A Boat a Day (no.62)

A Boat A Day no.62

Today's boat is a spotted felt pen boat. It's quite small!

A Boat a Day (no.61)

A Boat a Day no.61

ok, so today I have designed an airboat stamp which I will get made or make myself to merchandise all my stock. If it works out I could make business cards very cheaply from scrap, which would be awesome!

A Boat a Day (no.60)

Well so far today I have just been battling the doom that is my house! Seriously there is crap everywhere. Partly from my chaotic unloading after Brisfest, (i.e giant gazebo poles all over the place!) some from the packing I started a few weeks ago when I thought we would be moving at the end of the month and the rest is just from having 6 semi-permanent people living here! It's mental!

So today's boat is an eye-liner tattoo as part of my costume tonight... sorry it is rotated on my computer so i'm not sure why it's this angle!

A boat a Day (no.59)

Good evening!

Today I have been catching up on things like tidying and visiting my nephew which was lovely fun. Things have been put into motion for my belated Birthday party tomorrow night, my costume is mostly ready so long as I remember to prepare my hair tonight.
There is also an amazing Iron Throne cake in the fridge courtesy of Taz and Lappo! :)


While all that was going on I made a boat on MS Paint, and also have a few to share from friends, it's almost like fan art teehee! I have a few boats that have been made for me so I'll make a gallery of them all soon :)

A Boat a Day no.59

A Boat a Day (no.58)

A Boat a Day no.58

Hello, today I have been creating my Steampunk Cyborg costume for my party on Friday. It's awesome! I now have a gun, a monocle and an awesome outfit, yay!
Since starting the boat project I have seen boats almost everywhere, but until Genie pointed it out, I failed to notice that the Bristol City Council logo is a boat and a castle, even though I see it everyday on signs, letters and of course every bin on the street! So today's boat is a photo of my bin!

A Boat a Day (no.57)

Today I am breathing a huge sigh of relief, I now have no stressful work demanding my attention, I don't have to think about emails, and traders, gazebo's, transport. I can just relax!
It's been awesome, but the day is late already!
Among bathing, tidying returning people's stock etc me and Taz have had a bit of fun making paper out of whatever scrap paper I could find, namely my old job seekers book!

a boat A Day (no.56)

this evenings boat is more a scribble than a doodle, a scrooble perhaps?

A Boat a Day (no.55)

A Boat a Day (no.55)

Ok, you're going to have to forgive me, I am a day late. I had not anticipated another night in a field, but there was no way we could have got off site last night. Anyway, I am back to civilization and finally done unloading everything, and my is it lovely to be able to relax!
Anyway so here is yesterday's boat, today's will be along shortly!

A Boat a Day (no.54)

A Boat a Day no.54
Word Boat

Morning,
this is an early one before I shoot off to Ashton Court and stay in a field for the weekend. Sorry it's not very imaginative but it's twenty past eight in the morning on a Saturday...on my birthday to be exact! So I feel I'm allowed to be a bit lame hehe :)

Anyway, if you are coming to Brisfest look out for us beyond the Helter-Skelter! x

A Boat a Day (no.53)

A Boat a Day (no.54)
My boat hat!

I almost did not believe it was possible, but right now I'm relaxing knowing that our fabulously arranged collection of handmade treasures from local talent looks AWESOME! We are totally ready for Brisfest tomorrow, Bazaar Inspirations is moving up in the world Ladies and Gentlemen, we are (small time) festival marketeers now!

It's silly but other than my bed, hot food and my kitty the main reason I am not staying on site tonight is to write this blog, this is the first time that my boat a day has had an impact on my routine. Anyway, here it is, a newspaper hat boat, the sail came from yesterday's boat because it needed something to add to it.

A Boat a Day (no.52)

A Boat a Day no.52 junk boat

It has been a long day of setting up gazebo's and playing around with tables for Brisfest this weekend. I'm
buzzing with nervous excitement. Ashton Court is a lovely site and it's good to see a festival there again. Right now, I think I need a hot beverage and an early night. So here is today's boat, made from a chip tray straws and a paper towel (I used plastic fork tines to hold it all together.)

A Boat a Day (no.51)

A Boat a Day no.51
Puzzle boat

Today is the calm before the chaos due to begin tomorrow, BRISFEST! I have been a bit faffy unable to justify anything but checking emails and checking out my stock, and the best cure for dithering is puzzles! It is fairly hard to complete a whole 1000 piece puzzle in a day, so I have just done the section of water with boats! :) I must find a better boat puzzle over the next 200 days, I'm sure I can. Anyway todays boat...

A Boat a Day (no.50)

A boat a Day no.50
boat on a hat

Hi, its day 50 and somehow I didn't notice! Today's boat is a little sailboat I have drawn with fabric pens onto a hat, (I may use it as part of my evil Steampunk/Cyborg Mastermind costume, hehe!)

A Boat a Day (no.49)

A Boat a Day no.49
Sail boat print

I've been making big pompoms today, out of scrap material which I love as it gets it out of my studio! Today's boat is a simple design made on GIMP for fabric, I have uploaded it to Spoonflower and will get a test swatch soon! If all goes well I will buy more and make something awesome!

