The 2024 beekeeping year

As we come towards the end of September we also mark the end of the beekeeping year. The wet Spring was a real challenge to gardeners and beekeepers alike. Plants and insects just seemed to sit and wait for signs of Spring, but they never really came. The impact on pollinators and insects in general has been much reported, with record low numbers of butterflies for example and, from our own experience, a very slow build up of bee colonies. Even when a form of summer arrived it was clear that colonies were struggling. As a result, honey stores are low, to the extent that we are leaving the majority of this year’s honey crop with the bees to ensure they are as strong as possible and ready for the coming winter.

There was however a bright end to the summer season. That came with the fields of beautiful blue borage.

 

Borage honey remains my favourite single crop honey. Visually it is clear and light, most notable when compared to a regular summer season honey. From a taste perspective it has a lovely light tang to it and due to its composition it doesn’t start to set for upwards of a year. I have it available from my shop here.

The bees are flying

It may only be the beginning of March, but the bees are taking advantage of every warm day to get out of the hive.

At this time of year there isn’t much available by way of forage for them, but the odd crocus and primrose flower provides vital pollen, as does some of the early tree blossom. The pollen is used by the bees to produce ‘brood food’, fed to the developing bees which will grow into Spring foraging bees.

These early Spring flights are also important to help the bees with the right conditions to clean out the hive.

It is a lovely sight after the long winter months and a true sign of the warm days to come.

 

Still time to order honey for Christmas and stave off those coughs and colds

There are still a few days to order honey in time for Christmas. I am currently using Tracked 48 hour delivery services to post out honey so all should be fine up to the end of this week at least.

Whether you prefer the light delicate flavour of borage honey, seen on the right in the picture below, or the depth of flavour in blossom honey, as on the left, the choice is yours.

Along with local honey being that ‘what can we possibly buy for ……….’ present, it is good to remember the positive side to eating local raw honey. Even NICE, The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence have been issuing guidance for years that good local honey should be the first defence against coughs and colds, rather than antibiotics.

Beekeepers have been saying this for decades.

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Saving bees

This week we have been doing our bit to save a colony of honey bees.

We were asked to take a look at a hive left by someone giving up beekeeping with some people who had decided this was their opportunity to become beekeepers themselves.

Its new owners had done all the right things. They had bought new equipment to replace the old dilapidated hive and had joined the local beekeepers association to learn what to do, hence asking us to help.

We found a very small colony on old comb with a disorganised mix of frame types and an area where they had been left to make comb as they wished, which you can see on the far right of this picture. The bees we found looked healthy.

The problem was that we couldn’t inspect the bees in this wild comb as it was fixed to the box. It was also, of course, where the bees had decided to live.

So what to do?

We cut the ‘wild comb’ out of the box and carefully placed it between some nice new frames in their new, clean hive. As the bees gradually move onto the new comb, the wild comb can be removed. There are only a couple of cups of bees in there, perhaps a few hundred, whereas a full colony should have upwards of 30,000 bees at this time of year. But they have their queen and there is plenty of nectar around so they have a better chance of surviving now.

This picture shows what we found once we had cut the comb free from its old box. There is everything a colony needs to survive, only on a very small scale.

Right in the centre is the queen, with her female worker attendants surrounding her.

You can see the pearly white bee larvae in cells around her. These will pupate and be sealed into the cell by the worker bees, creating the domed ‘biscuit’ coloured cells you can see around her. In a few days time new bees will chew their way out of the capped cells and start to contribute to the future of the colony.

For food, you can see the nectar the bees have recently collected glistening in the cells on the left and bottom third of the picture. This will have the water driven off by the bees fanning it and, with a little magic from the bees, will become honey.

Then you can see a band of differently coloured cells, with a matt finish. This is pollen from different flowers and trees. See my previous post about the number of different pollen types found in our honey. The pollen is protein to the bees and is used to feed the young larvae as they develop.

So, these bees have everything they need. It is going to be an uphill struggle for them to grow from such a small colony. But, they have a good home, a queen, and some keen new beekeepers to look after them. All they need now is nice weather and a bit of luck.

How can you tell if honey is pure?

I had an interesting follow up question to my last post about raw honey for hayfever.  It was a simple question, but not so easy to answer. I was asked how an individual can tell if the honey they see on the shelf is pure, raw and unadulterated?

The easy answer might not be quite so correct. You might imagine that if you buy from a ‘man on the market’ then you take your own chances, whereas if you buy from one of the top supermarkets then you are safe in their buyer’s hands. Wrong.

What about price? I just looked on line and you can buy a 12oz jar of honey from a top 5 supermarket for 75p, and that’s typical.  Look closely and it comes from China. Some just say ‘blend of non-UK honey’, but is that a problem?

Well, in 2002 all Chinese honey was banned from Europe because it contained illegal levels of antibiotics. Then in 2010 honey from India was banned by the EU for the presence of antibiotics and lead.

In 2016, countries previously without any significant honey production suddenly became major exporters of honey. Honey from countries like Vietnam was siezed and found to be Chinese honey.

More recently the EU has launched a campaign to fight off adulterated honey flooding the markets. As reported in the Financial Times just a few days ago:
“The drive by 20 member states, led by Slovenia, to tighten regulation against what one official dubbed “honey laundering” follows a European Commission study that found a surge in fraud. Almost half of the honeys surveyed broke EU rules, with ingredients such as sugar syrups, colourings and water, according to findings published last month.”

So, surely if you just buy from your ‘Top 5’ supermarket they will have done all the tests to make sure you have pure 100% honey in that jar you have just purchased for, erm 75p?

Perhaps not if you read this report that nearly half of honey imported into Europe is actually a sugar water mix, with added flavourings and colouring.

A report by the British Beekeepers’ Association in 2022  summarised:

  • Between 2000 and 2014 China increased its honey output by 88%, but only increased its hive count by 21%. So where is all that extra ‘honey’ coming from?
  • Well, we know where a lot of it ends up. The UK imports 50,000+ tonnes of Chinese honey a year. Take a look at the back of that 75p jar of ‘honey’ and you might start to join up the dots.
  • As part of a survey, researchers in India ‘spiked’ honey with varying percentages of sugar syrup (25%, 50% and 75%). They were sent to labs where UK style tests for adulterated honey were carried out. Scarily only the 75% sugar syrup sample failed. This suggests that ‘honey’ with 50% sugar syrup would pass UK tests for ‘pure honey’.

So where does that leave the consumer? Well, the oldest of sayings always hangs true. If the price looks too good to be true then it probably is. If you are happy to take that risk on your 75p jar of honey, or even that reassuringly expensive jar of supermarket honey, first take a look at the back and see where it has come from and ask yourself how sure you are that it is what it claims to be.

So, what do you do?

Buying direct from a beekeeper is the best way to make sure you are getting what you are paying for, as any honey which has passed through a supermarket supply chain, particularly with overseas origins and sold cheaply, might not be quite what it claims to be.

Raw honey for hayfever?

Much has been written about the claimed benefits of raw local honey to help reduce the symptoms of hayfever. Little of it has scientific backing, perhaps because there is nothing to be gained, financially speaking, by the larger pharma companies from doing the work.

This leaves the anecdotal words of those who have suffered from hayfever and found local honey to be beneficial in reducing the affects, whether directly or indirectly. The principle is a simple one. Eat raw, unprocessed honey, which still contains pollen, and in consuming that pollen it finds its way into your mouth/nasal passages etc and helps desentisize you.

My own personal experience was that of a 20 something having steroid injections once a month through the summer just so that I could survive. After a season of taking regular unprocessed honey (teaspoon a day) I found my symptoms reduced to the level where only on the highest of pollen level days did I need an antihistamine tablet. This was a direct trigger to me starting to keep my own bees. Now the only pollen that affects me is when the grasses are in full flow, as bees don’t collect grass pollen, it is wind distributed.

So, if you want to give it a go what should you, or shouldn’t you, do?

Firstly you need untreated (not over-heated, not micro-filtered) raw honey. Overheating breaks the sugar strings and damages the more subtle enzymes and structure of the honey. Micro-filtering removes all particles, including the beneficial pollen. Both of these processes make liquid honey stay liquid for longer, ideal for bulk storage on supermarket shelves.

Whilst our use of ‘Raw’ to describe honey is unregulated, you get the idea and can decide how much processing you want in your honey.

Out of interest, last year we had our late season honey tested and there were 35 different types of pollen. When we jar our honey we mix early and late season, further increasing the range of flowers visited to produce the depth of flavour in the honey and for its pollen content. Ours includes:

  • Oil Seed Rape
  • Borage
  • Bramble
  • Turnip
  • Purple Viper’s Bugloss
  • Cabbage
  • Wood Forget-me-not
  • White Clover
  • Indian Balsam
  • Ivy
  • Privet
  • Mustad
  • Sycamore
  • Heather
  • Broad Bean
  • Blackberry
  • Weld
  • Thistle
  • Willow
  • Stag’s Horn Sumach
  • Bindweed
  • Coriander
  • Purple Loosestrife
  • Bird’s Foot Trefoil

This list surprised even us, our bees are truly busy when it comes to visiting a wide range of flowers and collecting nectar and pollen.

So, after ‘raw and unprocessed’, ‘local’ is a good principle to use when buying honey for hayfever. However, saying that, the important thing is to have honey from an area where the crops and wild flowers etc are similar to your area.  Taking it to the extreme, if you live in Essex and suffer when the oil seed rape is in flower, then pretty much any honey from Essex, or areas with fields of yellow, is going to be the honey to go for, whereas Scottish Heather honey isn’t going to help you much (delicious as it is).

Hope that explanation helps answer some of the questions I always receive at this time of year about honey for hayfever.

 

 

 

Honey harvesting

OK, I have to admit to being a bit rubbish at this blogging at the moment. Life has been extremely busy, but the bees go on and have had a very busy year, doing their bit for pollination and generously providing some excess honey beyond what they need for their winter stores.

A hot dry summer is a double edged sword. Whilst the bees are out and about in the heat, it isn’t great for honey. The general lack of water and moisture in the soil reduces the amount of nectar produced in flowers and so reduces honey production by the bees. We must also be extra vigilant to provide a water source for the bees as it is essential for their survival.

It didn’t deter the swarming season though. Here’s one after collection from a local village, just about to be rehomed.

September is the end of the beekeeping season. Whilst there are a few flowers left and the bees still fly on warm days, it is the month we remove the last of the excess late season honey and tuck up the bees for their, and our, winter rest.

phew…

 

Time for honey

Well, it’s April and the bees are flying at every opportunity. Whilst pollen and nectar sources are not overly abundant, when the temperature is above 12 degrees or so the bees fly. They do bring back some early pollen, which is a sign of a laying queen, always good to see, and they can use the good weather for a bit of spring cleaning.

The oil seed rape is already coming into flower and within a few weeks will yield nectar and ultimately provide the first honey harvest of the year.

It’s Spring…

 

Zoom talks

I have received quite a few enquiries regarding giving my talks via Zoom.

Having dipped my toe in the process over last summer, I have now given quite a number of Zoom talks to WIs, U3As and similar groups.

Given the continuing lockdown and likely extended restrictions, it seems that more groups are now setting up regular Zoom meetings and I am receiving more calls asking about the suitability of my talks for zoom. So I thought it useful to put up a post to let anyone interested know that my talks do work well for Zoom and that I am happy to help out.

It of course means that I am not restricted travel wise so can offer my talks to groups beyond Essex.

Full details of my talks are here.

The talks which work best for zoom are:

  • ‘Around the world in 33 years and 7 months’
  • ’90 years of Social History Through the Eyes of Mildred, my Austin Seven’
  • ‘Blacksmithing: from then to now’

Feel free to contact me for further information.

It’s been a while

I know it has been a while since I last posted, but circumstances have conspired against me.

Apart from WordPress introducing a baffling new layout which I find infuriating and leaving me not wanting to fight my way through it to post here, it doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy, especially in relation to the bees.

Below is an amazing picture, where the queen and bees have decided to lay some brood in precisely the shape of a hexagon, within a frame of stored food. This is the shape they use for each cell in their comb, as it is the most efficient use of space. To then use it on a larger scale for the brood pattern is one of those amazing things bees do.

Weather vane

At last it’s time to finish off my weather vane posts. I last left the story with the base of the weather vane in zinc undercoat. I finished off the pig for the ‘wind’ part from plasma cut aluminium and balanced it on a rod with a curly tail end for decoration and balance. This fitted over the vertical part of the main vane stem with a greased ball bearing to allow it to swing easily in the wind.

With the whole assembly screwed in place of the original tatty weather vane, I was quite pleased with the result.

Here is a close up of the pig:

Blacksmith made weather vane

I am overdue part 2 of my weather vane project, so here goes.

This is of course the main body after zinc undercoating.

it weighs about 3 times as much as the ‘shop bought’ one it replaces and should last a lot more than 3 times as long. I have added some twists and scrolls to the design, partly for strength but mainly for decoration.

I have also added my trademark, and favourite, use of organic scrolls along with industrial rivets in the strapping design to support the vertical post. A quick bit of compass work also confirmed the need for a twist in the post to get it perfectly aligned.

Now to the N, E, S and W indicators and the all important vane itself.

Blacksmith made weather vane

I have been thinking for a while that I need to replace the shop bought weather vane, currently sitting over the garage, with a proper blacksmith made weather vane.

The current weather vane, as seen here, was bought about 20 years ago from a garden centre somewhere long forgotten.

It was chosen more for its subject matter than its overall design, pigs being a favourite of my wife.

However, over recent years the weather has taken its toll and I have had to make a few running repairs to the arms. From a distance it still looks OK, but for a while I have wanted to make a slightly more ornate weather vane before the old one falls apart.

So now I have set the scene, the work began. The one stipulation was that it must have the same basic pig design. I therefore started by taking a photograph of the pig and blowing it up onto aluminium sheet, but more of that to come.

 

Celebration bench part 3

The final stage of making our 25th wedding anniversary celebration bench was to make the slats for the seating. These were made from oak, from another plank bought from the National Trust, Ickworth wood fair.

It took quite a bit of cutting and planing to produce the slats, but the results are very pleasing.

Below is a picture of the completed bench in the garden.

Celebration bench part 2

Following on from my last post, it was now time to start rebuilding the bench.

The first part I made was the back. I chose a lovely piece of oak, which I had in store for about 3 years since buying it at the Ickworth wood fair. It was felled from the estate, so has provenance, and I have the reassurance that it was part of an active RHS woodland management process.

The design is based on the script we made for our wedding party invitations, with added ribbons curling to the ends. Having cut the plank to the basic shape to fit the cast ends, I blew up the design, then stuck it to the wood before carving through it.

As an added touch I also decided to carve the back of this piece. Hardly anyone will ever see it, but that’s not the point.

I chose a sunflower design. It starts with a simple relief in a plate sized piece before carving out the detail:

 

 

Celebration bench

For a while now I have been working on a special bench. A 25th wedding anniversary present to ourselves.

It all started with a chance purchase from one of our favourite junk shops in Hexham in November 2018. The owners were sitting outside the shop having a cup of tea. They were seated on a small Victorian cast end bench, which was for sale.

We had to buy it. 10 minutes later we were ‘feeding’ it into the car.

As we had assumed, all the woodwork was rotten, but the cast ends held much promise, and an opportunity for some wood carving.

Having borrowed some tools from the farm we stay at, the rotten wood was removed so that we could more easily load it into the car with all our other bits and pieces. My starting point was thus set, with an awful lot of work to do:

Borage Honey Extracting

August brings the last honey extraction of the season and that means time for borage honey extracting. Borage is a beautiful blue flowered herb grown for its oil. It flowers over a very short period and, if you prepare well, and are lucky, your bees will bring it in as a single crop.

It doesn’t always work, but when it does, the honey is crystal clear and has a lovely delicate, light sweet taste, with a slight tang at the end. Its composition also means that it can take a year to set, compared to, for example, oil seed rape honey, which will set in a couple of weeks.

This year we had 100 acres of borage grown near to us, so we made sure we were ready for it. The first stage of honey extracting is to remove the wax capping over the honey, placed there by the bees to store it, and by default showing us that it is ‘ripe’.

The next stage is the extracting process itself. The frames are put into an extractor like the spokes in a wheel and spun. The honey simply flies out from the centrifugal force. No heat, no pressure, nothing unnatural.

The result from a little extra work is pure borage honey.

I jarred it up this morning and you can see the results below.

 

I have held up the jar of borage honey (on the left) against a jar our our regular mixed season honey, so that you can see just how clear it is.

We were lucky, in that 3 of the 13 supers we extracted were pure borage.

Last year we had none, next year who knows, but I love the ‘chase’ to get the purest of single crop honey. The fact that it is also my favourite tasting honey of all is a bonus. Get it while it lasts.

Glass flowers

We have always solved the problem of differences in flowering times by planting in pots, which can then be moved around to maximise displays.

However, we now have a more permanent, and artificial, solution.

With electricity by the bucketful being generated by our solar panels, we are making as much use as possible, rather than just feeding it back to the grid.

The latest solution to both the lack of colourful flowers and the need to use excess electricity, has been a lot of experimentation in making fused glass ‘flowers’ in our kiln.

To the left you can see a selection of our, slightly over the top, glass ‘flowers’ in the sleeper garden.

Below are some closer pictures. They certainly don’t resemble any real flower, but that isn’t the point. They are just intended as a bit of fun and an interesting way of adding colour.

 

 

 

Carved elephant stand

it was some time ago that I completed my carved elephant. It was always designed to stand on a glass platform, but the cost of running the glass kiln for a casting run has put me off.

That all changed when we had 25 solar panels installed late last year. They are currently generating around 20kW a day and so a 5 day kiln run using about 35kW doesn’t seem so bad.

I used the lost wax principle. This entailed first carving the base in wax. It was then used to create a mould from plaster and silica, reinforced with wire mesh. The mould is then inverted in the Aga to melt the wax out, leaving a plaster mould ready for the glass.

The glass comes in chunks and is simply placed in the mould at the start of the 5 day cycle, most of which is a very gradual cooling down annealing process to ensure the finished base doesn’t crack.

A few finishing touches and the elephant was glued to the base and stands proud as it was always designed to do:

Bertie 2 the final version

Well, after a few tantalising glimpses of the different stages and parts of Bertie 2, here he is in his natural habitat.

I finished him with beeswax polish on his shell and a matt wood protection on his legs and head. This has given a nice contrasting sheen and matt finish.

 

As a homage to the original Bertie, here he is having recently woken up for another year.

Wooden Bertie now sits on the mantlepiece. At least I don’t have the worry and responsibility my sister has of looking after the real one.

All I need do is add a bit of polish once a year and not think about lettuce and, always his favourite, cucumber slices.

 

Bertie too part 4, legs

Time for the final part of my Bertie 2 project.

The interesting thing about carving a subject is just how much you study it first. Having had a tortoise in the family for 50 plus years and having him (or her, we still don’t really know) throughout my childhood, only now have I studied the differences between Bertie’s front and rear legs. As you can see from the pictures below, his rear legs are elephant like stumps, whereas his front legs are more flipper like.

The complication for his front legs is that, as a tortoise walks, the flippers bend inwards so his toes point towards each other, easier to see than explain, but it does make carving them quite challenging to get the movement and curves realistic.

Let’s start with the real life versions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then as translated into the carved versions for Bertie 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next will come the final version revealed.

Bertie too part 3

Part 3 of my project to make my own wooden tortoise was to carve Bertie’s head and face.

If it isn’t obvious, this is the real Bertie, my model.

