Rock paper scissors*

Another one from the archives. I made this gadget back in the early 90s from wire, old printing plates and three baked beans tins.

It doesn’t have much of a purpose. A marble rolls downwards along wire tracks, passing through 2 baked beans tins, before triggering a large counter weight that takes the marble right back to where it came from.

There are also a few special effects along the way – a counter weight that turns a windmill, and a release catch that flips over one of the cans.

Most of the structure is made from wire purchased at a hardware store. I spent about 6 weeks bending it into shape with pliers – it was a real labour of love!

I also used old printing plates. These are a very versatile material and over the years I used them to make loads of different things. You can easily fold it by hand, which means you can create complex components without the need for rivots and bolts.

My ‘baked beans machine’ is currently being stored at my Mother-in-laws house in Cape Town (in the garden shed)!

I’ve done this quite a few times now… create a ‘mysterious’ stone circle in a secluded part of a woods, just so I could see how long it lasts before humans or animals destroy it.

Last Friday my son and I created this stone circle somewhere in Burnham Beeches (a protected woods in South Buckinghamshire). I’ll give it a couple of weeks then go back and take another photo.

Amazingly, we made a stone circle on the same tree stump over a year ago, and despite there being no evidence of a circle when we revisited last Friday, quite a few of the stones still remained in place.

So stay tuned, I’ll update this post in a few weeks time.

One of the nice things about having kids is that you get to act like a kid as well – so this weekend while my son was drawing some ‘cool’ spaceships I was drawing some ‘cool’ sci-fi battle scenes.

It was great fun, although I did get told off quite a few times for not putting the lids back on his felt tip pens!

As for my artistic endeavours – I would have liked to spent longer sketching out the characters in pencil first (I was never great at life drawing).

To cover-up some of these inaccuracies I went over the finished picture with a brush and water in order to smooth out some of the detail. I then let it dry and used a black felt-tip pen to sharpen some of the outlines.

Felt-tip pens can be quite harsh, this is a nice way to soften the image and give it a more stylised look. Give it a go.

I guess snowmen are already old news, but I have been too lazy to update my blog, so apologies.

My son and I created ‘Lanky’ in the park behind our house. We didn’t have a carrot or lump of coal handy so I had a go at creating the snowman’s features by sculpting the snow instead.

It worked quite well, but it started snowing so heavily I had to take my son home before I could attempt the hat!

The snowman is about 6 and half feet tall and is sticking it’s tongue out – which is probably why it did’t last very long, when we walked past the park a couple of hours later all that was left was a crumpled pile of snow.

Even the snowmen get mugged in my neighbourhood.

Before economising became fashionable (or should I say a necessity) I went through a very frugal patch of my own during the 90s and was forced to make a lot of my furniture.

Although I used recycled or discarded objects to create the furntiture, I wanted the finished result to be professional. I was particularly fond of using paint tins. I would sand them down to the metal, crumple them (for effect) and then put a sheet of glass on top to create a table.

Some of my other favourites included a wine rack made from a discarded vegetable box and an exhaust pipe candlestick holder.

Anyway, check out my full range of recession busting furnitureimageimageimageimage.