A Boat a Day (no.48)

Hello! 

A Boat a Day no.48
Sketched boat

It's been a good week of making jewellery, tidying my house and chilling with my cat. It's been well overdue. Now I am looking forward to Brisfest (with quaking knees!)

Today's boat was drawn on blue card with an assortment of sketching pencils (super soft ones I bought from the Van Gogh exhibition in London last year,) Stabilo sketching pens and glittery gel pens! It looked a lot better before I accidently spilt tea on it, but you know ships are never perfectly clean! :)

A Boat a Day (no.47)

A Boat a Day no.47
paper straw airship

I found a bindle of paper straws today while trying to find cardstock to use for our very own set of CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY, which is hilarious fun. So today's boat has been plaited, woven and twisted to form an airship!
It's not paticularly good I spent most of my effort on weaving the rigging. The photo is not much better, (but I blame that on the fact I am using Taz's computer and can't crop it handily!)

A Boat a Day (no.46)

A Boat a Day no. 46
matchstick boat

Hello,
quick one this evening, tis made of matchsticks.

A Boat a Day (no.45)

A Boat a Day no.45
Steampunk Boat pendant

I've spent the day watching films in my pajamas and making jewellery! yay! Me and Taz got stuck into a new range of Nautical Steampunk Jewellery which I love! One day of hardwork has already eaten all of the chain I bought yesterday and most of my charms. :(
It occurred to me while making away that this is day 45 of my boat expedition and in all that time I haven't made a single piece of jewellery! I haven't had the time or the resources so it was really good to get stuck in today. This was the first time we began making jewellery with a particular influence, (besides Steampunk that is) it really improved our designs and made for some fun experiments with materials.

The biggest challenge was Tormund, who dived and pawed at everything, every time we chucked him off the table he jumped straight back up and tried to get into the toolbox! In the end he had to be shut into the kitchen for a little while.

A Boat a Day (no.44)

I had a great day today with Genie and Lappo on the Bristol Boat rides tea cruise! It was very tranquil, educational and good fun. The cream and scones were excellent too. I learnt alot of random things about the history of Bristol docks and waterways.






It was a fairly blustery day with a bit of sunshine but thankfully the rain held off, we saw some peregrine falcon's nesting at the top of some drainpipes, the entrance to the Redcliffe caves, some interesting replica ships and buildings and of course the SS Great Britain.



The cruise was about 2 hours in total, we made our leisurely way through Bristol city centre along the river making people wait as one of the bridges moved for us to pass through. Around the back of Temple Meads train station and on to the river Avon.

A Boat a Day no.44
The Tower Belle

A Boat a Day (no.43)

A Boat a Day no.43
Card and Poker chips Boat

Another day of holiday for me with not really anything to show for it today. I assembled today's boat from the random collection of things on my toy shelf, excluding the rubix graveyard Justin has left because for once it's too colourful!

See you tomorrow for some more boating fun, if it's nice I plan on taking a certain lady on a voyage!

A Boat a Day (no.42)

Good Afternoon!

A boat a Day no. 42
A Ship in a Bottle

Monday is the new Saturday! I have been lounging around watching films, researching boats and trying my hand at a boat in a bottle... My first attempt is somewhat childish and clumsy, but fear not I will be trying again! Though with a bit more technicality.

This is an extremely simplified version of a ship in a bottle, here's how it's done.

I started with a bottle, an extremely cool bottle I have been keeping for no reason. Not only is it a navy seal rum bottle it even has an embossed anchor on the glass!! After a long soak in warm soppy water I scrubbed the labels and excess glue until squeaky clean and left upside down to dry while I hunted for suitable boat materials.

I came up with a wooden dowel rod for the mast, some cartridge paper for the sail and an old battered cork board for the boat. I also gathered some thickish wire (to use for hinges) some thread, a hacksaw, scissors, pins, craft knife and awl. All useful things! (I had to run to the shop for some super glue as my handy hot glue gun is still on the run somewhere!!)

Now I read a number of different sources on how to assemble the boat, some were extremely hardcore, some a little tricky and others simple enough for kids. So I just made it up from there, basically your ship hull needs to be thin and flat enough to fit through the mouth of the bottle. I built mine from layers of cork board and super glued them together with an extra bit for the aft deck. Keep checking your hull against the bottle to make sure it still fits. I found cork really good as it squashes a bit.
Next you need to make some holes in your mast (after cutting it to fit upright within the bottle...try making it as big as you can get away with to fill the space!), a hole all the way through at both ends. (I whittled the end of my dowel a little to make it tapered.)

Attach your sail to the mast, make sure it is made of something that can bend or roll, remember it all needs to fit through the bottle.
Now here comes the magical part. Thread a stretch of wire through the hole at the bottom of your mast bend it at both ends to form a U, this will be your hinge. Attach it to the hull of your ship securely, (this again was really simple for me as the cork is made for piercing.) Have a bit of a play making your mast lie stand tall and lie flat. Now attach some thread to the top of the mast through the other hole you made, make sure your thread is fairly long, long enough for you to keep hold of it while you manouvre your ship through the bottle mouth, when pulled this will raise the mast and sail inside the bottle...Magic!