The stages in carving wooden Bertie’s head are shown below.  I was careful to select the angle of grain to give me the best chance of getting the lace grain across his head and shell.

To say it worked a treat is an understatement.

As you can see, the grain flowed down his head to help create the scaly look of his skin.

The second picture shows the outline head shape, with the eye marked on in pencil to make sure that I left enough wood to create the eyeball and lids.

In the third picture you can see the nostrils and form around the eyes roughed out.

I have also left a roll of skin on his neck to give him room to extend his neck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture below shows his finished head:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next time I will move on to his legs and claws.

 

 

Bertie too part 2

It’s time for stage 2 of the project to carve my own Bertie. This comes with the news that the real Bertie has just woken up and lives for another year.

Having completed the outline shape of his shell, which revealed the beautiful lace grain of the London Plane wood, the next part of the project was to carve the ‘scales’ in the shell.

Normally this would be a freehand process allowing artistic interpretation. However,  what I am doing is copying a real tortoise, so I had to start by studying all the photographs and copying out all the small nicks and curves from ‘real Bertie’ onto ‘wooden Bertie’.

 

This was then carved out using a simple ‘v’ chisel. As you can see from the first picture, whilst this gives the design, it is hardly realistic. The second picture is about 20 hours work later, where I have added depth to the scales both on their edges and through the undulations over their surfaces. The final picture has the additional texture from the layering in the scales.

All in all about 30 hours work and that doesn’t include the underside.

Come back soon for part 3, for Bertie’s head and face.

 

 

 

 

Bertie too

My latest woodworking project has been the creation of Bertie 2.

I need to explain. Bertie is ‘my’ first pet. Not many people of 50 something can say that their childhood pet is still alive, but mine is. Bertie was/is the family tortoise. He is at least 60 years old. He now lives with my sister.

As we don’t have the real Bertie, I decided that I would make my own wooden version.

As usual I will go through some of the stages in order to get to the finished piece.

Above is the real Bertie. He is about 20cm long, so a small tortoise.

My Bertie began with the choice of wood.

I decided to use London Plane, otherwise known as Lace wood.

It has a lovely grain. I cut it across the heart wood so that the lace look would come out across the shell.

Part 1 was the taking of a number pf pictures by my nephew, with Bertie placed on graph paper so that I could take key measurements.

Stage 1 of the carving process is below. Having selected the orientation to bring out the grain,  I gradually formed the outline shape using my new home made carving stand based on a towing ball.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blacksmith poppies, the seed heads

The final stage of the poppy is of course the instantly recognisable seed head.

I made 2 for the sculpture.

I don’t have any pictures part way through, but they are made from 2 inch tube.

This is pinched top and bottom to create the stem and neck. The top is then flared out and shaped to create the feathered edge and the base pinched in to blend in with the stem.

There was then a rather long process of setting up the sculpture ready for my mum’s 80th birthday party.

There were many elements to arrange, with viewing points from the garden and the house windows. They then all needed setting into the stone.

An hour or so later and all was finished.

 

 

 

 

 

Blacksmith poppies, the full flowers

Following on from the first 2 stages of my poppy sculpture, it was time for the most difficult part, making the fully open poppy flower head.

You wouldn’t believe how many different types of poppy exist. I needed to set on a style, so I decided to go for the classic 4 petal design. I added furred edges to bring in my own design style and because I thought they needed a softer edge than the straight steel provided.

Work began with some real poppies, taking them apart, flattening out the petals and then making paper templates. I then used these to mark out the shapes of the 4 petals (which are actually different sizes) and then again my trusty new plasma cutter came into its own.

Shaping the petals into a natural look was quite difficult. Poppy petals are very thin and don’t hold their shape well, so a natural look is actually folded back and loose looking. I also hammered folds into the petals radiating outwards to give that paper look. Finally I added centres, again cut out with my plasma cutter and ridged to show the beginnings of the seed pod to come. Stems were added and the poppies finished.

For some reason I don’t seem to have taken any pictures of the process, only of the finished flower head, which is below. I made 2 to balance the sculpture.

Blacksmith poppies, the poppy flowers

Following on from stage 1 of my poppy sculpture project, the second stage of making the poppy sculpture was making the most important part, the poppy flowers.

I started by taking lots and lots of photographs through the summer months. The first thing that became very obvious was the amazing range of poppies to chose from. In the end I took a slightly artistic view of the classic 4 petal red poppy.

I then decided to show the flowers in 3 key stages, the developing bud, the fully open flower and finally the classic seed head.

Dealing with these in order, we of course start with the bud. This was made by first welding a piece of bar onto a smaller bar, the bud and the stem.

 

 

 

 

Next I forged the shape of the bud, including a fold in the side to represent the unwrapping bud.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally the stem was hammered and rounded to make it look less like a piece of bent rod. 3 of these were needed, at differing heights,  for the final sculpture.

That was about it, first stage of the flowers complete

 

Blacksmith poppies

I have been delaying revisiting my blacksmith poppies and the ‘how I made them’ bit. But here goes.

First of all a reminder on the left of how it all finished up.

The rock was made from a piece we obtained from our favourite farm in Northumberland.

That was the easy bit, simply drilling some holes ready for the metal stems. Except it wasn’t that easy, think flower arranging with very heavy flowers and you get the idea.

On to the first element, the leaves.

First stage was to cut them out of 1.5mm sheet steel using my nice new plasma cutter.

As ever, the right tool for the job made it very easy to do, but without it, it would have been impossible.

 

 

The next stage was to form the sheet into leaf shapes. This required the forge and a heavy gauge V block.

A great deal of hammering and bending later and the sheet metal was looking much

more 3 dimensional and leaf like.

 

Repeated another 6 times and I had the 7 leaves I needed.

As with gardening, even numbers just doesn’t look right. There is probably a mathematical rule for it somewhere, but simply put, 7, not 6 and not 8, leaves were now ready for the next stage.

Come back soon for stage 2.

 

 

 

Blacksmith bird feeder

The cold of winter, and general lack of food for our feathered friends, makes it a great time to put up a blacksmith bird feeder.

I have made 2 on a similar theme, basically because a lady asked me to make one against a sketch and then my wife liked it so much she wanted one too.

They are free standing, with a spike to push into the ground, 7 foot tall and made from 19mm steel. This makes them very substantial, able to stand up to the biggest birds and strongest winds, and to my general style of nothing thin and flimsy.

They were left in untreated steel finish, so will rust and age gracefully.

It’s Christmasssss

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Continuing our love of making use of treasured things rather than buying new, this is a knitted wreath made by my Grandmother over 20 years ago. It comes out every year and has pride of place in our home.

Last minute Christmas presents, blacksmith or beekeeping experience days in Essex

blacksmith-experience-day

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are looking for the ideal Christmas present for that difficult to buy for person, blacksmith or beekeeping experience days might be just what you are looking for. I can supply you with a pdf gift card to print and give to the lucky person, with the date for the ‘day’ to be set later.

Full details of my experience days this year can be found on this link.

Whether you are interested in finding out more about beekeeping or blacksmithing, I can tailor make a day for you.

In a day designed around what you want to achieve and learn, a beekeeping experience day will involve opening up hives and gaining an understanding of how the hive lives and thrives.

Meanwhile, on a blacksmithing experience day, I first work with you before the day to understand what you would like to make on my outdoor forge.

I then work on your idea to make it something you can make, with a little help from me when needed. Alternatively, you can make a hanging basket bracket incorporating a number of blacksmithing techniques, to learn more about the art.

On the day itself you will learn key forge techniques and make something to take away and treasure.

“Thank you for such an amazing day!”

“We both had a great day and my wife is very impressed that we managed to produce such beautiful work – all of which was thanks to your excellent coaching.  You made great use of our time and I’m still amazed that we managed to do quite so much in a few short hours.” – Patrick

“Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and patience with us.” – Karen and Graham

“Wow what an amazing candle holder Dan made..I was gobsmacked….I absolutely loved it…thank you, Dan had an amazing time and hasn’t stopped talking about it….” – Leonie

“Thanks so much for making Henry’s day so enjoyable yesterday. He had a truly fabulous time and loved every minute of it. I am amazed and delighted at the sculpture he made in the time he had – his DT teacher was equally impressed. I think we have started something here! If you ever hear of any trainee opportunities, please let us know. He was still smiling at 3.30am when I woke him to go on his school trip to France.” – Rachel

Visit my students page to see some of the items they made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blacksmith horseshoe project

Last year I was given a bucket of horseshoes to make into a sculpture.

Whilst the sculpture is still in the planning phase, I have made some heavy duty hooks for the kind person who gave me the shoes for their horse blankets. They should take the full weight of a couple of horse blankets each.

Ideal Christmas presents, blacksmith or beekeeping experience days in Essex

blacksmith-experience-day

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are looking for the ideal Christmas present, blacksmith or beekeeping experience days might be just what you are looking for. I can supply you with a pdf gift card to print and give to the lucky person, with the date for the ‘day’ to be set later.

Full details of my experience days this year can be found on this link.

Whether you are interested in finding out more about beekeeping or blacksmithing, I can tailor make a day for you.

In a day designed around what you want to achieve and learn, a beekeeping experience day will involve opening up hives and gaining an understanding of how the hive lives and thrives.

Meanwhile, on a blacksmithing experience day, I first work with you before the day to understand what you would like to make on my outdoor forge.

I then work on your idea to make it something you can make, with a little help from me when needed. Alternatively, you can make a hanging basket bracket incorporating a number of blacksmithing techniques, to learn more about the art.

On the day itself you will learn key forge techniques and make something to take away and treasure.

“Thank you for such an amazing day!”

“We both had a great day and my wife is very impressed that we managed to produce such beautiful work – all of which was thanks to your excellent coaching.  You made great use of our time and I’m still amazed that we managed to do quite so much in a few short hours.” – Patrick

“Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and patience with us.” – Karen and Graham

“Wow what an amazing candle holder Dan made..I was gobsmacked….I absolutely loved it…thank you, Dan had an amazing time and hasn’t stopped talking about it….” – Leonie

“Thanks so much for making Henry’s day so enjoyable yesterday. He had a truly fabulous time and loved every minute of it. I am amazed and delighted at the sculpture he made in the time he had – his DT teacher was equally impressed. I think we have started something here! If you ever hear of any trainee opportunities, please let us know. He was still smiling at 3.30am when I woke him to go on his school trip to France.” – Rachel

Visit my students page to see some of the items they made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An 80th birthday celebration

This week saw my mum’s 80th birthday, and with it a gathering of friends and family.

At the recent Malvern Autumn show we met a wonderful poet, Erin Bolens. 

She was there as a part of a Poetry Takeaway event, where you give the poet some interesting facts about a person and then return later in the day to collect the poem.

It was a wonderful poem, which I read out at the party as a part of the toast, as in the main picture above.

It was also the official unveiling day for the poppy sculpture.

I will do another post showing the process of making the sculpture over the last few months, but here it is in its finished form. We delivered and assembled it a day early to make sure it was all OK.

 

 

Another fused glass table top

Following the earlier success, it was time to make another fused glass table top.

The above picture shows the final top, as fitted to a table I made on the forge a while back.

It uses a very large industrial gear as the top, with organic forged legs held in place with a leaf wrap.

The process to produce the table top is the same as that on the table top on my last post. It took 4 stages of firing to turn the basic cut glass into the final design, as shown in the pictures below.

This one was based on our favourite flower, the fuchsia. It never fails to amaze me how the colours come out, just as they do when firing the glaze on ceramics. The picture on the left shows the first stage with the cut glass on the white background. The picture on the right is the end product, 4 firings and about 5 days later.

 

Fused glass table top

I’ve been working on a fused glass table top. It was designed to replace a mosaic top on a table I made from an old tractor wheel. The mosaic had suffered from last winter’s cold snap, flaking off.

The design was inspired by the agapanthus flowers we see along the roadside and in gardens all over South Africa.

The pictures below show the 3 stages of fusing. Ultimately the glass is fused ‘upside down’ to give it a flat and slip free surface. This is the same process I used with my carved oak tray.

 

 

 

 

 

13 good reasons not to shop at B&Q

I don’t usually do consumer stuff here, but today I have 13 good reasons not to shop at B&Q again.

First good reason is that, on Saturday at 4pm I ordered some specialised wood cleaning product on ebay and, with a knock at the door, it arrived at 9:30am Sunday morning.

Now, that isn’t a good enough reason in itself. I try to support actual shops, they have a tough job to keep going and the only reason I used ebay this time was because this was a specialist product not available at the local DIY outlets.

But here come the 12 other reasons.

Yesterday at 5pm I visited our local B&Q to buy a few bits to help repair a lintel on our dormer window. I know their till service is dreadful and so prefer Wickes, but their product range is good and I was close by and so decided to give them a go. Having collected what I needed I headed to the 12 tills. Not a single person on a till, not one. My heart sank when I realised that the only option was self-checkout.

I approached, waved my product under the scanner to be met by a flashing light and a ‘contact assistant’ message. A young lady approached, “Oh I need to get it approved for over 21!” (I am over 50 and sadly the days when I looked under 21 are some time behind me). She was not able to do this herself due to her age so wandered off towards the refund desk. A lady looked over at me, and nodded. Phew, I was apparently over 21.

The young lady wandered back and clicked a pass key against the till, then she wandered away.

2 seconds later the till bleeped again. She came back. “Oh yes, I need to click that again,” so she attached her pass key again.

Me, “I guess you don’t remember the days when there were assistants actually serving customers in shops?” She didn’t get it.

I struggled on, reading through the menus presented to me; I finally pressed the ‘pay by credit card’ option.

I then realised that I hadn’t scanned my B&Q card. I looked for a button to scan it and tried a random scan, nothing.

I looked across for the ‘helper’ and she began to wander over (I am still the only person at any till, so she isn’t busy).

I began to explain that I needed to scan my B&Q card, but didn’t know how.

At that point I realised just how stupid this all was.

Me to ‘helper’, “Do you know what, if B&Q can’t be bothered to have a single till open and you can’t be bothered to serve me then why should I bother to try to be a customer. You can keep this and I will go somewhere that actually wants my business.”

I left my things at the till and walked away.

The one thing that shops have over online purchasing is the personal service. They used to have immediacy of availability. I remember only a few years ago when you ordered things by post or phone that delivery was always quoted as ‘within 28 days’, and it often was only just that. Now, it is a click and fewer than 28 hours away, generally cheaper and always with greater choice.

Shops seem to now be willingly pushing us away from any human contact. They are committing suicide with home-made swords. Each shop expecting us to become an expert with their unique computer scanning system in order to be allowed to buy anything. All the time avoiding eye contact should we actually want to ask anyone anything.

There are many reasons why the likes of Aldi are doing so well. One might just be that they actually have people on their tills, serving.

Perhaps B&Q will read this, perhaps not. I am sure they have lots of statistics presented to their senior management showing how much quicker self-service is for customers, and so how great it is. They used to do this for ‘offshoring’ call centres, before realising that the reality was that customers don’t like it and go elsewhere where they can. Now companies positively advertise ‘UK call centres’ as a feature of their business.

B&Q management might hide behind blaming the young assistant for ‘not providing the customer service they expect’, but that isn’t the point. The point is the senior management decision to put her in that place, too young to actually process many items, and to then leave the 12 perfectly good tills unattended. But they will never acknowledge that, it would be too close to home and too much of a question against the strategy they carefully crafted during a long away-day somewhere.

Give it a couple of years and those large shops still left might suddenly have a new modern approach to their last bastion, customer service. They might have people actually behind tills to serve you, with a smile and a cheery, helpful approach. You can always hope.

In the meantime, must go, I hear the doorbell. It’s the bits I needed for the lintel repair arriving from the ebay order I placed last night…

More veggies

I can’t help but post pictures of more veggies.

The courgettes really are taking over. The warm weather has turned them into wild things growing before our eyes.

This one has come from a plant alongside an old hanging basket container used to protect some lettuce from being eaten by our the escaping hens.

Unfortunately I missed it and it made its own attempt to break through, which of course failed.

 

Meanwhile the hot weather has brought on the peaches.

This year they are the biggest we have ever grown.

Protected from the wasps by fleece, we are enjoying the sweetest, juiciest peaches ever.

 

The courgettes are taking over

The courgettes are taking over the garden.

We have grown more varieties than ever and the hot weather has brought them on amazingly. Suggestions for recipes gratefully received.

On other subjects, I am currently working on a special sculpture for my mum’s 80th. For obvious reasons no pictures until after the important day in October.

 

Mildred’s 85th birthday

Yesterday was Mildred’s 85th birthday and she had a day out at the seaside.

We headed off at 9am, balloons and birthday signs on show, and took the opportunity for a leg stretch beside a lovely field of echium.

If only we had the bees with us, as it makes lovely honey.

 

Next stop was Manningtree, where we almost saw the sea.

It was a brief stop as we were heading on to see Grayson Perry’s art house building in Wrabness.

Whilst the garden is lacking in any care, the house itself was very impressive, and only a couple of thousand to stay in for a short break in the summer (providing you win the ballot).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quick break for the most delicious fish and chips and we were off to visit an old family friend at Frinton-on-Sea.

It had been too long since we last caught up on life and, at an amazingly sprightly 94 (she won’t mind me saying), she beat Mildred into this world by nearly a decade. Mildred took her for a short ride and they both had a lovely time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11 hours and 130 miles later we arrived home to be greeted by our 92 year old neighbour, who was out gardening.

The balloons were, by now, sagging somewhat and we had replaced a couple along the way.

There may be many things wrong with this world, but, with the average age of Mildred, our neighbour and family friend at over 90, we are all living longer than ever.

That’s the key, as the song goes, ‘Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think‘.

Mildred gets a new front spring

At last Mildred has had her new front spring fitted.

Having fitted her new rear springs about 3 years ago, her front sprint has languished in the workshop. Finally I decided that I had delayed for too long and so volunteered her for a workshop day.

12 keen Austin 7 owners assembled for a 4 hour session, where her old saggy spring was replaced with a nice new firm spring.

In this first picture you can see the old worn spring behind the nice new one, wrapped in denso tape to protect it from road grime and grit.

The spring is held in place by two U bolt clamps in the middle and then by shackles at the ends, secured to the hubs.

Much fiddling was required to get to the nuts on the U bolts, as you can see from the assembled crowd  leaning in, over and under Mildred.

However, fuelled by tea and cake, we succeeded. Mildred’s spring was safely secured. She now sits about an inch higher than before and with a firmer ride, so she no longer rubs her tyre on the inside of the front wing when braking and taking  a sharp turn.

She also looks much happier with her new springs all round and gleaming shackles.

Tower bridge sculpture

I was recently asked if I could make a Tower Bridge sculpture for a special birthday present. It was to hang on a wall, but have depth to it, and be 1m long. A lot of sketching and design work later and all was agreed. It was the perfect job to make use of my new plasma cutter to produce the towers and window cut outs.

The result is below. The finish is burnished steel, lacquered to protect the look.

 

I didn’t take many pictures along the way but the one below shows the base frame from which everything hangs. This gives it strength and makes sure everything is nice and square from the start.

Gardeners’ World cloche envy

For some time now we have had Gardeners’ World cloche envy.

I have some home made cloches made from some old bases used on an exhibition stand and then rescued from a skip about 10 years ago.

They are (were), to say the least, ropey. They were rusty, the hoops were made from plastic pipe, which had deteriorated, and they were covered in torn netting.

With spring finally approaching and Monty Don’s cloches in full view on Gardeners’ World, the time had come to update ours.

