It's been a year in the making, involved a lot of looking up and serves very little point.
Yet here it is,the first draft of...

Lampbulb moments

As always,

thank you for stopping by

Dichotomy - We're in a music video! :D

Ani (my wonderful wife) and I were totally stoked when our friend Stuart Turner, asked us to be in one of his music videos.

• Firstly, Stuart Turner and the flat earth society are amazing, they played at our wedding - which went down a storm - and they have the most fantastic sound!

• Secondly, we'd never done anything like this before. Ani is used to performing on stage, but in front of a camera is completely different. It was all very exciting and the "crew" made the experience a joy 

• Thirdly, it was our bumps first foray into the lime light! Yes, Ani was starting to show by this point, which meant certain scenes had to have careful consideration

And most importantly

• I got to wear my braces! Enjoy :D

Laser powered 8bit Ukulele!

Well.... not quite powered by laser, but certainly made with a laser

When I started a new role last summer, I was encouraged by my new boss to get to know the equipment I would be operating for the students come the new term. So when it came to the laser cutter, I had to think long and hard about what exercise I could do, that I could use to familiarise myself with this alien hardware.

With some appropriate (for a change) web surfing I came across someone that made an 8bit styled Violin, and thought to myself "That is freaking awesome!" So I got to work designing myself an 8bit Ukulele :D

I must stress that I have no prior knowledge of the inner wizardry of musical instruments, I just went with what I thought looked cool, and if it happened to make sounds that where not too painful, then I'd chalk it up as a win.

After a fair amount of initial head scratching, I ended up using a combination of 4mm & 6mm Ply, partly to keep is strong whilst light and partly because it looks cool ;) To keep it simple I didn't use any fancy joins (my first time using this tech remember) which meant the building process required many G clamps to hold pieces in place whilst the glue set.

Within the design I wanted to keep things as simple as possible, which meant coming up with a solution for the frets, which I got around by simply tilting each fret a few degrees (as Ukes are not high tension instruments, I thought this would be enough) the effect is really nice... at least, I think it is :)

The end result!

I am very proud of how it turned out... aesthetically at least :D Sound wise is another story. Sadly, the tension pegs I used are not sufficient enough to keep the strings in tune for more than a few minutes, but for a first time effort, I'm very pleased!

Here's Phil giving it a whirl, as you can tell, it's far from perfect, but still darn awesome :D

Geek weapons (choose wisely)

At little something I've been working on recently, I really wasn't sure when to stop, so this may well be a work in progress - can you name all the references?

As always, thanks for stopping by! :D

(p.s this is on sale as a poster or T-shirt)

A Wampa, a Death Star, a Button Moon and fist shaking...

The spattering on snow we had in the south of England gave rise to an idea I had the year before but never got around to making it. So whilst freshly risen from the depths of my mind stew, I opened up last years snow pictures and got with the pixel pushing, to a result that almost works very well...

Wampa caught on camera - Rochester, kent - The Vines

In turn this gave rise to another thought I had never gotten around to implementing, somewhat out of date now, yet still guaranteed to sting almost everyone that owned an Xbox 360 in the first 4 years of it's lifecycle...

...we have a problem...

This also gave rise to yet another idea that I'm sure only I find amusing, so much so that I can not read it with laughing out loud... seriously, I have a problem. My wife asked me "... but why a button?" To which I realised that not everyone would have watched 'Button Moon' as a kid making me feel somewhat old to me, a button was an obvious choice, which probably adds weight to why I'm one of the few that find this funny - that and imagining Vader laugh maniacally :D

"so... what do think..."

This in turn led to something completely different, yet still in line with the 'must get around to doing that' vibe of things. This one may, or not, be hard to understand, but I kind of have a hate club. There's a few maybe more than a few people out there that have had reason to shake their fist in the air to the chant "Damn you Robbie Munn!" So much in so, that a domain name was bought and comic strips were written. Thankfully, this has all been in good jest I think yet when I was asked to design a T-shirt I said "Yeah! Of course I will" thinking it was just another extension of the humor. Two more requests later I realised that it genuine, so though it about time to roll with it and see what I could come up with...

Join the protest!

Consequently, I had a sale within 10 minutes of posting it on facebook, it's a jolly good job I do not take myself too if at all seriously :D

As always, thanks for stopping by x

The dark knight waxes for *Movember

As Movember approaches, razors around the world ready themselves for the great shave. A time where men united, rekindle their manliness by growing a moustache. This lip log union not only represents an almost lost masculine tradition, but in the process raises awareness and money for a charity that tackles testicular cancer face on. Last year I made accessories and donated all profits to the cause, this year I designed this snazzy parody which can be found in t-shirt or sticker form, allowing the none growers out there to take part.

