Biggest Lava Lamp in the Universe

Well,ok, maybe not the Universe. But certainly Earth (as we know it Jim). I found this beauty in an auction in North Yorkshire earlier this year. It cost me the princely sum of £8. Including its base it stands about 3 foot tall and has three distinct stages to its up and down swellings. First, it begins as a sort of botanical exhibit, but gradually, after about an hour, it turns into some sci-fi scene in which the main body of wax forms a poddish sort of mothership which smaller pods continually attach and detach to and from. It's weird because the wax in its pod form has a sort of pattern on it, which I have never seen before in lava-land. After a good few hours of this it settles down into an amorphous blob which sits at the bottom of the bottle while tiny bits of plankton like material float up and around in its cobalt blue liquid. Set phasers to stun, Scotty!

Even more Upcycling

A couple more Upcycling ideas from the House of Bear.
These enamel liquid measures - actually 3 of those, plus one salt holder - were pretty hopeless around the house. There wasn't room in the kitchen to hang them on the walls and they couldn't stand up on their own, being legless and round bottomed, so for months they were sent into internal exile in a comfortless box in the cellar. But then, one day, hurrah! a brain wave was had and they were rescued from their damp exclusion and attached to the sunny, south facing, wall of our extension and duly planted up with, er, well, plants. This was greeted with much joy by the enamels and they have been happy with their botanical charges ever since (yes, I know these plants don't look too healthy now. But believe me during the summer they were thriving). Enamels are especially good for this kind of task because they each have a spout which allows for free draining, meaning they don't get waterlogged.

Boot sale buys of the week

Boot sale buys of the week are: A rather nifty ceiling shade in plastic and perspex - big step up from the wicker number that used to occupy the spot.
Two pretty little nightlight holders - seem to be wax designs painted on glass, but not sure- very simple, very effective, very retro.

The World of Streetcomber

The World of Streetcomber is a place where people can display anything that they've found on the street,in a skip or generally anywhere it can be taken away for free and used around the house. Over the years I have found many things in my street, for a start there are lots of houses and millions of cars....no but seriously folks. Okay so here's the first post; a very nice Anglepoise lamp.
If you'd like to contribute to W O S e-mail a picture and a bit of info to graybear@sky.com and I'll add it in.

Continuing with the Upcycling theme, as sponsored by givemeonegoodraisin.blogspot.com, here is a Baby Burco that I adapted as a water butt.
What is Baby Burco? I hear you say; well Baby Burco was a very early washing machine which was basically just a tub with a plug. You would fill with water, then switch on and marvel as said H2O atoms wiggled and jiggled themselves into a boiled up frenzy. Then you would add clothes and torture them with abrasive soap powder and wooden tongs until they came clean. The Burco was bought for 50p from a bootsale, but having no wish to harass articles of soggy clothing I turned it, with the help of a piece of washing machine pipe, a funnel and some gaffa tape, into the magnificent water collecting specimen it is today.
The small table you can see was built from the bones of a bed frame and then painted with an old piece of blue sky that I found in the road and liquidised. It is a sturdy little chap and can be sat upon, stood upon and generally put upon.

This is a piece of bear@rt (as is my little Homepride man at the top of the page - he is like a mini-installation who has been left on Tooting Common at various times holding a placard with a message from the bear. He has also been inserted into exhibitions at the Tate modern, where on one occasion he was dragged off kicking and screaming by a burley security guard for carrying a sign saying 'Create your own art' - obviously too subversive a concept for a bastion of artistic freedom such as the Tate). It is also a piece that I intend to transfer to my good friend Shannon at give me one good raisin to include in her 'Upcycling' section.
The box, originally an ammunition box was found naked and shivering without even a coat of paint to keep it warm in the attic of a house that I moved into in 1989 in Balham. For a while I kept it warm but failed to clothe it, and it was content, but rather embarrassed at being left continually naked for all to see. But then one day, having no canvas to speak of but a hell of a lot of newly acquired acrylic paint to use, I decided to dress it.
And so I did: initially I just added the blue coat and left it at that. But box was not happy. It wanted more, so a flock of gold finches and two parakeets were added to its lid and a pair of Shelducks to its front elevation. When it was finished both artist and canvas were surprised at how well it turned out. And that was it. Box and man were, just like ye olde American beat group The Turtles, happy together and have remained so ever since. Box now lives in my bedroom and guards all manner of miscellaneous crap within its pink interior. It's a quiet life, but a happy one.
PS when I painted this box there were no Parakeets living wild on Tooting Common. Now there are millions. Could there be any connection?

New psychedelia -two hot ones

Currently wiggin' out big time in the car -on CD (boo) because haven't got it on vinyl yet - to Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound's, Kolob Canyon. Swirling updrafts of glissando guitar rise lark- like to blue sky vocals. Lyrics swoop and dive across the azure but remain indecipherable. But who cares what the words say, it's the tune wot matters.And this toon matters in the extremis, it's one of the most exciting pieces of music I ve heard for a long time. Catch it if you can. It's trippy man!
Also on the new psychedelic tip Wooden Shjips (love that extraneous 'j' guys) with Down By The Sea - if you have a fondness for music that hypnotises this is the track for you. The locomotive rhythm section, unwavering from start to finish, provide a dense, opiated drive over which strangled shaved-steel guitar lines upswell to a glorious, breaching, cacophony of spastic-spasm spumes of psychotropic abandon (Pseuds-Corner, I am available). More of this sort a ting, I say.
At home, using my newly acquired Bang and Olufsen 4600 (£10 from the boot sale) to re-explore some synth sounds from the eighties. Fad Gadget's Fireside Favourites currently playing and I'm enjoying the retro-glow as it takes me back to my daze in Brighton when I first heard Insecticide and the album's title track . Also been taking late night respite with side two of Eno's Before & After Science. So simple, so subtle so sublimely innocent.

Tomorrow it's an early start with Wimbledon boot sale. Who knows what goodies I'll find there tomorrow? Nobody that's who - because how could anyone know unless they were a time traveller or from a parallel universe or God. Last Wednesday got a nice little bagful of tricks - a thermal jug, a fantastic little socket set from like the year dot, a wooden tray that clamps on the arm of a chair, or the head of a lackey if you have that sort of lifestyle, a nice plant/pan stand in cast iron, a guitar foot-stall (according to my girlfriend Nicky) and a little little mustard jug carrying the legend 'I improve everything'. I shall despatch it on a tour of Afghanistan and other trouble spots immediately. Then we'll see, whether it's a hollow boast or, indeed, Jesus returned in pot form. I may well post pictures of these items. If I'm feeling devilish.