I started by cleaning them back to rust free metal. Then I welded in 10mm steel hoops for stability. Finally some old corrugated sheeting, saved from a skip having served its purpose as a friend’s ‘lean-to’ roof, was cut to slot inside the hoops. The end panels were then made from some offcut plastic sheeting used in picture framing.

The plastic can then be slid out and replaced with netting for summer protection of brasicas.

A coat of rust protecting undercoat and black paint and we are no longer quite so envious.

Cost about £2 for the metal used in the hoops and £3 of paint, the rest recycled, result.

Only thing is, Monty has many more that we have, and I have just found another base behind the polytunnel ripe for conversion. So it’s back to work…

gardener's world cloche envy

Save the bees

Today we spent a few hours saving some bees.

A bee friendly home owner was having a dying Ash tree removed and wanted to save the bee colony, which had made a cavity some 20 foot up its trunk, home.

The day involved 2 tree surgeons, 2 beekeepers, 2 home owners, 2 dogs and lots of tea. It all started with a cold morning, smoke, rags to block the holes in the trunk and some clingfilm to block all exits.

Next the 1/2 tonne trunk was cut off with a chainsaw and lowered to the ground.

With the bees apparently unworried by the whole process, we decided it was time for a second cup of tea.

 

 

 

 

A couple of very careful cuts later and we had access to the colony.

We had initially thought the colony had made its home down the centre of the dying trunk, but it became clear that they had made their home in a medicine ball sized cavity, which looked like it had been a woodpecker nest.

 

 

Finally came the easiest part.

The pieces of comb came away quite easily, all well filled with brood, larvae and eggs.

The last of the bees were brushed carefully into the hive and we were done.

An hour later and the hive was installed in our apiary to settle down after the excitement of the day.

Whilst the weather, cold and drizzly, was perfect for moving bees, we were quite amazed just how docile they were. Having been subjected to the noise and vibration of a chainsaw, swung from a rope at 20 foot up, and then pulled around, they barely needed the smoke, they just sat there good as gold and let us move them around.

3 hours after we started, the job was done and the rain came down.

 

Finished blacksmith gate

At last I have finished and installed my blacksmith gate.

I wanted to give it some strength and bulk in the posts, so have used 20cm by 10cm oak sleepers.

It has taken me a while to get it all finished, and of course the weather hasn’t helped, but here it is.

 

It’s time to make another gate part 3

The last stage for the gate was to add vertically standing leaves to the base. These partly block out gaps, but are mainly decorative, giving the gate structure and weight both literally and figuratively.

Having finished the gate I decided to get it galvanised. This is a process where the metal is zinc coated to protect from rust. Any scratches are covered by zinc oxide before any iron oxide can form.

There is a great galvanisers near to us which I use.

They have a minimum weight, so I took the opportunity to have a table I made in the summer from an old gear wheel galvanised at the same time.

On the left is the pile of bits ready on the pallet and then the finished galvanised gate. The shiny finish is the zinc. Left alone it would be perfectly protected, but would dull down to a boring grey, just like corrugated iron roofing.

This is how it has finished with its silk black painted finish. I will put up more pictures when it is installed, showing the hinges and arch over the gate.

 

 

 

It’s time to make another gate part 2

Right, with the design sorted out it was time to start the fun, the making bit.

I started by setting out the frame.

As with most of my work, I began with organic curves, rather than lots of straight lines.

It is important to balance design with structural integrity. Stating the obvious, whilst it must look good, it must also support its own weight, hang on the hinges without stress breaks, and of course keep out those we want to keep out.

The curved piece at the base does exactly that, it braces the bottom, curles up to support the bottom hinge point and then finishes off in a purely decorative leaf design.

This is the next stage in the design. I have added a top hinge, vertical pieces to add bracing and design, and a top curved piece to replicate the one at the bottom.

I am liking how it is coming along, the balance feels right.

Time to make another gate part 1

It’s time to make another gate.

We need a new gate to get to the other side of our hedge to make cutting it easier. I drew up a rough idea and have been slowly making it over the last few months in a snatched hour here and there as time has allowed.

So, here we go with part 1, this is my ‘highly detailed’ sketch. The only really important details are the overall dimensions so that it fits a standard width gate, the rest can evolve to ensure that it looks balanced.

Oak carved tray with glass insert

Over the last few months I have been making an oak carved tray with glass insert. It was made from a solid piece of oak, carved with rope edging and straps. To say I am now ‘roped out’ is an understatement. The textures elements to the twisted strands took a long time but they do add a lot of movement to the piece and help make it look more realistic.

You can see my template piece of rope in the earlier pictures below, which helped me work out how the twists moved as they went around the corners. They don’t move how you might think, as the twists tighten on the inside and open up on the outside, so you just need to go with the measurements, and know that it will look right. This is how it finished up:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have written about the tray in the past, but here is a series of pictures showing how it developed from a plank, through a simple solid cylinder around the tray, on to the carving of the rope shape. I had 3 attempts at getting the curve right around the corners, using my piece of rope and a plastic template with the curls marked out on it. Remembering to leave enough wood to make the straps:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The glass insert was made a few months ago. I used real ferns, with glass powder, to produce the fern design on white background. It takes 3 firings to make the glass insert. I wrote about it at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mildred has been a little ill

Unfortunately Mildred has been a little off colour. She ventured out on New Year’s Day with her friends for our traditional New Year opener.

All began well.

We arrived at the local Church to join the queue of 30 Austin Sevens, and a few assorted others, to enjoy mince pies and (non-alcoholic) mulled wine.

We then happily set off on our 25 mile run.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to the end. About half way through we spluttered to a halt. It looked as if the head gasket had failed, nothing that could be solved at the roadside.

With thanks to our insurers and SOS road rescue, we had a truck with us within the hour and were on our way home.

 

 

For anyone technically minded, this is what I found when I removed the head, a missing piece of gasket, which appears to have broken away.

The result is loss of compression in cylinders 2 and 3.

Mildred is now well on the way to recovery. The new gasket is bedding in and she should be back on the road in a day or 2.

Blacksmith experience days’ pictures

After my earlier post about blacksmith experience days as gifts for Christmas, A couple of people have asked me about the pieces people have made.

First is the hanging basket bracket.

These two were made by Patrick and his daughter Charlotte.

I use this design to help people who want to learn a number of techniques, but don’t have a specific item they want to make.

The important thing to remember is that the day is yours. If you have something specific you would like to make then, before the day, I will help to develop your idea into something you can make in a day on the forge.

Some of the other things made include:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas present, blacksmithing or beekeeping experience days

blacksmith-experience-day

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are looking for the ideal Christmas present, blacksmithing or beekeeping experience days might be just what you are looking for. I can supply you with a pdf gift card to print and give to the lucky person, with the date for the ‘day’ to be set later.

I have held a few experience days over the year and wanted to share a few pictures.

Whether you are interested in finding out more about beekeeping or blacksmithing, I can tailor make a day for you.

In a day designed around what you want to achieve and learn, a beekeeping experience day will involve opening up hives and gaining an understanding of how the hive lives and thrives.

Meanwhile, on a blacksmithing experience day, I first work with you before the day to understand what you would like to make on my outdoor forge.

I then work on your idea to make it something you can make, with a little help from me when needed. Alternatively, you can make a hanging basket bracket incorporating a number of blacksmithing techniques, to learn more about the art.

On the day itself you will learn key forge techniques and make something to take away and treasure.

“Thank you for such an amazing day!”

“We both had a great day and my wife is very impressed that we managed to produce such beautiful work – all of which was thanks to your excellent coaching.  You made great use of our time and I’m still amazed that we managed to do quite so much in a few short hours.” – Patrick

“Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and patience with us.” – Karen and Graham

“Wow what an amazing candle holder Dan made..I was gobsmacked….I absolutely loved it…thank you, Dan had an amazing time and hasn’t stopped talking about it….” – Leonie

“Thanks so much for making Henry’s day so enjoyable yesterday. He had a truly fabulous time and loved every minute of it. I am amazed and delighted at the sculpture he made in the time he had – his DT teacher was equally impressed. I think we have started something here! If you ever hear of any trainee opportunities, please let us know. He was still smiling at 3.30am when I woke him to go on his school trip to France.” – Rachel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please contact me if you have any questions about my experience days, or if I can help create the perfect christmas or birthday present.

 

 

Wood carved tray

It has been a busy weekend. Over the last few months I have been working, on and off, on an oak tray. It will eventually take the glass fern sheet I previously blogged about.

This is where I was up to before the weekend began.

The rope edging was prepared as a cylindrical shape and I had a piece of nylon rope to copy.

The oak is hard and difficult to carve, but it should give a wonderful deep colour and grain.

The picture below shows the tray after about 22 hours of carving. The most difficult bit is getting the strands in the right place as they move around a bend. The piece of rope was invaluable in seeing what actually happens to the strands as the rope bends and moves.

The section at the top of the tray is closest to being finished and that to the right little more than the initial outline marked.

There is still much to do.

 

Time to grow

Life has been a little busy over the last few weeks. The vegetables and fruit have been growing faster than we can eat, freeze, store or make jam from.

We are particularly pleased with the tomatoes. Having lost all of our 30 plus plants to tomato blight last year, this year we spent some time researching blight resistant varieties.

We picked 10 of the best and haven’t had a problem with any. We have grown them in a variety of places from a polytunnel to a greenhouse and out in the open.

Remembering just how much rain we have suffered this summer, it is amazing that they have shown not a single sign of blight. The results speak for themselves…N0w must go, I have a couple of buckets of runner beans in need of picking.

Glass fusing with ferns: the main job

Having tried out a few different techniques for glass fusing with ferns, and finalising the best, I have now moved on to the main reason for all this, the insert for the oak tray I am currently carving.

I started with 3 ferns coated with green glass powder.

These were fused to a sheet of clear glass.

With the carbon residue from the ferns themselves removed, this left the glass powder behind, reflecting the fern shape and form.

Next the sheet was turned upside down and a sheet of opaque white  glass put on top, as the background.

This meant that what was to become the top surface was against the kiln plate. The reason I did it this was around was to give the top surface a textured finish to match the fern feel. The glossy, shiny top surface of the glass in then on the bottom and hidden.

The result is below:

 

I  have tried to show the silk surface texture in this picture.

All I need to do now is complete the oak tray which this will be inserted into.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glass fusing with ferns: the results

We had mixed results from the glass fusing with ferns.

Good news is that two of the techniques worked really well, the other 7 didn’t.

Without going into too much detail, unsuprisingly ferns by themselves turn to ash at glass melting temperatures.  This can be used to create interesting fossil type effects as on 3 above, but at the risk of also creating large bubbles if you don’t use slow temperature ramps. If the fern is delicate then, as on sample 2 above, it is likely to completely disappear.

The key appears to be use glass powder stuck to the fern, as on 1 and 8 above, with a 2 stage process to reduce bubbles, as on 8.

8 is therefore my method of choice to produce a fern in glass. Using this methodology, next comes the large piece I need for the oak carved tray I am making. I just have to hope that the method scales up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glass fusing with plant material

Even since we saw some glass fusing with plant material I have wanted to have a go.

Time, the garden, and the bees have conspired to thwart our attempts to find the couple of hours needed to try it out, but, with the nasty weather over the last few days, we decided that today was the day.

A little online research brought up about 4 different techniques to cope with the basic problem that, at 800 degrees, the temperature required to melt the glass, all plant material will have turned to carbon.

 

 

This picture shows the 9 different test pieces, all slightly different, to determine the process that works best for us for different leaf types.

Come back in a couple of days to see the results.

In the meantime keep your fingers crossed.

 

Long hive update; not forgetting food

It has been a while since I last posted. The garden is in full swing and harvesting the soft fruit (blackberries, blueberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, gooseberries) has been my priority. it has truly been a bounty this year ad we haven’t even started on the apples and plums.

Squashes and courgettes are also getting underway and the garlic needs digging up, so you get my point, food comes first.

Having said that, the bees have also been busy. We have completed the first extraction of the year and the bees in the long hive are doing well.

Here is one of the long hive frames, as seen during a recent beekeeping experience day. They are pulling out the comb to fit the V shaped hive and have built up 6 frames already. I’ll try to post some more detailed pictures soon, but that’s it for now.

 

Blacksmith experience day

I recently held a blacksmith experience day for my youngest ever pupil.

It was a part of his school work experience programme.

He made a sculpture incorporating a number of core blacksmithing techniques, and a special addition of his own, a worm.

It was a first for me, a forged worm. I think we were both pleased with how it all came out.

His Design Technology teacher was reportedly also impressed with his work for the day.

Alongside the forge work, he also took the opportunity to ask lots of questions about becoming a blacksmith and took away lots of information about courses and qualifications.

He was a pleasure to teach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long Hive swarm collection

Following on from my earlier post about the making of our long hive, it now has inhabitants. 

I collected a swarm the other day. It was a fairly simple collection, hanging at head height in a tree. I knocked them into my skep and then waited whilst the stragglers and scout bees made their way back to the colony.

 

There will always be a few left behind, but, providing you are prepared to be patient and you have the queen in the skep, the others will follow.

 

Here you can see them  in the skep and then after being knocked into the hive.

 

They quickly took to their new home and within a few hours had begun to draw out the small bits of wax foundation into comb.

 

 

With any luck they will have time this year to pull the comb out sufficiently to give them space to put honey for their winter store. This will set them up for a strong 2018, when we might get some cut comb honey from them.

Blacksmithing project: compost bag holder

I was recently asked to help a friend out with a frame to both hold a compost bag and to give a frame to lean on whilst digging into the bag.

The result is here.

Nothing too complicated, a large diameter ring for the base, 3 vertical rods and a smaller diameter ring at the top. This gives it extra stability.

It’s the second one I have made, this one from 12mm steel to give it extra strength when leant on.

Nunti Bo

 

Further to the Nunti I made, I was also asked to make another Nunti Bo, this time for Juan in Spain.

I made one a few months ago for Garry.

It is made from a Japanese Redwood Bo (shaft) with a forged steel end, finished simply with beeswax polish from our own bees.

This is apparently based on a fisherman’s spear and now used in Okinawan martial arts.

I am no martial arts expert, but I understand that it is composed of a Bo (the wooden shaft) with a Manji Sai mounted on one end.

 

 

Blacksmithing handheld Nunti

Following on from the Nunti Bo I made a few months ago, I was asked to make 2 handheld Nunti. I think they are also sometimes referred to as Sai.

These are used in the Japanese  martial art discipline from Okinawa.

I really enjoyed making these. I worked with Garry to work put the size and weight to give them a good balance. They have a lovely feel and weight and I am very pleased with how they have come out.

You can see the stages of manufacture below.

They are finished with simple beeswax polish from our own bees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long hive beekeeping

Perhaps one of the oldest methods of keeping bees is top bar Long Hive Beekeeping. Popular in Africa, largely due to the low cost of hive manufacture, it is now becoming popular in Europe as a bee and environmentally friendly method of beekeeping.

A few weeks ago Mrs Bee found some online plans and so I set to work. A trip to B&Q later and I had a sheet of plywood ready to make into a hive. Leaping forward, this is how it finished up.


And this is how I got there:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This shows the inside of the hive.

The frames are very different to those in a conventional hive, in that they are simple top bars.

A small piece of wax sheet is added to give the bees a subtle hint as to where we would like them to build comb.

And that’s about it. All I need now are some bees, oh and some warm weather..

 

2 years and (not) counting

It’s that time again. Time to mark the second anniversary of leaving e2v.

I marked the anniversary of my last day last year.  This time I have slipped by a few days. it doesn’t seem quite so important this year.

Much has happened since I left. e2v has recently been sold to an American company and is now Teledyne e2v. Whilst there have been immediate cuts in management (the CEO and my old boss have left), Teledyne has a history of investment in aquisitions. So I have hopes that e2v will go forward and thrive, with new backing and access to US markets.

From my perspective, I am doing more talks, with new social history talks added, and am enjoying expanding my blacksmithing and beekeeping activities.

This year I marked the anniversary by visiting Harwich. Mrs Bee was on a painting day, so I acted as driver and took the opportunity to visit some old haunts (literally).

Mot of the interesting museums around Harwich were closed, but what I really wanted to do was go and see the pier at Walton on the Naze. To be honest their web site sort of lines you up for the place, a little tired in places, but honest and clearly providing loads of fun for the visitors I saw.

In my formative years I attended Moulsham Church Sunday School. My memories are not of excessive religious teachings, but of fun and games. So that’s a big tick in the box for them.

One of my overriding memories is of the annual summer trip to Walton on the Naze, which included a visit to the pier and jelly and ice cream on the way home. The highlight for me was the ghost train, especially the bits where the train crashed through doors, swung out into the open air and then back through more doors into the dark, all at about 50 foot in the air and 50 miles an hour.

I wandered down the pier with some trepidation. Never go back they say, it will only ever lead to disappointment. Memories came back as I walked down the centre of the pier. It really hadn’t changed much. The first areas to the left and right were full of slot and games machines, much updated from the one armed bandits of 40 years ago.

 

Then, there it was, the ghost train.

walton on naze ghost trainI couldn’t believe it was still there. It has changed of course. The bits where you swung out into the open were boxed in as windows, probably Health and Safety said that it was too dangerous. But the doors were still there, enclosed, it was still basically the same ride.

But. horror of horrors. It was 11:30 and it was closed. with my parking ticket running out at 12:20 (never had that problem as a 10 year old), it opened at 12, just enough time I calculated. I checked that I was allowed to ride and, after a visual assessment of my weight, I was given the nod. 3 tickets, or £1:80 later, I was on board.

It was great, not as fast as I remember and the boxed in bits that swung out in the open had been lowered from 50 foot up to a modest 6 foot (or just possibly they had always been only 6 foot up, but I don’t think so).

But it was great. It was the ghost train of 40 years ago. I did video the ride, but am having trouble loading it. You can see a better attempt here.

 

I was 10 for about 3 minutes, then I had to get back to the car park before I got a ticket.

Carved wooden chain: finished

Here is the finished carved wooden chain.

It didn’t take much more work to clean off the links.

The biggest job as always was the sanding, working through 80 grit, down to 320, to achieve a really smooth finish.

You can’t see it very well here, but there is some interesting spalting in the beech, which runs through the first links, giving it a mottled effect.

The finish is our own beeswax polish.

My next project is a tray to take some tiles we bought in South Africa. But for now the garden calls. There are seeds to plant and a new hedge to lay.

 

Carved wooden chain: part 2

We resume work on my wooden chain with the difficult process of freeing up the individual elements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the first picture above you can see the hook end with most of the material removed. All that is left is the tricky bit, removing the wood in the tight gap joining the hook to the next link. The first part to remove is here in the second picture, and easy to get at. The third picture shows the result of another hour’s work, nibbling away at the wood between links and freeing them up. For the first time we have completely separate pieces of wood, linked together.

It now becomes a somewhat repetitive task, working along the links, freeing them from each other. At this point they are far from finished. A lot of work still needs to be done to even up the chain shapes.

This is the point where I leave it for now. All the links are free, but in need of a few more days work to finish them off. Time I don’t have right now as I have work to do to prepare for a blacksmith experience day this weekend.

I can also explain the first question posed, about making a single piece of wood longer than you started. The links as drawn on the original piece needed gaps between them to allow a chisel in. By the time the links are thinned out and finished off they will stretch out further and so the chain will still be make from a single piece, but will be longer than the original block it is made from.

Carved wooden chain: part 1

How do you make a piece of wood longer? It is a question I was asked the other day, and the answer is simple, you make it into a carved wooden chain. Stick with me and you will see how.

It is an exercise I haven’t tried before and so I began it during a wood carving weekend with the help of a very good teacher.