As always, thank you for stopping by :)

Clicky HERE for a link to the shop

HE-MAN Villains Last Supper

Well, it would seem I am on a roll with this theme. Although this image took much longer than I expected... about 5 weeks longer o_O

What started life as a simple montage, soon developed into an epic quest of pixel pushing, fuelled by the perfectionist in me to make something visually satisfying. Six weeks later I still don't feel it's finished, for the past few days I've added other characters, placed food on the table and used alternative lighting - yet I wasn'y happy with any of them. So for the time being, I'm considering it done. 

Characters from left to right (excuse the spelling, and feel free to correct me, I'm going from memory here)

Beastman, Webstor, Whip-lash, Spikor, Triclops, Two Bad, Skeletor, Evil Lyn, Mer-man, Clawful, Trap Jaw, King Hiss (yes, that's his real name!) & Stinkor

Maybe now I can move on to another project... maybe

Thanks for stopping by :D

Update: Less than 15 Hours later... and changes have taken place - why can I not just let this one go!? So hopefully for the last time, here is the final picture... I hope:

This print is also available to buy, if anyone likes it enough to part with their hard earned cash, clicky HERE

He-Man 1982

As a tribute to Prince Adam's 30th birthday - well... 30yrs since He-Man was first marketed, Prince Adam keeps his actual age very close to his (enormous) chest - I made this poster, somewhat inspired by Conan imagery, which coincidently, was shown in cinemas that same year...

Me-Man, not just Adam, but the whole of Eternia, has a special place in my heart. As a child I was thrown into a world of wizardry, technology and swordplay, as well as taught how to be a better person - What more could a young boy want? - jetpack, I really wanted a jetpack 

If you missed it, I've also been reworking some of Eternia into alternative locations, which you can check out here CLICKY

As always, many thanks for stopping by x

Eternia, for real

If you've been here before, you'll know that I like to make things.

Currently, I am enjoying taking a childhood favorite of mine, HE-MAN, and relocating it's scenery and characters into... well, somewhere new. Be that a classic Turner picture, a Victorian postcard, a movie poster... you get the idea. Here is what I have come up with so far, feel free to comment...

I am enjoying this distraction very much, so needless to say, there shall probably be more to come.

As always, thank you kindly for stopping by :D

The Geek with Chic boutique!

Over the past year or so I've grown quite fond of my thigh tickler. So instead of shaving it off, I thought I'd try my hand at designing some cool products in aid of raising money for Movember.

As I had no clue as to what people would like to buy, I decided to keep things simple by using my 'Geek with Chic' logo as a template (it's a classic after all!) After guesstimating the sizes, I had a small number of them cut out of acrylic via a laser cutter, then attached the findings.

Etsy made setting up an online shop a doddle, and within a short time - and some support from great people - I had my first sales.

My first collection

After some friendly badgering via FB and Twitter - I try not to go on about it too much - the shop started to get some interest. With a couple of items coming close to running out, I had enough confidence under my belt to make some more, and whilst at it, added some other designs into the mix, which I have to say, look rather smart :)

A few additions

Despite not making a huge amount of money for Movember, I thoroughly enjoyed the process and have decided to keep the shop open, I have even started working on some new designs and some other products that I hope to share with you all soon. The first of which wil be some test brooches made from wood - if these work well then I'll be making some of the above in wood too, but as a starting point (and some healthy encouragement) this is a how it looks so far...

Pipe & Beard combo

The problem has been finding the right wood to use. I originally wanted walnut, but it's quite hard to come by locally, so I tried a 3mm 3ply. This did not go well - how was I supposed to know it was fire retardent? The laser gave it's best, but simply was not cutting through. So I moved down to a 1.5mm 9ply which cut like a dream, yet alone it seemed a bit fragile so I have glued two together with the above results. I like it! It's a 40x45mm brooch which I'll test drive this weekend. If all goes well, there'll be new product in the shop soon!

Talking of which, if you would like to check out the range, please click the link on this page or click HERE

Many thanks for stopping by :{D

*BONUS CONTENT*

As a special treat I thought I'd share my most recent modelling escaped! Last week I was asked to model for a shoot, as I looked "retro" and that was her theme. As it turned out, we used 90% of my own clothes and I set up the lighting and camera... it was like one of my many self portrait sessions, without the camera being on timer. But with some minor RAW editing I think the end result was really quite dapper, with a nice painty quality too it - Enjoy!

Excuse me Sir, do you sell American comics?

