Panic, Paliative or productivity?

After the wonderful first weekend of Open Studios... Where I was able to clarify what I am trying to achieve ...to myself, at least,If not to all the wonderful visitors who not only braved the entry to Area 61 but used coded phrases like  'what on earth is steampunk' in order to set my cogs whirring and produce many Timeslip moments and sent me into the mode of panic which only creativity can calm... that and a large heap of raw material. 

It nearly always gets messy before anything productive happens ...but things are starting to take shape... 

Like this the Fourth Brigade Temporal Timeslip Corps, Empire Cross, for future bravery and longstanding retrospective service and causal effectiveness... probably....

More medals and general neckwear did come out of this productive period, but, due to digital camera download problems, caused mostly by one of my digits pressing a button marked delete, the pictorial evidence of their existence is, for the moment, unavailable.

sorry I think that picture was twisted in a temporal rift, probably started by all the waving around of weapons of undetermined action that has been going on around Area 61 during my demonstrations of the fully automatic nature of these weapons.
 Time to get ready for another session of Open Studios:

 Another great weekend, with around 125 visitors and another two sales of Finger Functionality Rings involving the clandestine machinations of Beth, Ben and the unknown flatmate... smoke, mirrors and coded messages passed by aether mail.... Happiness ensued and no one noticed ... much.
 Brokencross Finger Functionality devices have started to travel out into the Empire on their own, without the Professor or myself to guide them ... I know only good can come of this, but it still makes me wonder what they will get up to with  their new owners...
 Thankyou to everyone who came to Area 61 for York Open Studios 2013, your identities will remain secret...You made it so interesting for us... I hope all the stories I told, about Dickens' desk,the use of chainsaws in the crafting of library cupboards and the production of many 'original ' Victorian features were not too dull.
 I particularly enjoyed the large number of people who seemed to enjoy the Holistic approach Area 61 aspires to and the Artefactory is soon to start delivering.
 It promises to be a busy year for us all... I have just built the new tables for Artefacts new teaching studio... installed just in time for Alices' birthday meal and Studio warming event on Thursday.
 Future events and open days that are not top secret... will become obvious when the Artefact button at the top of the page is used.Hope to see you then.

Open studios...

OK, the Professor said it was OK if we moved the sofa so I could pretend this was my studio ... I don't have a studio I have the Forgery and that is a workshop, Stuffed to the threshold with perils that only many years of training allow me to navigate (stumble through) with any degree of safety at all...
...Get the desk from the potting shed and make a new drawer and runner...polish it up and try to get the colour right on the new bits (not quite right ... maybe draw the curtains a bit)
Set up lots of stuff to make the GeoMagnetic Neuteraliser feel at home, That's important when you realise it is fully automatic and unpredictably prone to perform its function at whim

And I can't leave the Recombobulator there, no telling what they will get up to together.

Line up all the Finger Functionalisers on top of the frequency modular phonic communication  unit.

Will showing off...Temporal flux filters with loupes, topper with Timewar medal and his propensity to wear protective headgear at an unacceptably jaunty angle...   Cool though.

Airship captain Werthers Timewar medal and Crossphire medalion on the ledger with some contact cards.

Junior Timeslipman Oakes' cap with blindflight goggles,

and Temporal Bloodcross medalion

Professor Oakes' topper mounted spectoral field loupes look nice on their case at the foot of the Dickens desk with the bust of Queen Victoria.

That's looking good ... ready now ...
pop out to the car boot to gather before opening at ten on Saturday for my first open studio...Thanks to everyone who turned up and showed so much interest. Sorry there were no postcards available and people had to take their own photos ... I will get some made... or the Professor will be vexed with me again.
We were busier than I expected at Area 61 on both Saturday and Sunday... Two great days ... new friends ... old friends ... and hope for next weekend when Area 61 opens its doors again ...SEE YOU then!

Tempus Fugit


.

   

Just popped out to get some more metal polish

Lost in timesliop in Area 61 running around polishing any brass or copper I can find ,,, got to get back to presentday Open Studio imminent ... insulate, plasterboard, plaster, new doorway, relevel the floor and the garage in Area 61 is becoming Artefacts new studio the Artefactoy.

Time to get back into the Forgery and get ready...

That didn't really work ... got distracted and into a new project...

more work needed on this one ... but Time is speeding towards Open Studios I need to start Setting up displays and setting the scene ... Where did the Proff, go? and that menacing Assistant.
            See you in Area 61 for Open Studios April 13th 14th April 20th and 21st

Werthers dirigibles

Back across town through the constant flow of costumed and photographer sucking on a Werthers Dirigible in an effort to make the climb back up the Abbey steps a little easier. Finally attaining the top, who do we meet but Mohcen

All the way from another universe or dimension or London..Anyway good to see him and his friends enjoying the Goth fest in Whitby. He seemed to be reasonably impressed by the firepower on offer...