As with many things I do, I wanted it to be big. This meant starting off with a piece of spalted beech about 10cm square and 60 cm long. This is a close grained hard wood, difficult to carve but with a lovely finish when done. What I wanted to produce was a 4 link chain, started with a simple loop and finished with a hook.
The process begins by cutting the wood into a cross shape. If you think about looking at a chain end on, with the links at right angles to each other, then you will see the shape needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next stage is to mark out the chain pieces as they cross each other. The most important thing at this point is to make sure that you have left enough space between the drawn links to get a chisel in between. This allows you to cut out the wood to free the links from each other. Hopefully the above pictures help explain.

Now comes the easiest part. Cutting away the waste material. Providing you can see the final chain outline in your mind, and have drawn it clearly, then it is a simple process to cut away the waste. Hopefully you can see the chain shape appearing.

 

At this point you have to start clearing out the material from within the loops of the chain shape. The first bits can be drilled out.

After that it is back to the chisels. The most difficult part is removing the wood from inside the loops, taking care whilst shaping one area to not remove wood needed by a neighbouring link.

Part 2 to follow soon

Bronze sculpture repair

I had an interesting challenge recently, a bronze sculpture repair.

brass sculpture repair lion

brass sculpture repairAbove is the finished repaired bronze lion. However, its foot started like this.

Not only is it broken, it has also been repaired with some epoxy resin, so needed careful cleaning back to the original bronze first.

Following the pictures below, the next stage in the repair was to drill out the two sides of the break to take a strengthening pin.

The two pieces were then glued with a specialist gel super glue. As you can see in the second picture, this left a gap.

 

bronze sculpture repair foot

bronze sculpture repair damage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final stage was to fill the gap. This was done with a special metal filler, with added acrylic paint mixed to match the bronze. For anyone interested, this was a mix of gold, black and burnt umber.

You can still see the repair if you look carefully but, having shown it to someone who didn’t know what I had done, they couldn’t see where it had been repaired.

A good result and a happy lion owner.

Beeswax polish

Prompted by a conversation in my comments box, I thought I would explain more about beeswax polish.
beeswax polish 1

The polish I make is made from just 2 ingredients, pure beeswax and pure turpentine. There are a couple of stages in the manufacturing process to ensure the final polish is smooth and creamy, but then these are my secrets.

Natural turpentine comes from distilled tree sap. This carries the beeswax and feeds the wood. The result is that the beeswax works deep into the wood and gives it a deep sheen, rather than a surface buff.

 

There are cheap versions of beeswax polish out there, but be aware and check the ingredients, as many add cheaper ingredients to bulk up the product.

They can substitute some of the beeswax for cheaper waxes (eg 50% beeswax, 50% cheap wax) and they will use artificial turpentine. This is a man made solvent, often white spirit based. The problem here is that instead of feeding the wood and helping to take the wax down into the wood, giving it a deep sheen, it evaporates quickly. This means that the wax is left sitting on the surface and so is harder to rub in. The artificial solvent also pulls the natural oils out of the wood, actually drying it out, the opposite of what you want.

Putting it simply. If you care for your furniture enough to want to use beeswax polish, then do make sure it is the real genuine product, not a cheap substitute.

I don’t make much, so it isn’t generally listed in my shop, but I do have it available for £4:50 a tin (approx 80g) plus postage of £3:50. I can also add it in with honey sales to share the postage. Send me a message if you are interested.

The 12 days of Christmas: elephant carving day 12

Before you know it we have reached twelfth night and the completion of my charging elephant.

Reality of course is that it has actually taken me about 9 months of on and off work to complete.

elephant-front

The final finishing element has been the tusks. They are made from antler, sourced from a National Trust deer park, where they take the naturally shed antlers and sell them to a walking stick maker. I had the tips of a couple of the antler spurs, too small for use by the stick maker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

elephant-rearelephant-side

 

 

The 12 days of Christmas: elephant carving day 10

I am now at the finishing off stage.

It can take as long to finish off all those edges and surfaces as it takes to carve the elephant to this point.

Carving a solid 3 dimensional piece has its added difficulties. By definition, at some point you will be carving with, against, and across the grain. It is across the grain that needs the sharpest of chisels if a clean finish is to be achieved.

On my elephant the cross grain is at the rear and you can see where the grain has opened up where my chisel was not razor sharp. I had to resharpen the chisels and recut across this entire area to achieve the smooth finish I wanted.

carved-elephant-10

The 12 days of Christmas: elephant carving day 9

Back to the elephant’s rear end today.

The stance I am going for is that of an elephant ready to charge.

This means that it is standing with its back legs pushed forward, its head at a slight angle to its body, so that it presents a large mass, and finally ears flared wide, again to show the largest mass to the opponent.

carved-elephant-9

The 12 days of Christmas: elephant carving day 7

Time to pay some attention to the rear end of my olifant. At this stage I am adding detail to the tail and general rear end.

In case anyone is wondering, this isn’t a spelling error, it is Africaans for elephant.

There is nothing like trying to copy an animal for gaining an understanding of its real shape. I used about 30 photographs from different angles to understand the true proportions of an elephant.

If you trued to sketch one from memory then trust me, you would be way out. Their legs are longer than you think, their heads smaller and their feet pads larger. Photographs, calipers and the ability to scale are vital tools and techniques.

carved-elephant-7

The 12 days of Christmas: elephant carving day 5

With some carving work you need those odd boosts to the process to show that you are making progress. Here I have added the eyes. It is really way too early for this level of detail but I wanted to make sure that there was enough wood there and that the mouth, trunk, tusks etc were proportioned to the eyes.

Having said all of that I really just wanted to play with some detail.

It was also a waste of time because, as I added later body detail, it became obvious that the head was too large, and so the eyes had to go.

carved-elephant-6

The 12 days of Christmas: elephant carving day 5

If you didn’t watch this over Christmas, and you like elephants, then you really should.

Having roughed out the elephant, this is the stage where work appears to slow down. The process of getting the detail into the elephant takes time. Within the roughed out shape you know that, about 1cm down, the elephant lurkes. I am beginning to sketch out the head details first.

carved-elephant-5

The 12 days of Christmas: elephant carving day 4

Day 4. Christmas is now a distant memory. For those less able to plan, or curb the excesses, the fear of the looming credit card bill is growing.

The elephant meanwhile is beginning to look the part. In many ways this is the most difficult part. If the legs, ears, trunk, head etc are in the wrong place then there is no way back. I am quite happy that all is ‘dimensionally right’ with this elephant. In case you are interested, it is an African elephant and so has large ears.

carved-elephant-4

The ideal Christmas present, an experience day

beekeeping experience dayIf you are looking for the ideal Christmas present, an experience day might be just what you are looking for.

I have held a few experience days over recent weeks and wanted to share a few pictures.

Whether you are interested in finding out more about beekeeping or blacksmithing, I can tailor make a day for you.

In a day designed around what you want to achieve and learn, a beekeeping experience day will involve opening up hives and gaining an understanding of how the hive lives and thrives.

 

blacksmith-experience-day

“Thank you for such an amazing day!”

Meanwhile, on a blacksmithing day, I first work with you before the day to understand what you would like to make.

I then work on your idea to make it something you can make, with a little help from me when needed.

On the day itself you will learn forge techniques and make something to take away and treasure.

Please contact me if you have any questions about my experience days, or if I can help in any way.

 

 

blacksmith-experience-day-3

blacksmith-experience-day-2

Cold food smoking

cold-smoked-fishFrom time to time I have tweeted pictures of my cold food smoking equipment. The last time I put up a picture of smoking trout, I had loads (OK one) request to put up some more detailed pictures and explain more. So, here we go.

I have made a cold smoking set up, rather than hot smoking. This means that the ‘fire’ is away from the food being smoked, providing cold smoke, rather than smoldering in the same container and part cooking the food. My set up was inspired by Dick Strawbridge and his ‘smoking’ book.

food-smoking-1smokersmoker-burner

 

 

 

 

 

The above pictures show my set up. I started with a soot vacuum container from Aldi. I made 2 shelves to fit inside for the food and a separate burner, similar to that used in beekeeping.

food-smoking-coldcold-smokingHardwood shavings are added, and lit, to produce the smoke.

A pipe then feeds the smoke into the container, where the food awaits.

I have found that about 1 hour of smoking gives a delicate flavour. More and it becomes bitter and over smoked.

 

cold-smoked-fishsmoked-cheese

So far we have smoked fish, cheese and eggs.

All are delicious and I would thoroughly recommend giving it a try.

Blacksmith project: Nunti Bo

nunti-boI recently had a very interesting request to make a traditional Nunti Bo, used in Okinawan kobudō, a traditional form of martial arts.

Prior to the call I knew nothing of these of martial arts, or the traditional weapons used in modern exhibitions and practice.

Appreciating the importance of physical balance, alongside the desire for a traditional blacksmith construction process for the Nunti Bo, and with guidance from Gary and Marc, I finished my research and was ready to go.

The first thing I had to make was the Bo. For this I found a supplier of traditional Japanese red oak. At 6ft long and 30mm diameter, I had my first element ready.

For the Sai (the metalwork), I was on more familiar ground.

However, since no-one else seems to make Nunti Bo, all I had to work on was a photograph.

This required a bit more work to scale up from some overall sizes and I was then ready to fire up the forge and start hitting hot metal.

The pictures below show the forging process and the different stages of producing the Sai component to the Nunti Bo.

 

 

 

blacksmithing-rodnuntibo-blacksmithingnunti-bo-sai

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final finishing of the Nunti Bo was to polish the metal and woodwork with beeswax polish. This ensures that the metalwork keeps its natural forged finish.

All in all this was a very interesting project, especially because it was so closely aligned with my interests in keeping traditional crafts and practices alive.

I really enjoyed the challenge of a small step into unknown territory, working to such a precise brief to make a historically correct item.

 

Auricula theatre

auricula-theatreInspired by seeing an auricula theatre here, Mrs Bee decided that she would like one of her own.

A visit to a garage sale led to a chance discussion with someone selling an auricula. 10 minutes later and we were offered a whole range of ‘doubles’. The decision was set, we needed an auricula theatre to show them off.

The one at Calke abbey is a little out of our scale, but some research and searching resulted in the theatre you see here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It started out as a cardboard template, to get the size and scale right. a few planks of wood later and the design came to life.

auricula-theatre-outlineauricula-theatre-wood-frameauricula-theatre-painted

Blacksmithing banana tree

blacksmith banana tree 1I made this blacksmithing banana tree a while ago now, but thought it worth a revisit in my occasional look at things I have made on the forge.

It is basically one piece of bar, split at the base to make the stand, and at the top to make 2 hooks for the bananas.

It has an extra small foot, held in place by a rivet, to stop it toppling over.

It typifies the style I like, and am slowly adopting. A solid design, incorporating organic flowing lines, with traditional blacksmithing techniques of splitting, riveting and fire welding.

 

Autumn in the beekeeping world

Whilst the children are still on summer holidays and we are enjoying temperatures in the mid to high 20s, in the bee world it is already autumn.

By the beginning of August the colony is beginning to shrink in size and forage is reducing. By the end of August there really isn’t anything of substance for them to collect, beyond nectar from a few garden flowers and some blackberry.

They have kicked out most drones and, if they are not ‘queen right’ now, then there is no chance of them raising a new queen. Their only hope is the introduction of a fully mated queen, ready to lay.

They are therefore in full autumn mode and preparing for winter. By the end of October, whilst we will still be enjoying autumnal weather, they need to be fully bedded down for their winter.

beekeeping autumnSo, this is the apiary today. Gone are the 5 high stacks of supers full of honey. They now have a maximum of 2 supers, most fewer. This is just to give them room for the bees, as they reduce in numbers to their winter colony size of around 10,000 bees.

Their biggest threat right now is from varroa and wasps.

More on dealing with both of these pests next time.

 

New season echium honey

echiumI’d like to take you back a few weeks, to when I posted a picture of the beautiful echium crop being grown one field away from us.

Our local farmer is always looking to new crops, and so this is the first time it has been grown in the area. It is grown for its oil, as an alternative to fish oils, and for medical uses.

 

 

 

We were hopeful of a good honey crop, especially as echium is related to borage, which gives a beautifully light and delicate honey.

 

echium honey 2 lr no addWell, the honey is every bit as delicious as we had hoped.

Like borage, it is almost transparent in appearance.

The flavour is light and delicate, perhaps even more so than with borage.

It is now for sale here

 

 

 

A mileage milestone

Today Mildred reached a mileage milestone.

austin seven miles

It might only be 5000 miles, but, trust me, every mile driven in an Austin seven is worth 50 in driving experience in a modern car. As you can also see, we were ‘cruising’ at 20mph at the time.

mildred audley end 2We had a lovely day out. Starting here and moving on to one of our favourites, the Fry Gallery. We finished up at Audley End for a quick visit.

On the way Mildred reached 5000 miles with us. That’s over 9 years, so we haven’t exactly been piling on the miles.

I once read an article saying that all learners should have a lesson in an Austin Seven, and I get the point.

Drivers today are isolated from the dangers out there. Most have never heard of aquaplaning and will happily drive 10m from the bumper of the car in front at 70 mph in torrential rain. They have little understanding of the fragility of life and the fact that they are trusting theirs to 4 small patches of rubber, the only thing attaching them to the road.

If they had to drive a car with limited brakes, low power, requiring planning to get up the slightest of hills, no air bags, power steering, air conditioning, ABS or seatbelts, then they might just be better and safer drivers.

 

Blacksmithing kitchen towel holder

The second of my blacksmithing bits and pieces posts is a kitchen towel holder.
blacksmith kitchen towel holderThis is typical of the types of pieces I enjoy making, perhaps my emerging style. Solid metalwork, made to last (I hate the cheap and cheerful look of spindly metal made with the thinnest material you can get away with), combined with organic themes, through the twists and curves.

It is then finished off with traditional exposed rivet steel joining techniques.

 

blacksmith kitchen towel holder 2In case it isn’t obvious, this is what it looks like with the towel roll in place.

Blacksmithing bits and pieces

blacksmith towel railNot everything I make on the forge is a sculpture, or a complicated plant support.

This week I also made a simple towel rail, made to fit a new kitchen, as there was nothing available off the shelf.

blacksmith towel rail detail

It fits inside a drawer with limited space.

It is made from 10mm round steel, welded to 40mm square pads, all painted satin black.

More simple bits and pieces tomorrow.

 

Leaf cutter bee

Bees come in many shapes and sizes. There are over 250 different types in the UK alone, from the familiar honeybee and bumblebee to the not so familiar, like the leaf cutter bee.

leafcutter bee 1A couple of days ago I was in the utility room, when I noticed a bee fly into the fold of a newspaper.

After watching for a few minutes, I saw the bee make repeated journeys, with small pieces of vegetation in tow.

 

 

 

leafcutter bee 4

leafcutter bee 2A few more flights later and I caught her on camera.

A leaf cutter bee was taking up residence.

I carefully opened the paper to see this amazing tubular nest.

 

leafcutter bee 3I left her in peace for the night, with the back door open so that she could fly early in the morning.

By the time I got up, the nest was sealed and she was away to find her next site.

i couldn’t leave the paper on the shelf, so I carefully cut the edge of the paper off and placed it inside an (unoccupied) nest box hanging in one of our trees.

If all goes well, in a couple of weeks the new bee should be emerging and ready to go on to pollinate, and build more nests.

Bees are truly amazing insects. We couldn’t do without them and should do all we can to help protect them.

 

 

Mildred’s minor surgery – part 2

This is part 2 of Mildred’s minor surgery. A quick update really.

Having found a good old fashioned paint shop that offered a matching service, we headed off with Mildred’s bonnet.

austin seven restoration 5 austin seven restoration 4

 

 

 

 

 

We left the bonnet with them for a couple of hours and picked up the bonnet plus 3 spray cans and a touch up pot.

I am extremely pleased with the result of the painting. Whilst my preparation work was ‘good amateur’, rather than professional standard, the colour match is close on perfect and I am quite pleased with my spray painting. Mildred now has a secure spare wheel hub with 3 welded on studs. She is ready for her next outing.

As a reminder in pictures, this is how it began, and ended:

Austin seven restoration

austin seven restoration hub

IMG_20160704_110851

 

 

 

 

 

austin seven restoration 6

 

 

Echium honey

echiumOur local farmer is growing echium this year, the first time it has been grown in the area.

It looks lovely, a bright blue flower, with some white flowers mixed in.

It is in the borage family and we are looking forward to seeing what the honey is like.

 

Interestingly the pollen is very dark, almost black. Bees collect pollen and use it as the basis of the carbohydrate food they feed to larvae as they develop into fully formed bees. They carry it in ‘pollen sacks’, in reality a group of hairs on the back of their legs used to stick lumps of pollen to.

The pictures below show yellow oil seed rape pollen and the dark echium pollen.

honeybee pollen

DSC05696

 

 

 

 

 

me with supersWe have a couple of very strong colonies this year and have added some empty supers, to make sure that they have pure echium honey as it comes in.

Come back in a few weeks, when we have collected the honey, to hear what it is like and perhaps try some yourself.

Mildred’s minor surgery

Readers of my twitter feed may have been a little confused by pictures of Mildred’s minor surgery. I will explain.

mildred spare wheelMildred’s spare wheel is screwed to a hub, which is attached to the back of her bodywork. The hub is clamped through her bodyshell to a support bracket on the inside, which is attached to the ladder frame (hope you are keeping up).

When preparing her for the wedding run a couple of weeks ago, I noticed cracks between the edge of the hub and the bodywork. Investigation showed that the inner spare wheel support had, in an earlier restoration, been cut away from the ladder frame, reducing its ability to support the weight of the wheel, which was left hanging from just the bodywork. Over time this had stressed and cracked the bodywork and rusted through the rim. Worse case scenario was that the wheel would, under its own weight and a few bumps in the road, literally pull away from the car, taking a piece of body with it.

The solution was not overly complicated, just fiddly and time consuming. Internally I rebuilt the missing section of the inner support. A bit of simple sheet metal work was needed. This ensured that the wheel is no longer simply hanging on the thin bodywork, it now has a direct support bracket to the ladder frame. I then tack welded the hub back to the shell to stop it cracking away again.

austin seven restoration hubWhilst I was working around the hub I decided to tackle a job I have had on the list for a long time. One of the 3 studs used to secure the spare wheel was loose and in not quite the right place.

I suspected a bodge, and found one. The support area around the stud had cracked and been roughly held in place with filler. This was never going to work. This is what was left after I had removed the filler.

 

Austin seven restorationWith the paint stripped back, and the welder out anyway, I welded it securely back in place, the correct position this time (the lower left of the 3 studs).

 

This is what it all looked like with the hub secured to the body and the stub welded up, ready for finishing.

 

 

The final job was a skim of fine filler to level it off. This is how filler should be used, not as a bodge to hide bad work. A coat of etch primer was applied and rubbed back to show minor imperfections, which were refilled and primed again.

austin seven restoration      IMG_20160704_110851

That just about brings you up to date.

The problem I now have is finding matching paint.  It is not possible to pop down to Halfords, since I have no idea what specific colour was used in the 80s when she was restored.

I need to visit a paint supplier with specialised equipment to measure and reproduce the paint mix for me. At least the repair is safe and protected so we can head out on the road again, albeit with a grey bottom!

 

 

Polytunnel time

Dr Who has his own time travelling Tardis and I think I have discovered a new way to manipulate time, polytunnel time. Let me explain.

polytunnel timeA polytunnel is a great thing. It delivers all year round. It provides space to store tender plants through the winter, a place to grow salads in February, and room to start off tender plants way before they would survive outside.