Like most kids, I loved my fortnightly comic fix. My first subscription was for The Dandy, which one of the two old ladies running the village Newsagents would deliver, along with the local gossip for Mum ;)
Back then there was two main comics for the younger readers, and you was either a Dandy or Beano kid.

The exception (and often the highlight or the year) was christmas, when both would publish a hardback album, and there was a good chance you'd get both! =D
As I aged, I discovered the wealth of other reading material out there, most of the more exciting comics were published by 2000AD, with The Nemesis and Judge Dredd being my favorite characters. By this stage my village newsagents had closed its doors, so I had to rely on trips into town which meant I often missed out on vital story arches :/ Something to consider at this point,  I did know of American comic characters, but only via TV shows and films. Favorites being Superman, Batman, The Hulk (and Wonder Woman), yet it had never occurred to me that they existed in print. So when I saw a kid at school reading Spiderman, I was blown away! But as life throws it's curve balls, buying comics became a rare leisure as I explored adulthood, with only a few Marvel UK prints adding to my collection. In the end, I had to rely on graphic novels for my comicy caper fixes.
That is, until now.

Reading graphic novels meant I wasn't totally out of the loop when it came to comics, yet occasionally a story arch would be completely out of skelter with my character knowledge. So when I heard of DC's New 52 I was all over it like a geek in cosplay. For the first time I could follow some of my favorite characters for the get go, to actually be a part of their adventures as they happened made me a very happy boy indeed. Which ones to buy was a major first hurdle, but in the end I am happy with my choices. The most surprising favorite being All star Western, a true victorian style thriller which put me in mind of a classic Sherlock Holmes story. The second choice was weather to go digital or not. I really like the digital format, yet I couldn't help but feel I didn't actually them, besides, I built a book shelve just for my graphic novels and it would be a shame if my comics didn't join them! So for the first time since I was 8, I now once again have comics arriving at my door; although sadly not by a slightly batty gossiping old woman :(


Here's to everyone's inner kid, may it never leave you (as it's often what makes you charming)
Thanks for stopping by ;)

The Englishman's Moustache Wax

A year ago today, I shaved off the majority of my face fuzz to aid a halloween costume. With my training beard gone, it was my whiskers time to flourish and I liked what I saw! Once hallows eve had passed I decided I'd nurture this new look. But as each day passed, it became apparent that I had no clue as to how you tame such a beast!?

Like most folk venturing down an unfamiliar path, I decided to look to the WWW for help. I was truly amazed at the support found, and comforted by not being alone with my lip wig quires.

My first attempt to calm my man strands, was by using DAX Red. This did a fair job but is soft and lacks moulding power, plus it did not fare well when out for a few jars of ale. Another factor is it's size, fantastic value for money, but not something that slips in your waist coat pocket. Saying that, when at home, with no inclination of venturing out, it's my first choice. Its soft nature makes it quick to apply and whilst not elegant, keeps my tache in check. 

My second foray into 'tache grooming was Pinaud's Clubman' Wax. At the time it seemed to be the most prevalent moustache wax available via the web. With varying shades to match (change?) your own hair, plus a small comb for simple application. For myself, the most notable delight was its fresh citrus aroma - a characteristic my lady was quite fond of too. It's holding power worked a treat and I thought my search was complete. Yet as my Mo grew, its weight crushed Clubman' efforts and I was left drooping. Not only this, but as my whiskers stretched out, I found I was using more and more and the tube was quickly emptying. I was foreseeing this method becoming an expensive endeavor. But for short to medium length 'taches, it's quite suitable, and certainly a step up from DAX.

My search was now common knowledge amongst friends. It was recommended to me that I look up a magazine called The Chap. As well as being a marvel to read, their website has a shop section which led me to the London made solution of my whiskery needs, and a fond appreciation of Bounder Extra Firm Moustache Wax. It made no attempt to hide what it is, an old fashioned wax that may require a bit more work to get the desired results, but once your lip is sculpted, it tends to stay that way all night, and often into the next day too!

As it's a more solid affair, it helps to warm it up a little by keeping it in your trouser pocket for a while before use, this makes application much easier. This wax also goes a long way, three tins with regular use lasted me near on 9 months - fantastic value for money.

Attention to detail is something I warm to, and every aspect of this product makes me smile. The presentation is top notch, from the banter on the outer packaging to the design of the tins themselves, Mr Wax clearly cares about what he makes and his customers. To top this, upon my recent delivery was attached a note from Mr Wax himself, which clearly marks him as a true gentleman. Long may he keep our man bristles looking sharp.

