Rock paper scissors*

This is ‘Take Two’… the original was a bit of an epic (over 7 mins), so I’ve edited it down to around 2 minutes. It’s got a quite a nice ending but only really has any impact if you watch with sound on.

Every year Dropmore Primary School runs a science project competition. The children (aged from 4-6) are set three challenges and can choose which one to enter. Parents are encouraged to work with the children, so the children can learn, but it tends to get a bit competitive – especially between some of the dads!

This year my son, Dylan, and I created a ’space themed’ marble run. It took a whole weekend – I did most of the building but my son was very involved in the designing and testing phases! I used dowel to create the tracks and an old Quality Street tin to make a ‘rocket lift’ that carried the marble back to the top.

Anyway I created a movie of the whole project including the grand finale, science day itself, when our effort went down a storm.

For your interest, it was filmed using a Nokia N75 mobile phone and edited using Adobe Premiere.

Another one from the archives. I made this ‘marble run’ 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.