If you are not careful it can also provide a place to bake plants on a hot day and kill them off before your eyes.

But what of my title I hear you say, well here is my theory on polytunnel time.

Things that grow in a polytunnel seem to enter a different lifecycle. They grow quicker, but they also mature, go to seed and die quicker. A good example of this is that my polytunnel broad beans are already over. We had a few good dinners, and now they have finished. Meanwhile my outdoor broad beans are just beginning to form pods. They are at least 4 weeks behind, but then they will keep growing through to July, perhaps August, a much longer season.

The positive from this is that careful management and balancing crops, growing in and out of the polytunnel, means that you can dramatically extend the vegetable growing season.

The other side of the coin is that this also adds to the work involved. I estimate that for a given area it takes twice as much time to manage that land inside a polytunnel compared to the same area outside. For this you get perhaps 1 1/2 times as much produce. For example, today, I have cleared away the broad bean stems and have been adding compost ready to plant out brassicas and carrots tomorrow. More work, more food.

One thing I am not doing is complaining. I love growing vegetables, especially with the flexibility and the extra crops the polytunnel gives me. Where else could I pick rocket for a blue cheese and rocket wrap on a cold snowy February day, whilst also sowing the first radish seeds?

I guess I am just sharing an observation for prospective polytunnel owners. They are great, you won’t regret buying one, but watch closely, else you find a jungle growing in there.

 

 

Fused glass and forged steel birdbath

birdbath backsmith glass 6My latest project has been a fused glass and forged steel birdbath.

This began as a request for a special birthday present and, appealing to my liking for bringing different crafts together, finished up as a rather special birdbath.

The base is of course forged steel. It is an organic flowing design, with a twisted flower stem forming the tie between the legs. These have a classic flattened and curled foot on a base wider than the top, to give it stability should a pigeon decide to land on the edge of the glass rim.

The row of pictures below show the stages in the forging process.

 

 

 

 

 

birdbath backsmith glass 3birdbath backsmith glass 2

birdbath backsmith glass 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

birdbath backsmith glass 5

birdbath backsmith glass 7The glass top was made from 2 sheets of glass fused with ‘confetti’ glass between the sheets. It was then slumped into a shallow mould to give the bowl shape.

It simply sits into the forged steel ring, with the base finished in my usual silk black paint.

Swarming season

It’s swarming season for honeybees. It is their natural method of expanding colonies and May is the perfect time for them to do it. A swarm now will have enough time to establish a new home and build up stores for the winter.

The downside is that swarms in towns and cities are unwanted and often pick inconvenient places for their new home. This is where beekeepers around the country come in. We operate a swarm collecting service and last night was my turn to go collect.

honeybee swarm collectingSome swarms can be in the most difficult of places to reach, I heard of one last week between the roof lining of a church, some 30ft up.

The swarm I was called out to last night was at the other end of the scale, hanging 4ft off the ground in a laurel bush next to a driveway.

There are about 10,000 bees here, a medium sized swarm. They are at their most docile, full of honey and only interested in establishing a new home.

Problems come when animals brush by or small children poke them with a stick.

 

honeybee_swarm_collecting_2There is nothing scientific about the process of removal. The key is to get the queen and the others will follow.

I held my skep under the swarm and then gave the branch a sharp knock. If you just shake then the bees will instinctively hang on.

The bulk of the bees simply drop into the skep. Then all you need to do is turn the skep over onto a sheet and leave for a few minutes for the bees to settle.

 

 

honeybee_swarm_collecting_3Some bees will instinctively return to the branch. This isn’t usually a problem as, without a queen, they will ultimately drift away. However, as this swarm was outside a house I wanted to make sure I had cleared as many bees as possible, so that there was no risk of anyone being stung. I used smoke to push the bees away from the branch, disguising the remnants of the queen’s smell and driving them down to the rest of the colony.

After about 30 minutes, by which time the bees have settled into the skep, it is wrapped in the blanket and taken away.

 

This is only half the story, as they now need rehousing.

Below you can see the bees hanging inside the skep, it is pretty full. A hive is then prepared, with some new and some old frames, and the skep placed over it. Finally another sharp knock on the skep and the bees fall into their new home.

I will now leave them alone for a couple of days to settle down before taking another look at them.

honeybee_swarm_collecting_4

honeybee_swarm_collecting_5honeybee_swarm_collecting_6

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glass casting part 4: oh yes

It has been an adventure, a learning process, but it is done, the cast glass foot is finished.

fused glass foot

You last saw the mould full of glowing molten glass in the kiln. The mould cracked in the kiln, which has resulted in the ‘fin’ you can see across the middle of the foot. This can easily be ground off, so no major problem there.

Luckily the mould held together well enough to keep the glass in, but, as you can see below, it quite literally fell apart after being taken out of the kiln, allowing the foot to be removed easily.

foot 3

fused glass foot 2

 

 

 

 

 

All in all I am very pleased with the result. The detail is amazing, every line and ‘toe print’ is visible. The next phase it to built it into a sculpture. I am still not sure how to do that, so it might be a while before we revisit this one.

Glass casting part 3: don’t panic

I thought I owed an update on the glass casting. Well, it all got a little bit worrying. The first night of firing we were woken by a strong smell. Investigations proved the source to be the kiln, which, in its mould drying phase, was filling the studio with smelly steam.  This definitely wasn’t part of the plan, so we switched off the kiln and left it to cool. In the morning we opened the kiln to find one mould cracked and a nasty brown tinge to the kiln.

IMG_20160507_103320_1IMG_20160507_103314_1Fearing the worst, I contacted Kilncare, to find that this was actually perfectly normal. I perhaps needed to slow the drying phase to prevent cracks. Apart from that the brown stain was caused by the water, which would burn off. Panic over, reset process.

 

 

 

 

 

For the second attempt I decided not to use the already cracked mould, so the ‘gold bar’ will have to wait for another day. The foot went back in and, with a slow ramp up, appeared to melt well. The picture below is of us taking a quick peek at the 880 degrees C melting phase. The wire in the picture is being used to pop a couple of bubbles in the molten glass.

fused foot melting

 

The foot is now in its long cooling down phase. This takes about 4 days to prevent cracking of the glass.

 

Glass casting: part 2, going in

It is a while since I wrote about my first move into glass casting. Having frightened myself working out just how long (for that read expensive) the kiln cycle is for casting glass, I decided to fill the space with a couple of extra castings.

casting glassThe process of making the moulds was exactly the same as with the foot, except of course these moulds didn’t wriggle.

The first is an ammonite. I made one from metal a while ago on the forge and decided that I would like to make a glass one too.

The second casting takes a little more explaining. It is a ‘gold bar’. Using the forge as a heat source to melt lead, I decided it would be fun to cast a mock gold bar using some lead left over from the roof flashings for our extension (that was 10 years ago now). After that I cast one from aluminium too, as I liked the idea of the painted bars looking identical, but providing a surprise when picked up. The glass bar adds another material to the set. I’ll show you all 3 later.

I have used clear glass for the foot and ammonite and a golden tint glass for the gold bar, for obvious reasons. The picture here shows the rough glass ingots in the moulds. To calculate the amount of glass needed you first pour water into the mould, for the foot this was 625ml. then multiply by the specific gravity of glass (2.5), giving 1.5kg of glass.

With the kiln at maximum temperature, the glass should then melt down into the mould, filling it perfectly to the top. The (next) tricky bit comes in calculating the time to anneal the glass after melting. In this case it is 4 days of reducing the heat by 2 degrees an hour. Even then I am told that the stresses can easily cause cracks.

I am a little nervous about this one, partly because of the time it has taken to prepare the moulds, and partly because I have a feeling I know what the electricity bill will be for 5 days of kiln firing. if it works then that is all OK, if it doesn’t…Wish me luck.

Fused glass bees

With the coldest April since I can remember, the bees are struggling to get out. They need the temperature to be around 13 degrees before they fly and that means no nectar being brought in at a time when they are increasing in numbers.

The trials and tribulations of a beekeeper aside, we have been making some glass bees ready for the Essex Young Farmer’s show, so at least there is the illusion of flying bees around here.

fused glass bee plate with grass

fused glass bee plate

Glass casting: part 1, the mould

As mentioned in a couple of earlier posts, I have been playing with glass casting as an extension of fused glass work.

I was inspired by a walk along a wonderful beach in Noordhoek, South Africa. The beach is simply huge, with wide expanses of sand. The wind can be low and harsh, making it feel like your feet and shins are being exfoliated. Anyway, whilst walking along the pristine sand I was hit by the ‘leave only footprints’ saying, and that gave me the idea for my first glass casting.

Much research later and I was ready to have a go.

What I wanted to produce was a glass foot with a small surround, as if I had poured the glass into the footprint in the sand. This makes life a little more difficult, as it meant that I needed to go through 3 stages to get the final kiln mould.

algenate castingStage 1 involves making an impression, in alginate, of a foot. My version of the sand footprint. For this my wife ‘volunteered’. Alginate goes off in a matter of minutes so you need to work quickly. It is mixed from powder and put into a tray. add the required foot, wait 5 minutes and carefully remove. The result is a perfect impression.

 

DSC04818Stage 2 is to pour wax into the alginate impression to produce a ‘positive’ wax version of the foot. This was then trimmed to replicate what I want the final glass artwork to look like. I managed to make 2 wax impressions before the alginate disintegrated. But from here on it is all one use, so no mistakes allowed.

 

 

wax mouldIMG_20160304_154313Stage 3 is to produce the final plaster mould. For this I am grateful to the selfless people who share their experiences on YouTube, particularly Di Tocker, whose videos I have found extremely useful and informative.

Having sourced silica flour and plaster (much cheaper than the ready mixed packs available), I was ready. The wax foot is placed in a tray. The foam is just to reduce the amount of plaster needed. Mix equal amounts of water, silica flour and plaster. Pour over and there we have it. I also added a sheet of wire mesh into the top layer of plaster to add strength. Leave to set for about a day.

plaster mould glass castingWith the mould turned out of the tray, and 2 days in the bottom oven of the aga to melt out the wax and dry the mould, at last I have my final mould ready for the glass.

That’s where I leave this stage. I need to do some more research on kiln programmes, as the annealing stages appear particularly sensitive on large cast items. I must get it right. This is a one use mould, so no second attempts.

Postscript: initial research suggests that I will need to run a 4 day programme, rather than the usual overnight, to prevent stress cracking. This is going to be expensive, so I might try to make a couple of extra small moulds up first to make best use of kiln space and cost.

 

Fused glass problem…solved

fused glass tea lightThanks to advice from IdealCreativity, and a little extra experimentation, my glass slumping problem is solved. Slowing the temperature ramp by half and increasing the temperature a little (from my own extra trials) and I have perfectly slumped tea light holders.

I have run this programme twice now to make sure it was repeatable and they came out identical. Thanks Kristin.

 

fused glass t light

A year in the life: aka life after e2v

Last December I marked my anniversary of ‘signing on the dotted line’, to leave work, after more than 33 years at e2v.

Today, 7th April, is the first anniversary of my actual leaving day. It therefore warrants a retrospective thought or two on my gap year(s)/retirement/change of direction.

As you can see, I am still somewhat struggling with a comfortable description. It isn’t retirement in the sense of entering the ‘autumn’ of life, sitting back and watching the grass grow. It also isn’t really a gap year, or years, as it is a new future, not a pause in the status quo. That was really just a holding description, and a way of avoiding the lengthy questions around “retiring at your age, what will you do with yourself?”

So, ‘change of direction’ is closest, but also perhaps the wooliest. Come back next year (or before, please), to see if I have settled on a description I am truly happy with. Or perhaps it doesn’t really matter.

In the same way as I didn’t set rules or boundaries (or even a description) for my ‘change of direction’, I also didn’t set specific goals or objectives. That was my corporate world.

Having said that, it doesn’t mean I don’t make lists of things to do. I like lists.

Breaking rule no 1, I did set a simple goal to make sure that every day we were at home something on our plate came from the garden. It could range from frozen fruit for breakfast in the middle of winter, to a full meal when the garden is at its most productive. This we have succeeded in achieving. This year coming there will be more veg than ever.

A year on, I am told I am not yet fully house trained. I still have a habit of ‘disappearing’ good cooking bowls for use in various non-cooking related activities. However, no cooking utensils have been harmed in the making of any items this year (at least none that have since been discovered).

Whilst I have read 20 or so books in the last year, these have been in snatched moments. What I haven’t yet learnt how to do is sit down and properly relax. It really isn’t in my nature and I am not sure it ever will be. I can live with that. What is in my nature is to learn new practical crafts and skills, especially those on the ‘danger list’. This year has been no different it that respect, particularly with hot glass work.

What I have become is a Radio 4 listener. Previously, I only really saw the radio as a source of music to accompany driving. Johnny Walker on a Sunday afternoon is also not to be missed as an accompaniment to making Sunday dinner. Now the radio has become a source of interesting informative programmes (and some great comedies) on Radio 4. Dare I say it, I am now an Archers fan and I say Rob deserved all he got.

So here I am. A year on and perfectly happy, in fact more than that. Without a doubt it was the right decision for me to leave e2v.  Adjusting to a life outside of the corporate world has been surprisingly smooth. That doesn’t make the previous 33 years I worked there anything but rewarding, exciting and developing of me as a person. I continue to be in contact with friends there (see you for lunch next week) and I wish them and e2v every success for the future. In my talks I have, and will continue, to hold e2v up as an example of UK manufacturing at its best and a great place to start out, through their excellent apprenticeships.

Yesterday I took another look at the wonderful memory book given to me on my leaving day. It means such a lot to me. The effort that went into putting it together, gathering and collating thoughts from my e2v friends and colleagues around the world, was to me very touching and it continues to be treasured. Thank you.

In finishing this post I come naturally to the unfailing support from my wife, from making the decision to leave, to everything we have done together over the past year. We now have even more time to learn new crafts together, next week are going to ‘Flame Off‘ to learn more about hot glass.

I am feeling a need for a natty way to finish this post, an appropriate sound bite, a witty sign off. Sorry, can’t think of one, too busy, have a metal bean frame to build and there’s a bronze statue with a broken foot awaiting attention, oh and a book to read if I get the chance.

Come back soon, I’ll be here, and do say hello in the comments as you pass.

Fused glass problem

Following on from a fusing run, I slumped the results to make a shallow dish and 2 tea light holders.

The dish slumped perfectly, which is not a great surprise, since it is a shallow run and so has nowhere to go other than into the mould.  I think we have perfected this design now.

fused glass dish

The key setting was 725 degrees for 30 minutes, which I have adjusted following a few earlier slumping runs to the point where I have a setting that appears to make good shallow dishes and deeper slumping for tea lights.

However, next we move on to a problem with the slumping of the tea light holders. The holder at the front of the kiln didn’t slump enough, it has a rounded base that didn’t reach the kiln floor. Worse was the tea light at the back, as can be seen in the detail pictures below, it slumped unevenly, sinking down unevenly on one side and not the other.

fused glass problem

fused glass problem 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am a little mystified. I have a few theories, against which I would welcome a critique from those more experienced in fused glass work.

  • I have a Kilncare kiln, which is supposed to have (and on fusing runs has proved to have) a good even temperature across the kiln. But is the slumping process too sensitive to run successfully towards the corner. Does this explain why the inside of the top tea light has melted more?
  • But, if this is the case then why has the bottom tea light slumped evenly, but not enough, suggesting that it wasn’t hot enough?
  • Or could it be that my vermiculite mould is too rough to allow the glass to ‘slide’ down and has caught it on one side? I have checked and this doesn’t seem to be the case, unless again it is extremely sensitive.

If this wasn’t the same setting that was successfully used for the last tea light, I would think that I need to increase the temperature by 5-10 degrees and move the tea lights to be more central in the kiln.

Or am I missing something? Any ideas welcome.

DIY Aga servicing

Time for a bit of DIY Aga servicing.

Some years ago I was taught how to service our oil Aga by a friendly, Austin Seven driving, ex-Aga installer. The process, once you know it, isn’t complicated, but it does cost over £100 these days to have someone come and do it for you. This is made worse by the fact that oil is apparently getting dirtier, so a once or twice a year service now needs doing two or three times a year.

This is how easy it was:

The first picture is the heater unit in the Aga. Simply switch off the oil supply, undo the oil supply pipe, and remove the unit. The second picture is of the burner outside and the third shows the underside. The oil supply pipe has been removed and a drill is used to clean through to the burner reservoir.

agaservicing1

agaservicing2

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The next picture below shows the oil well and wicks, of which there are two. There is a crusting of oil residue in the well. I try to service the burner when it is like this, mildly crusted. I have however, missed a servicing in the past and found the well crusted solid with almost no space for the oil to flow.

The second picture shows the amount of residue scraped out from the reservoir. The third is of new wicks. I replace the wicks every 4 years or so and it was time.

agaservicing3

IMG_20160326_111843

agaservicing4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A simple clean of the baffles with a wire brush later and the job is done.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the cylindrical baffles being cleaned, but they are basically just metal perforated tubes. Push them back in place and the unit is read to go back into the Aga.

Switch the oil back on and leave for about an hour, to make sure that the oil has soaked the new wicks, and it is ready to light.

So that’s about 30 minutes for the service, an hour of waiting time, and £100 saved.

This post comes with all usual disclaimers. It is not a complete guide to servicing an oil Aga burner, rather the highlights of how I do it.  I wouldn’t have done this without the opportunity to watch a qualified Aga engineer do it first, and neither should you.

Fused glass suncatcher bees for sale

We are now offering our first fused glass suncatcher bees for sale.
fused glass beeThey are hand made in our own kiln and I have only 6 available for sale. They are therefore already RARE.

They are approximately 10cm x 10cm and are made from coloured fused glass. They have a copper ring so that they can be hung in a window as a traditional suncatcher.

Price: £14

Plus Postage at £1:70

Please contact me at sales@andybennettuk.co.uk if you would like to buy one.

Lead garden statue repair

lead garden statueI was asked if I could repair a lead garden statue. I have experience in leaded glass window work and blacksmithing, so was confident I could help.

If it isn’t obvious, this picture is of the repaired statue. Read on to see how I got there.

The first problem I faced was that stressed lead crumbles. It literally falls apart in your fingers and is impossible to solder or melt. But let’s start at the beginning, with what it looked like when I collected it.

 

 

To be honest I am not surprised it failed at the ankles. The statue is about 2 foot tall and, given it is made of lead, is obviously heavy. All that weight and leverage going through a relatively thin wall at the ankle is never going to last the distance. The break wasn’t clean, it had twisted and ripped apart, distorting the base in the process.

The first job was therefore to bend the base roughly back into shape. This I did with my fingers, such was the poor state of the lead. I then drilled though the base to give an anchor for 2 rods, one to go right through to the head and one into the second ankle. These would provide the ‘bones’ of the support the statue should always have had:

lead garden statue repair 1

lead statue repair 4

lead statue repair 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lead statue repair 2I was now ready to begin to refit the statue. A lot of jiggling around, cleaning back of flaking lead bits,  bending of lead, and I had a pretty good fit.

Using high grade metal based filler I then packed the inside of the base and ankles. This gave the base back its strength of form and anchored the statue to the core steel rods I had inserted.

2 hours later and it had set solid. It was now a statue standing proud, but it needed lead work to close the join.

 

This is where my leaded glass experience (and tools) came in. Below you can see the process of rubbing back the damaged lead to some form of clean lead base, adding pure lead solder and finally rubbing back to a smooth surface. This was repeated around the foot and base in layers.

lead garden statue repair 7

lead garden statue repair 6lead garden statue repair 3

lead garden statue repair 2

The final stage was to add a blackening compound. It is used in leaded glass work to darken new lead to match it to existing oxidized leading.