Many thanks for stopping by! :{D

Street Pokemon Zombie Heart!

I've been awfully slack with my blogging of late, mainly due to working on 3 posts at once :/ One I have had to admit will take much more work (as do most of my creative writings), another just needs another delivery from the postman and the third (the most exciting!) 'was' awaiting the postman, but is now back in full swing to be posted soon - eeeep!

But in the mean time, I thought I'd share some fab things I stumbled across whilst traversing the web. First up is this fantastic set of nail art depicting characters from Street fighter 2.....

I may be wrong, but these look ace! Why is it not reasonable for manfolk to get epic nail art? Although for me personally, I would never go down the Street fighter root. I was more of a Darkstalkers fan, mmm Morrigan, until I was introduced to Mavel Vs Capcom 2! What a game, My Captain America and Venom tag team were unbeatable! (only in my mind, in reality I was beaten countlessly)

Next up was someones Redhead Evolution, Pokemon style. Apart from Pokemon Stadium (N64) the only Pokemon games I played involved lots of cards and glass beads. Yet whilst I never collected many fire cards; I was more of a water and leaf boy. I'm a huge fan of Castle, True Blood & Christina Hendricks... I mean Mad Men - although she was also pretty ace in Firefly & Life ;)

Thirdly, via Geekologie I saw this advert for genuine Zombie ammo! Yep Nebraska based ammunitions company Hornady, have specially designed bullets to take down (for a final time) the armies of the undead... "just in case". This is no joke, despite the comic like box art, they take their ammunition very seriously...

Disclaimer: Hornady® Zombie Max™ ammunition is NOT a toy (IT IS LIVE AMMUNITION), but is intended only to be used on…ZOMBIES, also known as the living dead, undead, etc. No human being, plant, animal, vegetable or mineral should ever be shot with Hornady® Zombie Max™ ammunition. Again, we repeat, Hornady® Zombie Max™ ammunition is for use on ZOMBIES ONLY, and that's not a nickname, phrase or cute way of referring to anybody, place or thing. When we say Zombies, we mean…ZOMBIES!

Lastly whilst following the tweets of @VictorianLondon (great blog here) I saw this wonderful map created by D. W. Kellogg circa 1833–1842. Whilst not too complimentary, it does give an insight as to how women were viewed by certain society members during this time period.

Yet for me for most fascinating aspect of it, was it's design. So much forethought in it's layout and an admiration of the fine details made with tools long laid to rest. Wonderful :)

As mentioned, exciting things are happening in my vacuous cranium. I shall post all very soon!

Thanks for stopping by :{D

For when scones just aren't English enough - Rock cakes rule

Recently, the fairy godmother of cakes filled my mind with thoughts of baking. It's been a while since I baked so whilst the magic she used was compulsive, I knew the limits of my abilities.

There are two particular cakes my Mum used to bake with frequency when I was a wee lad, eccles cakes & rock cakes. As I knew not where to start making eccles cakes, rock cakes was the way forward. With simple ingredients, they take hardly any time and are fully of nostalgic goodness!

For those that are not aware of rock cakes, they are basically sweet scones that demand you take as little care as possible with presentation. You could make them nice and neat or just gloop them onto a baking tray, the decision is yours :) Rock cakes became particularly popular in Britain during the WWII,due to limited resources, they were also often made with oats rather than flour, as white flour was so hard to come by.

 (May I stress that Ani bought the baking trays, not me)

What you'll need:

1 medium/large egg - beaten

110g/4oz butter - make sure it's soft before you start ;)

225g/8oz Self raising flour
1 tsp of baking soda

100g or so of your chosen fruit, I used currents, but you could use any small dried fruit, I'm thinking cranberries next time - Yum!

55g of granulate or brown sugar

milk

How you do it?

• Pre-heat oven to 200º/Gas mark 5

•Sieve the flour into a bowl, then add the butter and baking soda and mix with your fingers until it all looks like bread crumbs

•Add the sugar and fruit and mix together

•Add the egg with a dash of milk and mix together until you it becomes dough-like, splash a tad more milk in if you need to

• Separate into 12 and plonk them on a greased (I used butter for this) baking tray/s

•I like to add a sprinkle of brown sugar to the top of each - just a little

•Stick them in the oven for 15 min

When they are ready let them stand for a bit then serve them up warm, either as they are, or with butter and jam - enjoy!

Needless to say, they go great with a cuppa tea!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sometimes, I make things...

