, the direction of the new collection is most interesting.  I did a bit of surfing around to see the difference between Hindu and Sikh art and I was perked up a little by this. Little Shiva and Cute Grumpy Shoe Muse are rather perfect in terms of source in this case.

I work from very scanty information and in this case it has become something of a case of poison and antidote. Little Shiva is very glitzy and punchy, and the new stuff is subtle and technically more advanced, very much a metaphor for the respective religious art styles generally.

I am looking forward to seeing it all when it is finally complete.  I am currently working on a bean bag, although it will be significantly more structured than a traditional bean bag, and it is looking very promising as a concept piece to start the cushion collection.

Haven’t done too much with the shoes.  Did bump into shoe muse today and entirely forgot to ask him for clog information as I was working and/or pleased to see him. Hopefully he will drop by when the project is a little further on so I can discuss it further.

It would have been nice if Haram Bawbag had been a decent representation of Islamic art, but since living things cannot be depicted in Islam, the very premise of any of my work is actually Haram.  I’m leaning towards the original name for it now.

Hilariously, I captured the sight of an oil and dairy millionaire declaring that he was in support of the climate strike with a huge paper poster rendering of a tree of life in front of a window of Mac computers this week. This encapsulates just about everything wrong with our current society in one neat image.  I was unable to resist taking a photograph.

Little Shiva is still being coated and awaiting some carpet and the addition of the tongues once I have completed that part.  After this bit is done, whenever that is, the resin portion will start and will take several weeks.  The damaru base also needs work, and a tiled base is planned for the whole piece.

Haram Bawbag is at a standstill until I have time to go and work on it, there is a lot of sanding and varnishing to do before the glass is added.

Shoes and bags are progressing slowly as I am working on some new cushions, which I am making to establish a more subtle colour range.

I seem to have a major thing for small snappy, chatty dudes with beards and hats.  I had no idea.  I am not all that sad about it. This one seems to be colour sensitive, which probably means the shoes will be very interesting when I am happy with the shape.

Working very hard but at least I have time to sew.

Apart from that, launching a new range of products and website building, and a national company are thinking of allowing me to run a few sites. That would be a nice change, but not chicken counting and there is no way I will stop doing what I am currently doing regardless, as it is fun and keeps the sewing going.  Besides which, I like the people I work with in at least two jobs.

Interview With Author Ina Disguise

click here.  It is on NFreads.com

And apart from that, I am deeply unimpressed with the actions of parliament this week.

I appreciate that it is difficult for stupid people to understand a temporarily incoherent visionary, but making sure he cannot negotiate effectively is outstandingly dumb.

I despair, I really do.

Ina

Well, it is the end of an era.  Little Shiva is now too big for the car and is being waterproofed.  I am sort of glad to be free of it on one hand, on the other I now have to work on the shoe and small handbag collection so it is just another kind of work.

I suppose I should clean out my mobile studio prior to commencement of a new project, as Little Shiva was very messy.

It now resembles a boat, and I will have to find somewhere to keep it that is secure and safe.

For the benefit of Little Shiva the person, so far you are a spectacular chair. Let us hope that you are not destroyed during the next phase of construction.

Nine months full time sewing is the longest I have ever worked on any single piece at once.  Although Raw Sex Object took a total of 7 years and represents four people, it was very slow and laid back and I was not in a hurry to complete it.  It is a pain in the neck and weighs about 40 kg at the last weighing.  Little Shiva is likely to be double that.

Little Shiva was a crazy decision, but a combination of grief for my mother and disbelief that anyone could be that nasty meant that this was the time to do it.

Now it is time to move on, and I will devote myself to my smaller pieces in an effort to get some work further afield.  I have a lot to do.

Haram Bawbag is still underway and will be the next large piece to finish, probably followed by Iain Duncan Smith prior to being anywhere near to completion of Little Shiva.

In the meantime, I will be thinking about lighting as this was a popular idea.

It is probably time I did some writing.

Ina

Ok so I started with the miniscule black and white tiling, which took about three days.

Then came the veneerwork, which I was a bit rusty on so I thought I would be worse than I was – and I started with the grey one.  I did a lot better than expected, which is no use for kitsugi really (you need errors for kitsugi) but at least I feel a bit better about doing some more.  I then sanded and varnished the veneer about five times before I proceeded.

Next came the coloured paper, the celluloid, the hessian and the slate.  All of those were relatively simple jobs. The cameos on the brown one were original Victorian shell cameos and are all different.  You can see them on the orange paper run to the right.

On the left you can see I used some miniature Victorian perfume labels on the turquoise to the lower paper run.

I was very fortunate that a collector was selling a lot of very high quality dolls house stuff, so the musical instruments etc came from there.

The dude was very well dressed, so I got ebony glove stretchers and a button hook, several pocket watches and general ideas from that.

The tea sets are from very high end ceramic makers and would be very expensive were you to buy them new.

The little notes are 17th century Italian song titles because I happened to find some.

Otherwise the circles are harris tweed from my personal collection of swatches, I spent about two days embossing the metallic sections and then a couple of nights working on the decoupage and collectors postcard section.

Everything had to be varnished very carefully because of the risk to the leather from the finishing coats of resin.

To put into perspective how expensive a job like this can be, the ceramic black and white tiles alone cost about 40 quid as they are a specialist item.

Was it worth it?  Well we seem to have an optimal figure for leather varnishing, which is good and about 6 coats.  Basically the leather drinks everything you put on it, so you have to judge it by what it’s doing – I went too far with the grey one but hey, he’s an asshole so who cares? I also learned that work like this is a lot harder than it looks.

I used the signals he had given in the interiors to theme the piece.  As it turns out he is a twat, so this is probably all there is to him and he probably thinks I’m psychic rather than understanding that this is an answer to his own work on his coffee shops.

I will grudgingly admit that it was a good commercial image, but a complete waste of time and money due to his being a complete wanker. It is not like he is going to do anything basically decent like apologise. He will just sit about and look miserable until he forgets and tries to take the piss out of someone else.

Now thinking of offering to revamp someone else’s coffee shop just to poke him in the eye.

Anyway, it was intended for the bored children in his businesses so as a practical piece it is fine, but he has made it a waste of my time by being a dick.

Isn’t it interesting that I’m percieved as worthless and yet I’m the one giving the gift?