And so it is finished.

Look closely and you can see the join, but given how fragile and damaged the lead was, I am pleased with the final result.

 

 

lead statue

 

Wood carved house sign

WOOD CARVING BEEHIVEAs a little break from the glass work (behind the scenes the glass casting continues, more in a while) I have been working on a wood carved house sign.

It is my first attempt at letter carving and, whilst enjoyable, I have found it a little constraining compared to my usual free flowing style.

Included in the corner of the sign is a relief beehive, pictured here.

I am still trying to decide how to finish the sign: simple oil, gold leaf inside the lettering or painted lettering. Whichever way I go it is a one time decision, so I am taking my time and looking for some similar examples, so that I can see the reality of how it looks.

Decisions, decisions.

Fused glass on a cold day

What more could you want other than to play with fused glass on a cold day?

 
fused glass tea lightI have made my first deep slumping mould, to make a simple tea light holder, and I have to say it all worked quite well.

The piece is made from 2 square sheets, offset, and with confetti glass sandwiched between them.

I first fired it on a regular fusing programme to make the flat design.

For the slumping stage I made a simple mould from vermiculite sheet, with a hole in it, to allow the glass to fall.

fuaed glass dishI also used the kiln space to slump the ‘bubble’ sheet I made a few weeks ago into a dish.

Some of the bubbles are a little larger than I would ideally like, but it is an interesting design that I will play with again.

What next? Well watch this space, as, inspired by our holiday in South Africa and the principle of ‘leave only footsteps’, I am currently having a go with casting glass.

I have been researching mould making and have all necessary bits and pieces. All I need now is time.

 

Fused glass – not that easy

IMG_20160227_114333I have been having a go at some new glass fusing techniques, notably crackle. it starts with powder, sprinkled over a base sheet, sprayed with water and then pushed into crackle type effects. A piece of clear glass (tekta) is then put on top.

This is how it looks after the process. I tried an additional variant, where one base sheet was scrunched up first. the idea being that this helped form the crackle look.

 

 

IMG_20160227_171438

IMG_20160228_160649I added a sheep and some bees to the kiln load, far left. The idea being that the bees could be my first move into selling glass items.

The near left picture shows the results. The sheep and bee have come out well. The crackle glass however, hasn’t. It looks like, well, clear glass with melted powder. A bit of a failure really. If you want to see how it should be done, then visit here.

Back to the drawing board on that one. I just need to work out what I did wrong.

 

 

 

 

Wood carved fuchsia – the final stage

And so it was time to bring together the various elements of the fuchsia.

Alongside the main sepals, central petals and leaves, I also made the stamens from painted piano wire with individually carved pollen anthers.

The fitting, finishing, adjusting, refitting and polishing (with our own beeswax polish) actually took nearly as long as making each of the individual parts did.

Here it is. It hangs down over a fireplace in the manner in which a real fuchsia would:

final wood carved fuchsia

 

Wood carved fuchsia, part 3

For this part of the wood carved fuchsia project I moved over to metal.

I like mixed media artwork, so decided that for the leaves and stems I would forge them from steel. The pictures below show the step by step process. I first cut the outline shape from 3mm steel, welded on a 6 mm rod to form the stem, and then, after heating on the forge, formed the leaf detail with veins marked with a flat chisel.

I then welded 3 together around a rod, to form the fuchsia stem, ready to fit the wooden flower:

IMG_20151130_092309

IMG_20151130_124913

 

 

 

 

 

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Wood carved fuchsia, part 2

fuchsia tirningFor the second part of my wood carved fuchsia project I made the central part of the flower. It started as a piece of oak bought at the National Trust Ickworth wood fair.

The idea was to use different wood to reflect the different textures and colours of the different parts of the flower.

 

 

 

 

IMG_20151012_103707I began by turning the basic shape from the block of oak. For a while it looked rather like a cup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_20151030_154729Next came the actual wood carving stage. I did this to the roughed out point whilst on our annual holiday in Northumberland.

We have spent a week  in a remote farm cottage every year for the last 10 years. It began as a retreat from all that is office life, at a time when the garden was quietening down and the bees tucked up for winter. Now we go just because we love Northumberland.

And so that’s it, short and sweet for stage 2. It still needs a lot of finishing, particularly to the base, where it will fit into the petals made in part 1.

Watch this space for part 3.

 

Wood carved fuchsia, part 1

My wood carved fuchsia has been a long term project, but that’s no bad thing. It has been quite nice to work on something I haven’t felt like I wanted to finish as quickly as possible.

It is made from a number of components, mainly wood, but also with leaves and stems made on my forge. All of which I will explain as I go.
wood caved fuchsia

We should start with my inspiration, a fuchsia flower. Having said that, my fuchsia is a bit of a composition, rather than a copy of a specific fuchsia type.

For my wooden version I started with the main petals, made from ash.

I started with a slice of ash bought at the local National Trust wood fair as I like to know that the materials I use are from a sustainable source.

From this plank I cut 4 pieces, glued them together into a cross, and carved them into the shape of the 4 petals and the first part of the stem.

 

Ash wood carving

fuchsia carving 4

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_20151003_110729

fuchsia carving 1

 

 

 

 

 

And so this is stage 1 complete.

Chitting potatoes

chitting potatoes

I know some people think it a little early, but our potatoes are currently happily chitting away in the shower tray. We have a good range from First Earlies to Maincrop.

They are safe from water, as this shower is only heated by solar tubes, so is unlikely to be called into action before mid-March at the earliest.

We only recently ate the last Pink Fir from last year’s crop in a vegetable curry. It’s very satisfying to have next ones on their way.

Fused glass hens and bees

fused glassWe have been making fused glass hens and bees, along with a few other bits and pieces. This is the final result post firing. For this run I reduced the temperature to 795 degrees C for 10 minutes as I felt that the 800 degrees C run was slightly over cooked and melted.

This is how it all started for the hen:

fused glass henIMG_20160124_131906IMG_20160124_133607

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_20160124_152612And this is the kiln shelf full of hens, bees and beads. I am also refiring the plate I was trying to make into a dish, but for which I overdid the bubbles. I have since popped them and am putting them through the kiln again to flatten it down, before I make it into shallow bowl.

 

Borage honey

We have been having a run on borage honey. It has a delicate flavour and, as you can see from the picture below, it has a light appearance, almost transparent. Here you can see it alongside a jar of our summer flower honey.

borage honey

Borage is a herb, grown commercially for its oil.

From the bees’ perspective it has good and bad traits, mostly good.

It comes into flower in the break between other flowering crops and so offers a valuable source of mid-summer pollen and nectar, when the colony is at its strongest and in need of food.

Its sugar balance also means that it does not set quickly, and so is easy to extract from the hive. This also makes it easy for the bees to eat, without needing to add lots of water themselves to liquify it.

The only downside is that it only comes ‘on flow’, ie is nectar bearing, for a couple of weeks. If, as is often the case in the summer, we have a couple of damp weeks that coincide with flowering, then the bees don’t fly much and can miss the crop entirely.

Adding in the fact that the crop itself is only grown to specific order, this all gives me, the beekeeper, a fairly rare, interesting and valuable honey.

Glass fused plate

We have been experimenting with our new glass fusing kiln. The latest project has been a 25cm diameter glass fused plate. This is how it finished:

fused glass plate

As you can see below, it began with a sheet of clear glass and some blue and white strips.

The second picture shows the strips in place on the clear base. I am also making some curved glass rods using a small blowtorch.

In the third picture they are in place. You can also see some ‘frits’, small glass chips, used to even out levels where glass has been added. This proved to be a mistake.

glass strips for fusingIMG_20160110_121924 IMG_20160110_124843

 

 

 

 

 

The next picture below shows the plate in the kiln. As always we are making use of every bit of space. This time we are making some beads from rough cut pieces of glass, a bee, and are refiring the ‘bubble’ glass, which I previously put too much baking soda on, making huge bubbles which burst.

The final picture below is the plate post-firing. At this stage it is flat. Next it is put back into the kiln, at a lower temperature,  to ‘slump’ it into a mould shaped like a plate. The final result is the picture at the top of this post.

IMG_20160110_142628IMG_20160111_150347

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There have been some lessons learnt. Most of which don’t show up in the photos:

  • Don’t put clear frits over the top of coloured glass, at it leaves a ‘shadow’ that shows up in bright light. Put them only along the edges of added glass.
  • Unlike stained glass work, avoid grinding edges to make them fit better. The result after firing is a dulled edge. It is much better to leave a less perfect, but clean, break.
  • When adding glass over a clear sheet, and to the edge of the clear sheet, leave a gap. If you don’t then the bulk of the glass will produce a bulge along the edge.

Live and learn as they say.

Beeswax: The final beekeeping harvest

Beeswax is a very useful and valuable part of the beekeeping ‘harvest’.

Bees produce wax by eating honey and releasing wax scales from slits along the sides of their abdomen. It is just one of many amazing feats they perform.

Depending on whose numbers you believe, it takes between 6 and 12 times the weight of honey to produce the same weight of beeswax.

honey extracting 3For bees, wax has a simple role, they chew the flakes and form it into the honeycomb used to raise their young and store food in the forms of nectar/honey and pollen.

For man, beeswax offered efficient sources of light. Beeswax candles smell so much nicer than those made from animal fats, and they burn brighter.

Of course after candles came a number of other uses, from simple polish, to protective coatings for medicines, and as a component of ‘surgical bone wax’, used to control bleeding during surgery.

beeswax blocksFor the average beekeeper, beeswax is obtained from two processes.

Firstly when an old frame is removed from the hive the wax can be recovered.

The downside of this is that the frames are usually 3 or more years old and removed as part of a hygiene regime.

By this time, there is a relatively small amount of pure wax left, as the frames are clogged with cocoons from the raising of young bees.  After much effort you tend to get just a few ounces of wax per frame. Personally I use these frames for firelighters.

The second, and in my opinion best, source of wax, is from ‘cappings’. This is the pure wax scraped or cut off the front of ‘super’ frames before putting them into centrifugal extractors to remove the honey. The resulting honey/wax mix can be given back to the bees to recover the honey, leaving pure clean wax behind.

An average hive will produce perhaps 3 or 4 pounds of beeswax a year. Not surprising then that this wonderful product is so highly valued and sought after.

Felt making

This week we have been felt making.

I needed protective covers for my Christmas presents, 2 water stones for sharpening my wood caving chisels, and felt covers were the obvious answer.

IMG_20151227_123735Felt making is an interesting and quite physical process, so you get a work out and a product at the end.

The process begins with laying out the wool. Ours comes from Northumberland sheep, from the farm we visit every November. We swap honey and jams for fleece which we then clean, card and dye.

 

 

felt makingNext you put a mesh over the wool and rub soap into the fleece. Repeat with fleece added at right angles to the last layer until you have built up about 6 layers. Here I am making a tube so the fleece is wrapped around a former, front and back.

 

 

feltAdd a cut out version of my logo in fleece.

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_20151227_132410Rub, rub and rub, until you can feel the wool ‘felting’ together.

Wrap tightly in bubble wrap and a towel. Truss it together and put in the washing machine to complete the felting process.

 

 

IMG_20151227_161857_1

Last stage is to put a wooden former inside the felt case to the size of the sharpening stones. Wrap and then put back into the washing machine.

Anyone who has ever washed a real wool jumper will know what happens now. It shrinks and goes very dense. The felting process is complete.

 

 

IMG_20160102_161402Final stage is to add a home made button (made from fimo polymer clay by my wife), and then finish off with a flap.

You can see the stone poking out of the left hand cover.

It is also interesting to see the difference in how the logos have come out. One has stretched and the other has shrunk.

The wonders of felting.

 

 

Glass fusing part 2

For those of you waiting with baited breath for the glass fusing results from the kiln, here is the resulting bowl.

It all came together nicely and we are quite pleased with our first attempt.

glass fused dish

Glass Fusing

glass fusing kilnHaving enjoyed our glass fusing course, we have bought a kiln. This is it, sitting on its homemade stand, made from the wooden pallet used to deliver glass.

So far we have tried some fusing, bottle slumping, bead making and bubble making with baking soda. Results have, on the whole, been quite interesting. Only the bubble making has proved a little problematic. I clearly used too much baking soda, resulting in massive exploding glass bubbles, rather than the desired small trace bubbles. All good fun.

 

 

Some before and after pictures:

Before firing:                                   After:                                      Close up of exploding bubbles:

glass fusing before

glass fusing bubbles 2

glass fusng bubbles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

glass fused bowl before slumpingThe green plate above is going to be my first slumped bowl. This is how it looks at the moment, after the initial firing from above.

It is now sitting in its slumping mould. It is all a bit experimental. I have made the mould from vermiculite sheeting, carved into shape using my woodcarving chisels.

Come back tomorrow to see whether or not it becomes a bowl after firing tonight, or alternatively a new style of molten glass lump stuck to a sheet of vermiculite. Fingers crossed.

 

Solving a problem with a Soggy Bottom

Soggy bottoms are not just the preserve of the Great British Bake Off. As a consequence of bouncing along lanes and roads worse even than today’s pot holed surfaces, an 82 year old Austin Seven can also suffer a sagging rear end.

This year the time came to address the problem, with a new set of springs. So far I have only fitted the rear set, the main culprit for Mildred’s problems.

Come some nice spring (no pun intended) weather, when I can once again comfortably sit in the drive without risk of my own soggy bottom, I will replace the front one too.

These pictures show the dramatic change before and after, with Mildred now sitting about 5cm higher on fresh, taut springs:

austin seven springs

austin seven springs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In between these 2 pictures was about 7 hours of pushing, wrenching, levering, heating and bolting. With new pins, nuts and bolts replacing the old parts.

All in all, very satisfying. For those interested, there are a few more detailed pictures below of the chassis rail after removal of the old spring, the new pin compared to old, and the new spring being eased into place, with the pin not quite in alignment yet and in need of some persuasion.

austin sevenaustin seven spring pinIMG_20150706_112550

Fused Glass work

We are always interested in learning new craft skills. Working with glass has always particularly interested us, perhaps because it is so permanent. The colours will never fade, the finish will never tarnish and it will never wear. It also makes use of light to show itself off and light is a wonderful natural thing.

Having said that, glass is a very difficult material to work with, both because it is inherently breakable and limited in what you can produce shape wise, and because there is a firing process that changes what you have assembled. Some glass, like pottery glaze, also changes colour on firing.

Whilst visiting a farmers’ market a couple of weeks ago we stumbled upon this lady and within a week were on an ‘introduction to fused glass’ course. We had a great day with her, and only 1 other student, who had some previous experience. We were therefore able to compress our ‘introduction’ and move on quickly to some more advanced work.

fused glass finishedI made 2 pieces on the course. The first was an ammonite. This was made from a flat piece of lace glass, overlaid with coloured ‘segments’. It then had fibre board placed behind it to give embossed grass shapes. I then added green ‘strings’ to the front to add some accent to the grass. The pictures below show work in progress to achieve the final fired result above.

fused glass workfused glassIMG_20151210_140300

What’s in a year?

It is a year ago today that I signed up to the process that led to me leaving work. It wasn’t until April 7th that I actually left, so strictly speaking I have only had 8 months in my brave new world, but on his day, a year ago, the countdown began.

I don’t regret a day of the 33 years I worked at e2v. The skills I gained, the experiences I had, and friends made are a part of me. The experience has also left me a lifetime supporter of apprenticeships. By that I mean real apprenticeships, where trades are learnt and college attended, not some of the modern apprenticeships that satisfy government targets and deliver cheap labour at £3:30 an hour. I am proud that e2v still offers the type of quality apprenticeships that will set youngsters up for life.

The last 8 months have flown past. I have been able to do things I didn’t previously have the time for: growning more vegetables, making things on my new forge, spending more time beekeeping, starting a weekly wood carving class, learning some new craft skills, giving some talks and demonstrations, and completing some of the long awaited jobs on our 1933 Austin 7. I have also given a lot more time to my role as a Parish Councillor.

What I haven’t learnt yet is how to relax a little more. I have read a few more books (previously a holiday luxury), but it isn’t in my nature to laze around. Daytime TV remains a mystery to me and please someone shoot me if I show signs of sitting down in front of Jeremy Kyle.

One thing is clear, I would not have been able to do this without the full support of my wife.

So here’s to the rest of my life and now I must go. The sun is out and I need to finish the audit of our beekeeping equipment supplies, to see what we need to restock in the winter sale. I then have a Parish Highways Committee meeting and after than our Austin Seven Christmas party. I also have to do some designs for a glass fusion course we are doing tomorrow.

Who has time for work?

Forged Obelisk

blacksmith obeliskI have been finishing off the forged obelisk I started last week. As a recap, below I am including the pictures of the forging process for the top. The obelisk is 2m high and 0.5m diameter. The outline design is based on obelisks I have made for our garden. Our friend designed the flowing shape of the top herself, the finial is based on the design of a sculpture I made to represent a flower form.

It is finished in zinc undercoat, for rust protection, and silk black paint.

 

 

 

blacksmith obelisk forgeblacksmith obelisk on forgeblacksmith obelisk top

Ideal Christmas gift: beekeeping experience day

The ideal gift for that impossible-to-buy-for person, or for someone who thinks they might like to keep bees (but isn’t quite sure):  a beekeeping experience day.

beekeeping frameFor anyone who has ever wondered what is in a hive, or what it might be like to hold a frame of bees, watching them make honey and bring in pollen, whilst witnessing the wondrous moment of a fluffy new bee emerging from a cell, then this is for them, or you.

An ‘experience’ session will last about 3 to 3 1/2 hours in total, sometimes longer; I don’t watch the clock when we are playing with the bees. It is usually an afternoon to early-evening activity.

We will spend as long as necessary getting you comfortable with being around the bees in my garden apiary, before opening up the hives to take a look.

You can then do as much as you are comfortable doing, whilst I show you what is in the hives and how the bees live.  I have kept bees for 20 years, and have a lot of experience working with people who are nervous around bees. I have yet to have any visitor, from 8 years old and up, who hasn’t finished up comfortable holding a frame of bees and gone home inspired and uplifted by the experience.

If you want a stress-busting experience away from that life behind a desk, then this is for you. You simply can’t rush beekeeping, you have to slow down.

So what does it cost?

The price for 1 person is £70, for two £100 and for 3 £125.

Children under 16 must be accompanied by a participating adult.

I don’t mix groups, so you will have a personal day. if you pay for one person then it will be exactly that, just you with my full attention.

I am fully insured and have all the protective equipment you will need, including full length suits and gloves. All I ask is that you bring wellington boots to wear, as it may be a little muddy.

What will you receive?

I will send you a bee-themed gift card explaining the day, which you can give as a gift, or keep as a treat for yourself. The exact date can be booked later. Courses are available 7 days a week.  It is of course weather-dependent and will likely be from late March onwards, as we cannot open a hive when the temperature is below 13 degC. The voucher will be valid for bookings at any time during 2016.

There will also be plenty of opportunities for pictures, so that you have a souvenir of your day.

To book, or if you have any questions, please do send me a message.

Forge day

forge day 3Given that yesterday was forecast as wet and windy, I thought it perfect to get the forge out and have a day hitting hot metal.

My forge is obviously outside, which has its good and bad sides.  The open air can be a double edged sword of course and today I hardly needed the  blower.

 

 

 

 

forge day 1forge day 4
I started off with the finial for an obelisk I am making for a friend and moved on to a stand for a gallon (literally) kettle, bought from a local reclaim centre.