But potshots at the seagulls?

And anyway isn't this bit supposed to make things look bigger?

As usual the apprentice was always available to show everyone how it's really done... even when the sun is getting a bit low...and lesser photographers get their shadows in the shot. That would be me... not paying enough attention.

Another good guy we met, who was paying more attention to his photography Alvin Hall... luckily I never met the dog.
The apprentice, however did meet up with a photographer K.T. Allen who had taken a shot of her on the previous Gothfest and photoshopped it to a higher level... So we left in search of this wonderful artwork which was given free and greatly appreciated

Please visit KT Allens own site to see this and other images and how they were built.

 

 

We're back... Whitby Goth Weekend... and what a marvelous time we had... It was hard work. The translocation unit needed emptying of all the superfluous stuff that impedes its economical movement on  a daily basis and be transformed into a true Translocator. The Apprentice and I felt the need to skip breakfast in order to set off in the allotted timeframe. As a result we were both rather peckish when we arrived in Whitby, located the unit in a muddy field and set off to find sherlocks for intake of Cappuccino, Hot Chocolate and chocolate muffins. That's when we remembered to contact Si, provider of the photographic images you see here. Si managed to find us in Sherlocks without the use of one of my cafe detectors... Uncanny.

Filled with Hot Chocolate beverage, the Apprentice, cheered by the sight of me struggling to breathe after the gravitational flux transfer setting on the recombobulator backfired and I had to haul my own weight up the 139 steps without aetheal assistance.

Mirthfulness aside this thing still works... and in the hands of one as experienced as this Danger is never far away.

Still don't believe me...

Told you it was dangerous!
 Anyway its starting to get serious and it must be time for fish and chips so its down all those steps again. I know there's more than 139 but it's always important to mention the 39 steps.

You can see the colour bleeding away from the two of us as the field of the cafe detectors both kick in automatically at high intensity to locate a major eating establishment.

That's better but I still don't think it's working properly.
 Thanks to Sigh the Mercilessfor his wonderful photographic documentation, more of which can be seen on flickr... more of this later






  

steamy hallows

 Repaired, Billy gets to work in the front garden...after a short,undignified journey from the workshop at the Forgery which involved unhinging his arms and removing his head which was transported in a hat box...all that hair was starting to fill with all sorts of small particles of the scenery.
 After getting his dust sheet to remain in a reasonable position, by using some clamps which were luckily to hand. He was going quite well until the rain,when the sheet became steadily heavier and more sodden. I increased the spring pressure,which helped, but forgot to cover the power supply, which didn't. The result was that Billy operated rather intermittently, but still quite effectively.

OK I should have started earlier so that I had time to take some photos as I was setting up, but by the time I found out that Borris the butler, whose power supply had gone AWOL, was not responding to any new source of electricery and neither was my digital multimeter. Eventually an alternative was located and put together with a plug of almost the correct dimensions. Borris lives!

Edgar the raven was firmly attached to Borris' tray to prevent him from 'flying away' and Borris sported a pair of goggles on his Top hat, for the first time.
The rest of the graveyard went up quite quickly.

The motors kept going, even as things were getting really quite wet.
The lighting kept going too, and the smoke machine only fell silent when Maisie was too cold to stay out in the coffin, where the controls were situated. The blood curdling screams, with which she leaped from the coffin on the approach of the unsuspecting trick or treater, are probably still haunting some of those taking solace in the sweets they gathered on that cold wet evening.

Part of the aftermath... everything needs drying before putting it away...and this is only a small part of it!
 Billy needed to dry his hair...

Ongoing Haloween prep

There's no need to panic... plenty of time for those last minute preparations. Fred 2 has a new name now, he's called Billy. And Billy needs his eyes to glow like old Freds used to, the way bulbs glow when the power supply is being overloaded... that's easy I just need some bulbs...some red tape... blob of solder here and there... and Billys eyes glow in that wonderful retro way that a struggling power supply can give.

I know... he looks a bit crosseyed but that's OK there's electricity down there, and we're talking Amps.
 It turns out there's more of a problem for Billy, Freds old heart is a bit dodgy the linking arm is going to need some repair,the end is nearly cracked all the way through.

 That's not going to last very long. luckily I have another link arm from another wiper motor I got to power another cog, it's too long but will shorten and frankenstein onto the end of the old bit.
 Back to the driving of cogs, the merry-ghool-round needs to have some revolving cogs... those old battery drills will be just right for that, the batteries don't take a charge any more so I'll wire them to a power supply
and build a mounting to keep them up out of the way.

That's all we need to see of that for now... I think you can tell from this that some of the bits rotate. A few more cogs to make and get spinning and I'm about ready. Oh yes, a few repairs to make and a funnel for the smoke...