The Gaming/Coffee table

A few weeks back, I had to take up the floor boards in our loft, to improve on the insulation,  which left me with lots of spare wood. And whilst playing Scrabble on the floor with Ani, it dawned on me that a low level table would be perfect for such activities! Plus if I made one with a lip, then dice would be safe from rolling off the edge when we play DandD or Vampire Masquerade. So with some time off work I thought I'd apply my hand, and spend some quality time in my garage ;{D

 First up, I needed a plan. After much deliberation and hours of hard work, this was my outcome

 Next up I had to choose my tools, I prefer the old ones ;)

 First part I completed was the main piece made from the old floor boards

 Next up was to make a frame for the table to sit in, kinda like a large picture frame!

 Lots of bolts, screws and glue later, all I needed to add was some legs

And here it is sitting proudly in out front room, ready for the nights gaming activities. A job well done if I do say so myself ;{D

There is still much to do to finish it off, I want to stain it to start with, then add a picture to the centre.

Thanks for stopping by!


Update:

As requested, below is a picture of the table complete with stain. I much prefer the darker look, and in the sun it has a cherry red hue which is just ace :)

In case anyone was wondering, the tables dimensions are 110cm by 92cm and it stand a humble 20cm high.

Keep Calm and Smoke a Pipe...

With the plethora of 'KEEP CALM' posters flying freely around the net and in our shops, I thought I'd make one with my own flavour to it. I have not been a pipe smoker for very long, but in a very short time I have been swept up by its charm. As an avid real Ale drinker I adore the variety of the tipple and the excitement of coming across a new brew. I see smoking a pipe to be of a similar ilk, as there are so many 'brews' and mixes to be tried, with tobacconists often creating their own blends for you to dip into. And much like Ale, you learn to take the rough with the smooth and appreciate that the flavours can change dramatically throughout a barrels (tins) lifetime, as the air gets inside and mixes everything up :{,

There is also the paraphernalia that accompanies the indulgence, a gentlemans pipe can reflect much his persona or mood, and can again change the flavours achieved from your chosen leaf mix. Above is my current favorite pipe, a Mr Brog's No.66 briar pipe, hand crafted in Poland, I like to think by Mr Brogs himself. It does not have a very large bowl so is perfect for a 20-30 min smoke, and so far has been a very cool ride.

To assist me on my current journey I have taken a particular liking to Orlik's Bull's Eye. Produced in a roll and presented a 'discs', I like the way the virginia and cavendish tobaccos are easy to separate so that you can 'build' up the bowl in a way you prefer. In my limited experience, I would say it is a smooth smoke with lots of natural earthy flavours and an aroma that everybody seems to enjoy, I'd thoroughly recommend it to pipe smokers just starting out.

Enjoy :{,

I got into rubber quite young...

Bath time was pretty straight forward when I was a kid, we were occasionally treated to bubbles which were an absolute joy, and to make the experience 'fun' we were allowed a bath time toy - a yellow rubber duck (unless I managed to sneak in a he-man figure without mum noticing) Needless to say, that despite it's limited functions the little fella had undeniable charm, that never failed to make the cleaning experience enjoyable. 

Although later shunned to sit by the bath and watch whilst I played with submarines and dinosaurs as I got older, he was never forgotten. As I reach adulthood and learnt the pleasures of simply relaxing in a soapy hot tub, I'd bring him on board and let him bob and float his merry random path over the water.

(just a sample of the ducks that now live with us, including the ultimate Mega-duck!)

It would seem that the yellow rubber ducky is no longer alone in his bubbly flotsam world, in our house alone we have a fair few, but upon a some quick research I found that there is a billed bounty out there to tickle any individuals fancy, I made a collection below of some of the ones I quite liked, the Jake & Elroy ducks scoring very highly...

Of course, any blog entry with a batman reference is pure win!

Enjoy! ;{D

Tashman Tee!

A tip top and dandy pal of mine bought me a ticket to London's Comicon. Now I've always loved the idea of dressing up 'cosplay' style yet I couldn't think of what to wear, then it hit me. I love Batman (here or here) and my facial hair has become quite prominent of late (here) so lets combine these great powers to create... Tashman! And after many drafts, this was the outcome...

Simple, yet striking - so off I went to get the screen made up...

Looking good...

...but I kinda got carried away and whilst I was waiting for the screen to dry, I made myself some badges! Before ultimately heading off to my simple setup in the garage to get printing!

And here is a none too beautiful picture of the end result at Comicon, needless to say the Tee went down quite well and whilst a few wanted the badges, I was very surprised when I was stopped to get my picture taken, without realising (honestly) I had become Tashman, what had started out as a fun cocktail of a couple of my favorite things had turned into it's own personality.

I am... the hairy avenger