 

 

 

 

forge day 2forge day 5I also hardened off the surface of the portable anvil I made a few weeks ago, so that it now has a nice ring to it. To say it needed a big fire is an understatement, but at least it gave me the opportunity to try out the new heat baffle I made to protect the forge base. It obviously worked.

Flame working glass course

We have just returned from the National Glass Centre where, as a surprise birthday present, we did a course on flame working glass rod with Zoe Garner.

The venue is impressive and our tutor, for just four of us, was organised, patient and worked to our comfort rather than her schedule. She was great.

glass flame working

flameworking glass course

flame working glass course

 

 

 

 

 

 

The course was to make glass chains, but we all digressed into our own designs. For me, once I had made some basic chain designs, I decided to make a new version of my logo. If  Google can have a new logo style each day then I am sure I can manage a couple a month.


IMG_20151031_160602

Ideas Festival talk

A year in beekeeping aLast night I gave my ‘A year In beekeeping’ talk to a group of very interested people. We looked at a real hive, to understand what goes on inside at different points in the year, and had a 40 minute Q & A session, only stopping when our time ran out.

With my thanks to the Ideas Hub for organising the event, Anglia Ruskin University for great facilities, and of course everyone who came along to listen.

 

 

 

Chelmsford ideas Festival beekeeping talk

Only 5 days to go to my talk ‘A year in beekeeping’, being given as part of the Chelmsford Ideas Festival 2015.

My talk will be on Friday 23rd October at Anglia Ruskin University, 7.30pm-9pm.

With the help of an empty hive and some slides I will take the audience through a year in beekeeping, dropping in some interesting facts and figures. I will also be challenging some of the claims around Manuka honey and explaining the science behind why, without bees, humankind simply wouldn’t survive.

Albert Einstein said it much better than I ever could:

“If all the bees disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have 4 years of life left.”

What’s more, it is free to come along, but booking is necessary to ensure no one is disappointed on the door. Book here or at www.anglia.ac.uk/community or call 01245 684723.

I will also have some honey and natural hive products for sale.

The full Chelmsford Ideas Festival programme can be downloaded here. Their website is here and facebook page here.

Field boundaries

There have long been subsidies and allowances for leaving a 10m or so strip alongside a field planted out for crops. This strip then being appropriately planted to encourage wildlife.

Now our experience of this in practice is that the strips tend to turn into weed beds. Come August they turn into a launch site for a million (literally) weed seeds, which are spread far and wide…..including over gardens.

field boundaryWhilst visiting some old friends this weekend we passed through Steeple Bumpstead and saw the most beautiful wild flower strip alongside a field. It clearly took care and money to keep like this, but it just zinged with colour and insects. Well done Mr/Mrs Farmer, you are a credit to the community.

 

Most disappointing fruit of 2015

2015 has been a strange year for fruit growing. Our peach tree had zero peaches, our plum trees (all types) needed props under the branches to stop them from snapping under the weight of fruit, and our apples are now laden with delicious crunchy fruit.

musc meonsBut, to the title of this post. The most disappointing fruit has been my attempt to grow musk melons.

I have tried half heartedly in previous years and never got beyond a pathetic seedling.

This year, with the time to devote to caring for everything planted, so as not to find odd forgotten and shrivelled pots come Autumn, I went for it with refreshed enthusiasm.

I planted the seedlings in the polytunnel to ensure a good heat and light supply and, by June, I had triffids growing around the top of the tunnel.

 

james wong musc melons flower

Feeling rather smug with progress, I waited for the flowers and fruit to arrive. I fed and waited and waited…….and waited.

It is now mid-October and I have the first flower. I fear it may be a little late for any melons. Looking at the leaves I am also wondering if I even had melon seeds.

Looking on the bright side I have loads of green material for the compost heap.

The Circle of Engineering

This is my latest sculpture, made on my forge.

I call it ‘The Circle of Engineering’, for reasons I will explain.

blacksmith sculpture

The first stage of my career in engineering was as a technician engineer. This began with my apprenticeship. I spent my first year learning traditional machining techniques, the use of lathes, mills, sheet metal work etc.

IMG_20151009_135535

blacksmith sculpture

Now, nearly 34 years and a full career later, I am able to fully indulge my hitherto part-time passion for making things, for creating, for designing.

And so I come to my sculpture. If it’s genesis hasn’t become obvious by now, I’ll tell more.

It is made from spanners. All are old whitworth sizes, as used on Mildred, our 1933 Austin Seven, bought from an autojumble for 20p each.

The circle theme is of course a metaphor for life. A working life that has taken me full circle, through an engineering career I would not have changed for anything, back to working with my hands, but now in my own workshop, creating art as inspiration take me.

So there you have it, the ‘Circle of Engineering’.

5 days of carving

If it feels like I have had a carving chisel in my hand for 5 days then it is probably because I have, after attending 2 courses end on.

carving groupFriday to Sunday I was at a carving course led by Sharon Littley. The group is called ‘Splinters’ and meets for a weekend course 3 times a year. It is a wonderfully relaxed weekend, with great support, and a lovely group of people all keen to share and learn.

For this course I began a project to make a fuchsia. This is stage 1, to make the petals. It will take a while, but then wood carving is not a speed event.

 

fuchsia carving 4      fuchsia carving 3   fuchsia carving 2      fuchsia carving 1

 

And so on to the course on Monday and today, Tuesday. We were at Cambridge Botanical Gardens at a lino cutting and printing course run by Emma James. The course was up to Emma’s and the Botanical Garden’s usual high standards.  We learnt new techniques in layering print processes and came away with print blocks and a pile of prints to spread around the room as they slowly dry.

IMG_20151005_111855 IMG_20151005_152753 IMG_20151005_152801

 

Blacksmithing Bullrushes

By now any regular readers will know that I like organic form.

bullrush blacksmith sculptureBullrushes are at their best at the moment and we have a plant currently trying to take over our pond.

In the background you might be able to see a sculpture I made to reflect the bullrushes.

 

 

 

blacksmith bullrush

if you can’t make it out then this is what it looks like close up.

it is rusting nicely and is designed so that the wind blows the leaves against the rushes and gives a nice wind chime effect.

 

Lunar eclipse

Last night’s lunar eclipse was amazing. We watched it for over 2 hours. As it began, the moon was so bright there were shadows in the garden at 2am.

By the time it reached full eclipse, the moon was a rich orange/red in colour. It was so dark and cloud free that we had a clear view across the sky of the rings of stars, which make up the rest of the Milky Way galaxy, stretching out into the distance.

We only have a compact camera but it still took some great pictures of the eclipse.


lunar eclipse 1
lunar eclipse 2lunar eclipse 3

My Portable Anvil is Finished

portable anvilI have finally finished my portable anvil.

I spent weeks searching ebay and the like for a suitable anvil to use when ‘out and about’, all to no avail. They were generally too large (like my regular anvil at 200lb plus), or too small, being for jewellery work.

The decision to make one was therefore forced on me. Mine began life as a scrap piece of RSJ I had lying around and a £4 length of scaffolding pole sourced from a local scrapyard for the legs. Add in some odd pieces of metal for bracing, some time on the forge to shape the beak, a couple of hours with a MIG welder, and a portable anvil is the result.

Finally I hardened the top face to make it wear better and to give it a nice ring when hit.

It will never be as durable as a solid cast steel anvil, but then I don’t need it to be. I have my full size anvil for regular blacksmithing work and this will work perfectly for smaller ‘out and about’ work.

 

Chelmsford Ideas Festival

Andy Bennett presenting

 

It’s time for the Chelmsford Ideas Festival 2015, running from 19th October to 1st November. There is a wide range of events being held across the City, including one from me.

The theme for this year is ‘connect’ and I am giving my talk ‘A year in beekeeping’, encouraging people to connect with nature.

With the help of an empty hive and some slides I will take the audience through a year in beekeeping, dropping in some interesting facts and figures. I will also be challenging some of the claims around Manuka honey and explaining the science behind why, without bees, humankind simply wouldn’t survive.

Albert Einstein said it much better than I ever could:

“If all the bees disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have 4 years of life left.”

My talk will be on Friday 23rd October at Anglia Ruskin University, 7.30pm-9pm.

What’s more, it is free to come along, but booking is necessary to ensure no one is disappointed on the door. Book here or at www.anglia.ac.uk/community or call 01245 684723.

I will also have some honey and natural hive products for sale.

The full Chelmsford Ideas Festival programme can be downloaded here. Their website is here and facebook page here.

Beekeeping in Turkey part 2

One of the traits of a beekeeper, wherever in the world they may be, is that they waste nothing.

This usually manifests itself in the reuse and repair of wooden hive parts, a process Turkish beekeepers have turned into an art form.

DSC00439 turkish beekeeping

 

There is of course an aspect of necessity going on here. But, with Turkey the second largest global producer of honey, behind China, they are just well organised and have not yet fully adopted the westernised throw away culture.

If Turkey is ever able to achieve its ambition to join the EU, then it may need to prepare for an avalanche of paperwork. The UK regulations to charge 5p for carrier bags is 20 pages long in its simplified pdf.

turkish honeyturkish honey 2Back to Turkish honey. Locally they sell in whatever jar they can find. Their jars and containers have no labels.

Meanwhile, back in the EU, the regulations regarding the labelling of honey are somewhat more complicated.

You might think this is a necessary evil for the protection of consumers. There are however, some statistics that suggest this isn’t working. It is reported that, in 2013 New Zealand produced  c1,700 tonnes of manuka honey. However, sales of manuka honey are recorded at over 10,000 tonnes worldwide. So, what exactly are you buying when you pay £30+ for a jar of manuka honey? The odds suggest that it may not be what it claims, and perhaps not what you are paying a massive premium for.

 

Beekeeping in Turkey

One of the (rather unoriginal) points made about beekeepers is that, if you ask 5 beekeepers a techncal question, you get 10 answers.

One of the regular questions from new beekeepers is about how to organise the hives in their apiary.

It is generally accepted that bees can tell left and right, but no more. For this reason we have our 6 hives in 3 groups of 2. The principle is that bees will always return to their own hive, avoiding problems with robbing and fighting. It is also generally accepted that 40 or so hives is a sensible maximum in any single apiary to ensure that enough forage exists to support the colonies.

We were in Turkey last week and, as usual, we kept an eye out for beekeeping activities.

From the picture below it was clear that Turkish beekeepers have a different view of the optimum layout for an apiary. There must have been 200 plus hives in this apiary, with perhaps 100 per row.

beekeeping in turkey

 

 

 

 

 

turkey beekeeping 2

If you can’t quite work it out, here is a close up.

 

More interesting pictures from Turkey to come.

 

 

Extracting raw honey

One of the most common questions I am asked concerns the process of extracting raw honey from our hives. The pictures below hopefully help explain the natural and sympathetic methods used.

Andy Bennett bee apiaryWe start in the apiary with the hives. The box at the bottom is called the ‘Brood Box’, where the queen lives and lays her eggs. This is the only permanent part of the hive. On top of this box are the ‘Supers’; the stronger and larger the colony the more Supers we add. They are shallow boxes, where the worker bees store the honey and are the boxes which we remove and extract the honey from.

 

honey extracting 1Here my helper is carrying a Super back to the house. They weigh around  20kg when full.

 

 

 

 

 

 

honey extracting supers 2honey extracting 3The far left picture  shows the pile of Supers ready for extraction. The second picture is of the view looking down onto the top of a Super. You can see the frames in position, with one frame laying on top. It is fully ‘capped’, with wax covering over the honey filled cells, indicating that the honey is ripe.

 

 

 

 

IMG_20150821_105121 honey extracting 4 honey extracting 6

The 3 pictures above show the extraction process. The first stage in extracting the honey from the frame is to remove the wax capping. The first picture is a little misleading as, what looks like a drum is actually a spinning brush. It is used to brush off the wax cappings from the frame, which you can see held under the brush.

The second picture shows the uncapped frame (you can see the honey glistening) being inserted into the extractor: a motor driven centrifugal spinner. The frames sit like the spokes in a wheel. As the wheel spins, the honey simply flies out. The third picture shows the honey draining from the bottom of the extractor into a food grade container.

The honey is now stored until needed. It will then be warmed gently to turn it liquid (as all honey will set in store), before jarring up.

That really is it.

None of the goodness is removed and nothing done to damage the complex structure or subtle make-up of the honey.  Raw honey is a good description and you can find out more about how to buy it here.

Final honey extraction

beekeeping frame It is time for the final honey extraction of the year.

More pictures will follow, but here is the first, showing me checking a ‘super frame’.

This is also the publicity picture I have supplied for this year’s Chelmsford Ideas Festival, where I will be giving my ‘A Year In Beekeeping’ talk.

This frame isn’t ready, as there is no wax capping over the stored honey, meaning that the water content is still too high and the honey would ferment under storage.

Blacksmithing grape vine support

Not all of my blacksmith forge projects are big complicated ones. I also enjoy bringing simpler ideas to life.

blacksmithFor this project I made a simple but elegant support frame for a grape vine. It needed to be strong, and capable of taking the all year weight of the vine. It also provides the shape around which the vine will be trained and pruned.

This picture shows the support, which I painted in zinc rich primer and matt black to give it some extra weather protection.

 

 

 

 

blacksmithAnd here it is in the pot with the vine. I have pruned the vine to give the 3 main stems to provide the shape. It will take a couple of years before the vine fills out, but already it looks better than in its old home at the end of the garden up against a fruit cage.

The permanent home will be in the citrus area, which you can just see top left.

Hens at home

I don’t think I have included a picture of our free range hens before, so here they are in their scratching bed.

garden hensThere are many benefits from having fresh eggs available at the end of the garden. Perhaps surprisingly, price isn’t one of them, as this is not a cheap way of getting eggs. I’ll explain.

Hens begin laying eggs at around 18-20 weeks of age. In a commercial environment, hens are only kept for about one year, their peak egg laying period, laying perhaps 300-320 eggs.  At this point they are disposed of, which is where ‘rescue hens’ come in. But that’s another post, as I am against this practice. It gives legitimacy to sometimes harsh ‘enriched cage’ commercial egg production methods and spreads often unhealthy, ragged and ‘disturbed’ hens through to an ill-prepared public, who could be buying healthy young birds from professional breeders.

The result of this slick industrialised process is the plentiful supply of cheap eggs. ‘Free Range’ is a positive move, but beware ‘farm fresh’ or similar, it means nothing in welfare terms and may be masking the use of cages.

 

coloured hens eggsWe buy our hens from specialist breeders we trust. They are mostly more expensive pure breeds, but they are worth the extra cost.  Partly because we are supporting their continued breeding, but also because they lay eggs of different colours, dependent on the breed, from white, to chocolate brown, to blue.

They also lay fewer eggs a year, some only 250 or so, as they have not been over-bred like modern hybrids.

We believe in giving our hens a good life. We feed then an organic diet and keep them until their natural death.  Our oldest hen died at nearly 10 years old and she was still giving us an egg every month or so.

As I think you can now understand, keeping hens the way we do is not a cheap route to a source of fresh eggs. What it is, is an ethical way of keeping hens. Allowing them to roam naturally in a comfortable flock size and giving them the opportunity to live out their days to old age, without counting their financial return.

The also genuinely taste better than supermarket eggs, as the people who buy our ‘excess’ tell us every week.

double yolk egg

And finally, here is what you will very rarely find in a supermarket egg, a double yolk. Once a week or so, something goes slightly wrong with a hen’s egg making process, and it lays an extra large egg, which means a double yolk.

Apart from it being eye watering to lay, the double yolk eggs are always a bonus for us, and another part of making our hens that little bit more special.

Home Food Smoking

The process of smoking food was begun out of simple survival. Meats hung in smoky huts and caves were found to last longer than ‘unpreserved’ meats. This accidental discovery from a smoky fire gave early man a way of saving food in times of plenty, and became a part of the survival of the fittest, or cleverest.

Smoking now offers a way of improving or changing the taste of foods. Unfortunately, this also has led to artificial smoking, where food is dipped or sprayed with artificial smoke flavouring.

A few years ago I saw a programme with Dick Strawbridge ( a bit of a hero of mine, from his Scrapheap Challenge days, through to a number of programmes around sustainable living), where he, and his son James, made a simple smoker from a barrel.  I was then given their ‘smoking’ book last Christmas and I was away.

Following our principles of doing what we can for ourselves, I decided that it really was simple and would give it a go. I started with a ‘hot coal vacuum cleaner extension’ from Aldi (our favourite supermarket, but that’s another post), for my drum, and then made a cold smoking container on my forge, based on a bee smoker. Hey presto, a food smoker was born.

We have some friends visiting from Germany this week, so the smoker came out yesterday in preparation. Smoked food is much better if left for a day or two; it allows the smoke to permeate into the food and become smoother in taste.

I use hard woods for smoker fuel, a by-product of my wood carving, as softwoods contain excess tar that makes the food taste bitter.

smoking salmonStage 1 for wild salmon fillets is to cure in a sugar and salt mix for 6 hours. This pulls out moisture from the fish and begins the curing process.

 

 

 

 

smoking salmon stage 2Stage 2 and it is loaded into the drum. The fish is going onto the bottom, so that it doesn’t drip onto the cheese and other foods.

 

 

 

 

smoking cheese and garlicStage 3 and the cheese, eggs and garlic go onto the second shelf.  Note that anything likely to drip is in an aluminium food container.

 

 

 

 

 

 

smokerStage 4 and the separate fire box is alight. As noted above, it is designed to work exactly like my bee smoker, providing cold smoke to the food.

 

 

 

 

food smoingStage 5  and the smoke is  directed through a tube into the main container and out through a grill (OK, its a tea strainer I bought in a pound shop). This stops any undesirables flying into the food.

As the fire box is quite small I refill it after abut 30 minutes. This gives me a total smoking time of about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours. This is much less than some recommend but I find that it is surprising how little smoke is required to give a good smoky taste, against smoking for preservation.

 

smoked foodhome smoked salmonAnd here they are, the finished smoked products. I won’t go on about how lovely they taste, but just try a couple of cloves of smoked garlic next time you cook, or egg sandwiches with smoked egg mayonnaise.  Delicious.

What to do on a wet Sunday

Austin sevenOn a wet Sunday I thought it time to fit the new mats I bought about a year ago for Mildred, our Austin Seven, but hadn’t yet got around to doing anything with.

It all went very (surprisingly) easily.

 

 

austin sevenPicture 1 shows the ‘before’ . The seats are still in and the old scruffy carpet is over the centre tunnel.

 

 

 

 

Austin sevenThe second picture shows the stripped out mid-point. Seats, mats and carpets are out. I also took the opportunity to tidy up and rust proof some areas, which you can see by the zinc oxide ‘silver’ paint.

 

 

 

 

Austin seven matsPicture 3 shows it all back together, with the new tunnel cover in place and the replica original style foot mats all back in.  Just the driver’s seat to go back in and it is finished.

All in all I am very pleased with a few hours work.

 

 

Blacksmithing with wrought iron

I was asked a question yesterday regarding wrought iron and its ease of ‘fire welding’. Fire welding is a technique only really of interest to blacksmiths who like to work with traditional methods, rather than cheating with an arc welder. However, the modern use of the term wrought iron is worthy of a post in itself.

What are sold today as ‘wrought iron gates’ are in reality nothing of the sort. They are ‘mild steel gates’. It is simple misrepresentation. Would you be happy to order a mahogany table to find that a pine table arrived? Well, in my mind the same applies to mild steel being sold as wrought iron.

I’ll explain. Wrought iron is a specific type of steel/iron, with a low carbon content and a high ‘contaminates’ content. A specific feature of this material is that is is relatively soft and can be formed into intricate shapes. It became the material of choice for gates and ornate structures through to the early part of the 1900s.

As steel manufacturing processes developed, the demand for wrought iron dropped to the point where it was no longer financially viable to manufacture. What exists on the planet today is all there will ever be.

gates wrought ironIf you want to see wrought iron today then you will find it either in 100+ year old gates hanging from ornate entrance ways, or perhaps in Victorian railings in Chelsea. What isn’t in use is in the guarded stores of a few blacksmiths who have work to restore old gates and use the material sparingly to patch in rusted sections. If you do have an old rusting wrought iron gate at the end of the garden (and that’s where blacksmiths find their stocks) then it is worth a lot as recyclable material. Don’t let it rust away.

Today however, any old gate with a bit of twisted metal in it is described as being ‘wrought iron’.

Describing it as a ‘wrought iron gate’, rather than the reality of ‘mild steel gate’ is a simple marketing ploy to suggest high quality. Marketing huh, or as I say, misrepresentation.

That’s my blacksmithing rant over. I’ll save an explanation of fire welding for another day.

Oh and as to the mis-use of the term blacksmith, that’s for another day.

 

New Season Comb Honey For Sale

Today we took off the first frames from our garden hives to make comb honey. Most people understand that honey direct from a beekeeper is more likely to be ‘raw’, ‘unfiltered’ or just ‘not messed around with’ and so better for you and, many believe, helpful against hayfever. We are also often asked about the purest way to eat honey. Well, comb honey has to be it.

raw comb honey 4As you can see from the pictures here, the process is simple and involves nothing more than a cutter and a tray.

The frames are first taken from the supers, the shallow boxes put on top of the hive for the bees to store honey in.

 

 

 

raw comb honey 3Next the wax and honey are cut from the frame as a block.

 

 

 

 

 

raw comb honey 2Then a cutter made to the size of the container is used to cut out the right shape from the block.

 

 

 

 

 

raw comb honey 1This section is then dropped into a plastic tray and the lid put on. That’s it, nothing else, it is ready for sale.

As you can see, this means that the honey within the cells has never been touched by human hands or processed in any way. It has to be the most natural way to take honey. The first of these containers took about 20 minutes to go from hive to being on sale.

If you want my opinion as to the best way to enjoy comb honey, remembering that you can eat it all, wax included, then keep it simple. Cut a slice of the wax/honey and spread over a hot buttered crumpet or piece of toast. Nothing better.

If you would like to try it then you can buy it from my sales page here.

 

Pluto and New Horizons

I have been watching the news about the New Horizons probe with anticipation.

pluto courtesy NASAThe company I used to work for, e2v, made the imaging sensors that are sending back the most detailed pictures ever seen of Pluto. They left planet Earth nearly 10 years ago.

It is likely that New Horizons will take about 4 years before reaching the next object in the Kuiper belt. After this it will head onwards into space, where it may take thousands of years before it reaches anything of significance.

This brings to a completion the initial ‘close’ exploration of our solar system. It also makes you appreciate how small we are and how little we know. Our solar system is 1 sun in perhaps about 4-500 billion in the Milky Way galaxy. Then there are something like 170 billion galaxies in the known Universe. That’s a septillion stars like ours in the Universe as we know it. It doesn’t begin to consider what might be out there in the Universe where the light still hasn’t reached us.

It is all good food for thought for my Space Imaging talks.

Face to Face Topiary

This week I was asked to do a bit of topiary: creating a face in a hedge.

The hedge was left uncut this year to produce some extra growth to give me something to work with. This is my first ‘cut’.

hedge topiary 1 hedge topiary 3 hedge topiary 2

 

It is still work in progress. The whole thing needs at least another season’s growth to be able to develop the nose, ‘harden off’ the edges, and develop some more detailed features. The eyes also need some work to make them a little less sunken and mask like.

Give it another 2 months and I will clean it all up. By this time next year it should look like a friendly face.

Spitfires and Hurricanes

I love old machinery and equipment with a story. Things made to last, not made to a penny.

blacksmith leg vice standBlacksmithing allows me to do my bit in this story. Everything I make is probably made from twice as strong/thick steel as is specifically necessary. But then it will do its job well and likely be around in 100 years.

Read down my blog and you will see the story of a leg vice I bought from a local reclaim/bric-a-brac shop and then refurbished. I have since been looking for a suitable stand for it. Last week one appeared on ebay and amazingly it was only 5 miles away from us.

It turned out to be a part of a workshop clearance. The workshop owner having recently died at 98, only 2 weeks before having purchased a new buggy to ‘soup-up’. At 78 he was pulling engines out of Jaguars and rebuilding them. My kind of man.

He had owned his workshop for decades, initially setting it up to repair parts for Spitfires and Hurricanes.

So now, this stand, that has such a wonderful history, is supporting my leg vice. Priceless.

Branching out

figs for sale 1Today we have added plant sales to our honey with some fig trees taken as cuttings from our very large fig tree on our south facing wall.

figs for sale 2

 

Futute engineers and scientists

I had a very enjoyable day yesterday as a part of the judging team for the Chelmsford Science and Engineering Society schools competition.

There were 65 teams from schools across the region with an incredible range of projects from a wide range of age groups.

It was one of those evens where you wanted to make sure that every child received an award of some sort for simply putting in the effort to work on a science or engineering project.

Congratulations to CSES for the work put in to run such a successful event and to everyone on the school teams.

CSES schools competition 1 CSES schools competition

 

 

Garlic a plenty

This year’s garlic has suffered the worst rust we have seen for years.

So, it was with low expectations that I pulled the first patch this afternoon, where the stems were drooping and clearly adding nothing more to the bulbs.

I was pleasantly surprised with the results:

garlic

 

Time for blacksmithing

Well, I have finished the forge and today is the day to try it all out, more later, hopefully with pictures too, and not of a cold forge.

I will try to add them to twitter as I go along, link at the top of the page.

I will also be saying hello to Cathy from my old team at e2v. I may be a little sooty 😉

Polytunnel screening

polytunnel 1 I spent last weekend in St Ives, Cornwall, with some great friends I first met nearly 14 years ago at a holistic holiday in Greece. Whilst sitting in the garden, a question arose about the effective screening of a greenhouse.

Away from the obvious walls/trellis/bamboo screen, I offered to share what I do for the polytunnel. It is a marvellous thing but no-one would say that it is attractive to look at.

So, for the summer months, I grow vegetables of various types in front of the polytunnel, the most important being runner beans. This fulfils my criteria for the screen being functional and edible.

polytunnel 2The first picture (top) shows the view of the polytunnel from the house. Broad beans are already providing some cover at a low level, with Jerusalem artichokes to the right. You can also see the overhanging square framework for the runner beans in place and showing in its outline how it will completely obscure the polytunnel.

The second picture shows a side view of the growing beans, with the third picture (below) pulling out a little so that you can see the new path to the polytunnel door, running behind the beans and taking up the minimum space possible, so that I don’t lose growing space.

 

 

polytunnel 3In between the rows of beans you might be able to spot ground cover in the form of radishes for a quick crop, and vegetable squashes which will grow with the beans up the poles, adding to the screening and giving us squashes for the winter months.

The simple ‘year 1’ version of this is of course just a frame and runner beans. Whilst it is too late to grow them from seed, most garden centres are still selling small bean plants and these can be planted direct, remembering to give them plenty of compost as they are very hungry plants.

So that’s it, my simple guide to edible screening.

 

 

 

Polytunnels rule

polytunnelMy non-scientific broad bean experiment has now come to an end. The result is clear, we are now eating broad beans from the polytunnel, whilst those outside are, as expected, now at an equal point, with small beans about 4 weeks away from being ready.

We are also eating early potatoes from the poytunnel.

Looking forward to dinner tonight.

The Clangers are back

At last, the Clangers are returning next Monday.

One of the supporting cast was the iron chicken.

As a tribute to Oliver Postgate, I made an Iron Chicken. It is perhaps a little oversized, being 3 times the pattern size suggested in this book bought for me for my 50th birthday.

iron chickenSo this is it, my own personal iron chicken, made using a mixture of old and new skills: plasma cutting, fabrication, MIG welding and good old blacksmithing.

Long live the clangers.

 

Swarming season

Swarming season is upon us, a little late, like Spring, but undoubtedly here now.

Today I collected a swarm from a neighbour, using my skep, which I made at a skep making course a couple of years ago.

It is a simple process made to look quite dramatic by the sheer number of bees that take to the air as you shake them down into the skep.

Providing you have the queen, the others will follow.

The first picture shows the swarm in the tree, the second, the swarm knocked into the skep, the third, the swarm inside the skep, the fourth, back at my apiary and knocked into a hive and the final picture, the remaining bees walking into the hive in search of the queen and their natural instinct to walk up into the dark.

swrm5 swarm 5 swarm 2

swarm 3 swarm 4

 

Of mice and men

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent the weekend with a group of friendly wood carvers. My project produced a cheeseboard from a slice of silver birch.
More pictures here.
mouse 1 mouse

Bumble bees

I have been on a wood carving course this weekend, more of which later, but importantly I came across my first bumble bee nest of the year at the hall.

bumble beesThe picture is not great, but it gives me the opportunity to plead for care and consideration when faced with a bumble bee nest.

If you find a bumble bee nest in the coming weeks (this one is in a house cavity with access through an air brick), then please try to leave them alone and enjoy them and their free pollinating service. We need all the bees we can get and calling in the exterminators at the first sign of a few large fluffy bees is not to be done lightly.

Bumble bees will die out in the Autumn and do not return to the same nest. So even if you have bumble bees in a slightly inconvenient place then try to work with them for just a few weeks and then they will be gone.

Only the queens survive winter and they hibernate, so if you find a large bumble bee in your compost heap in the cold Spring then it will be a hibernating queen, so please put her back carefully.

 

The workshop forge facilities expand

Work continues apace on the home forge facilities.

I bought 2 leg vices on Saturday from a local treasure/junk shop for a great 2 for 1 deal, so I now have a portable vice and a large one for the home forge.

The large one was seized from about 50 years of use, and probably 20 years of abandonment in a field.

Today was spent heating, hitting, levering, cleaning, painting and greasing.

DSC08096 DSC08097

The result, which I am very pleased with, is a fully functioning vice at a fraction of the price had I bought it in this condition. Now I just need to make something very sturdy to attach it to and the home forge moves closer to being ready.

DSC08099  DSC08100

Dark matter

DSC07928And to show that Chelsea was more than just flowers, this garden was explaining some of the principles of dark matter twisting through time and space.

Chelsea space

Well, even Chelsea Flower Show is getting in on the space race.

DSC07956The European Space Agency had a very interesting display which included their Mars Rover prototype, although it wasn’t clear what it would achieve over that which Curiosity has, and will, discover.

What was very interesting was their research on the growing of food in space, vital to any plans for long term space habitation or exploration.

 

 

DSC07986In their work to involve schools they are offering seeds, which will have been taken to the ISS, for schoolchilden to then grow on Earth.

It is a great idea, but I do wonder how many of the seeds will actually be planted, against those that will end up ‘framed’ as Genuine Space Seeds and listed on ebay shortly after, watch this space.

 

Busy busy

It’s been a busy few days

Thursday night was spent at a book launch for a great friend of mine,  Liz Kessler. Liz was launching her latest book, ‘Read me like a book‘, at Waterstones in Hampstead. It is her first book for Young Adults. I remember reading an excerpt from the draft 14 years ago and thinking then that it was a powerful read. 14 years on, 15 books and a New York Times Bestseller award later, ‘Read me like a Book’ is published. You can read more about it on Liz’s new website, also built by mutual and very clever friends.

Sunday was a lovely sunny, if chilly, day. It was spent at the Essex Young Farmer’s Show in the Essex Beekeepers’ tent . The observation hive always brings the children around and they are never afraid to ask questions, the types of questions mum and dad are to embarrassed to ask but would like to. As a result we educate the parents and the children.

 

Young farmers 1This is a typical group gathered around the observation hive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

young farmers 3They are all trying to find the queen, pictured here in the centre (through the glass so forgive the reflection), surrounded by workers, grooming and feeding her.

 

 

 

 

And here are some other random pictures from the day.

ypung farmers 4 young farmers 5 young farmers 8young farmers 6

Bouncy castles, car turbos and duct tape

I’m not too good at this ‘regular posting’ lark. So, a quick update. The last couple of weeks have been busy ones, both garden wise and blacksmithing. The former concentrating on unusual varieties of tomato and pepper plants. The latter being about building my own forge, which is nearly finished. All I need to do now is to work out how to join up the car turbo hose, bought on ebay, including postage from Hong Kong, for £5 (how do they do that?), to the second hand bouncy castle blower, bought on ebay for £10.
It will all make much more sense very soon I promise.

An experiment in broad bean growing

We have over the years tried a number of different ways to get those early broad beans, from autumn sowing to applying heat, planting in plugs etc etc.

This year we have been a little more scientific, with 3 methods running concurrently. Planting times were set to be as early as possible within the positions.

Broad beansMethod 1 is straight outdoor sowing under fleece, with the beans planted late March and currently about 6 inches high with sturdy stems, showing all the right signs to becoming strong plants.

 

 

 

broad beans 2Method 2 is outdoor under a glass cold frame, with sowing late February. The stems are a little thinner but are about 12 inches high and looking good with supports probably needed. History tells us that this method might flower slightly earlier than method 1, but there will be little difference in cropping time.

 

 

broad beans 3Method 3 is in our polytunnel, with sowing late January. The plants are strong, nearly 24 inches high, in flower, and with some flowers pollinated and already showing small pods.

 

 

 

 
This is our third year with the polytunnel and it continues to bring great benefits. It gives us salad leaves through the winter and its size seems to balance out temperatures, so that we can start plants off weeks earier than even a greenhouse can achieve. We will be eating broad beans from here within 4 week or so. I have also planted peas in amongst the beans for a second crop.

It goes without saying that I am a fan of the polytunnel.

 

Happy 25th Birthday Hubble

It is 25 years since the Hubble Space Telescope was launched, with a 15 year mission to unlock secrets about the origins of the Universe. Strictly speaking Hubble’s 25th anniversary is tomorrow, but in the spirit of news programmes announcing what is going to be said or announced before it actually happens, I’m saying Happy Birthday today.

The majority of the amazing pictures now published come courtesy of an upgrade to the imaging system in 2009, incorporating imaging sensors made by e2v, the company I worked at for over 33 years.

25 images have been released celebrating Hubble’s discoveries. Every single one is simply astonishing.

???????????????????????????????As a slightly different image, this one is of Gary Fildes from Kielder Observatory posing with the engineering test sensor for Hubble, which I took up for him to see whilst at a talk at the observatory. I left them with a GAIA imaging sensor for their school outreach work.

If you have a chance to visit Kielder Observatory then do so, Gary’s enthusiasm is impossible not to get swept up in.

 

 

 

Getting the hang of it

With a not inconsiderable amount of technical support, I am gradually adding functionality to my site.

Today it is blog links. First added is from a good friend of mine who blogs about creating a garden on the Anglesey coast. I have seen it and it is gorgeous (the garden that is, not just the blog).

We share a love of gardening and the outdoors. Beekeeping of course feeds into this and has gone hand in hand for me, as we have a dozen fruit trees currently in blossom and benefiting from the bees in residence.

Yesterday I spent some time finding the queen in our strongest colony to mark her. This is a painless process that makes her easier to spot. The colonies are building up well with healthy bees and a lots of brood (the raised cells in the picture below).

 

Bee frame

 

 

 

 

Enjoy yourself

There is a song that resonates with the thought processes that brought me to ‘doing my own thing’; that and an awful lot of support at home.

Whilst it was written in 1949, the words seem to be as appropriate today, if not more so. It currently features in Simon Mayo’s Friday Drive Time show, which I regularly listened to whilst driving home from work. This week I listened to it whilst in the polytunnel watering the tomato plants.

My thanks to Herb Magidson for some great lyrics. Go on ‘enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think’.

I quite like this version link .

The bees are buzzing

With spring having sprung straight into summer and hitting 30 degrees on our wall thermometer, it was definitely time to spring clean the bees. Anything over about 13 degrees is enough for the bees to fly and about 20 degrees sees you safe for frames to be exposed to the elements for a few minutes whilst changing over brood boxes and cleaning the hives.

A spring clean is very important for disease prevention after a long winter when the bees have not been out much. Fresh boxes flamed with a blowtorch and frames checked over, replaced every 3 years and scraped clean, makes management so much easier and just feels right.

Sadly, as we suspected we lost one of our 6 hives. it was attacked by wasps in the autumn and despite all you do to help them they just seem to give up. So we went into winter knowing that they were weak but hoping they would make it. Give it a few weeks and we will be able to split a strong hive and make the numbers back up. As I cover in my beekeeping talks it is vitally important to keep numbers of colonies up given the effects of varroa on wild colonies.

It feels good to be back out playing with the bees, and with 150 acres of borage behind us it should be  a good summer.

 

New and old

Well, my new website has unearthed an old boss and colleague of mine, Peter Maggs. I enjoyed my time working for Peter, even if his attempt to introduce me to the delights of sailing resulted in a rescue by the local lifeboat and an early shower.

He is now an author and speaker http://www.mirlibooks.com/.

Hi Peter, welcome.

 

See the International Space Station (ISS) tonight

Space exploration is one of my many interests, and the subject of one of my talks. This interest started due to e2v, my last employer, making the imaging devices used on major space exploration programmes, including Hubble and GAIA.

One thing I will never tire of looking at is the ISS. Many don’t believe that you can see it with the naked eye, but you can. It looks like a bright star moving across the sky at the speed of an aeroplane.

All you need to do is register on the NASA site (it won’t SPAM you) here: http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

It wil then send you an email with details of when the ISS can be seen over your location. Tonight on the Chelmsford ‘route’ we will be seeing the ISS at 8:11pm :

Time: Thu Apr 09 8:11 PM, Visible: 4 min, Max Height: 43 degrees,
Appears: SSW, Disappears: E

It is then back at 9:45 having circled the world in about an hour and a half.

It is quite something to see this bright light streaking across the night sky. Then you have to appreciate that it is a space station travelling at 17,150 miles an hour, moving from day to night every 45 minutes or so, and the home to astronauts from around the world. Where Americans and Russians can work side by side away from the politicians. Amazing.

An amazing send off

My new post-e2v life starts now on a gloriously sunny spring day, the omens are good.

I am still taking in the kindness and sheer effort put into yesterday by my friends and colleagues, both in the gifts they gave me, starting with a ‘litepro’ for my talks, to the lovely book made for me with photographs and personal memories from my 33 years. Not forgetting the surprise guests, my mum and my wife. It was particularly special for my mum since the room where the presentation was held was the location of my dad’s old office; he joined the company in 1963.

Then there is the sculpture made by our apprentices, who are carrying the torch for high quality engineering apprentices better than ever, 29 years after I completed mine.

I shall write, but to any of you who have found your way here, you made my day, thank you.

What a difference a day makes

Stealing a song title (if not the song’s sentiment) from Dina Washington:  after 33 1/3 years (you can see a record theme here for those who remember vinyl), I am one day away from my new life.

The car is full of cake and I think I am ready for tomorrow at the office. I am going to miss e2v and the friends I have made.

But, I am also ready for my new life, more time with my wife, more time to concentrate on the crafts I love to do, and time to take up more opportunities to talk to groups and enthuse them into learning practical skills.

The garden also awaits, but that’s another tale.