Now here's where I prove to be an impatient fool, I wanted to test my boat so I put it in and only once I got the mast up did I realize I had not thought of a way to attach it to the inside of the bottle. so my ingenious plan? Funnel blue-glue into the bottle! Messy! I would suggest you think about this WAY before this stage. The PVA glue works just fine, it'll take a little while to dry but it does the job. If only I had remembered about that awesome anchor on the glass before I filled it on the wrong side and had to do a tricksy clean -up job with a chopstick!

So other than the fact the my poor boat is sinking, and the mast is oversized and I made a sticky mess of the inside, I'm pretty pleased with my ship in a bottle. Next time it will be awesome!

A Boat a Day (no.41)

A Boat a Day no.41
The Ghostship Lady Loviband
(On GIMP)

After spending a few weeks in the Looking Glass with centuries of history I did a bit of research into the ghostly stories surrounding the cellars and from there got inspired to look up some Ghost ships!

So I've discovered a few stories, but the best (and nearest to home) is the Lady Lovibond. On February 13th 1748 The Lady Loviband's captain, (Simon Peel) took his new bride and wedding guests on a celebratory cruise to Portugal. The first mate of Lady Loviband, John Rivers was wracked with jealousy, for he lusted after the Captain's wife. In a fit of rage he slew the man at the helm and while the wedding party continued below deck River's steered the ship into treacherous waters, (the Goodwin Sands) and killed everyone on board.

The ghostly ship was witnessed exactly 50 years later on 13th February 1798 by two different men, one a Captain, one a fisherman. In 1848 local sailors were so convinced by the phantom of a ship sailing into the perilous Goodwin Sands that they sent out lifeboats to rescue survivors. There are reports of sitings in 1898 and 1949 but its most recent anniversary in 1998 saw no apparition.

A Boat a Day (no.40)

A Boat a Day no 40
Brown Paper Boat

I get so much junk mail, I'm sure I will find another way to incorporate it into my boating madness but for now I've used just one brown envelope. Which I cut, folded, twisted and wove to make a very simple picture for today's boat.

I have one more day off work left and then a whole week to do nothing but make jewellery if I care too...(which I should!) and visit some people and places :) yay!

A Boat a Day (no.39)

A Boat a Day no.39
Potato Stamp

Phew!

Finished in the Looking Glass this morning, had some lovely time in the sunshine playing giant pick-up sticks after and now feel ready for some free time, yay! I had fun with potato printing this afternoon, I made two boats and printed them onto blue card. I'm not very good at printing, I am extremely good at smushing!

The image below was my first try which I decided was too smudged so I folded the card in half to have another go, but actually I like the effect now that it has been folded, might make this into a card...

A Boat a Day (no.38)

A Boat a Day no.38

It's a late one again today, though I drew it hours ago. Today was our last day in the shop and I've not long gotten back from pack down. Has been a long one...

So todays boat is drawn on one of the many blackboards in the Looking Glass, chalk is one of those mediums I never really use but do actually love, same as charcoal. It's so satisfying, but being able to rub things out is awesome!

We have one morning left to clear the last of our stuff out of the shop and then I am officially on HOLIDAY! (Officially as in I said so! but I still have to work at the weekend, oh well...)

A Boat a Day (no.37)

It's getting harder to remember what day I'm on! Today was our penultimate day at the shop, looking forward to and dreading tomorrow. It will be nice to relax and create some new stock at home but I'll miss the atmosphere and familiar faces of our Pop-up Boutique...

A Boat a Day no. 37
Glow in the dark, fimo bottle top boat!

Today's boat is made with fimo and a bottle cap, it is a prototype for a new range of stock, though I'm undecided if they would work better as pendants, key/bag charms or fridge magnets...or perhaps all three? This one has not been cooked yet as I plan to make a whole batch (and it's not worth putting the oven on for one tiny bottle cap.) So the finish will change and I would probably add a dusting of gold mica powder to give it a bit 'o sparkle!
Oh and did I mention it GLOWS IN THE DARK!! :)

A Boat a Day (no.36)

A Boat a Day no 36
Magazine collage

Today I decided to use some more magazines, as I still have loads despite donating them to my nan's art class. Taz mucked in and found a few images for her human form project too. This ship is massive, I taped four A3 pages together to make it big enough. It's nice having a day off and making a boat slowly during the day, next week I will have all the time in the world to get creative! (though I have begun to pack away the studio in preparation for moving...)

A Boat a Day (no.35)

A Boat a Day no. 35
Pasta Bake Sculpture

Who said not to play with your food, as you can see I'm clearly not very practiced at it! Then again, I was a impatient and hungry so I didn't take much time over my pasta bake sculpture! 

A Boat a Day (no.34)

A Boat a Day no.34
Word collage

It was quite a challenge finding enough boat/water related words to use for today's boat. Taz gave me the idea and helped trawl through magazines too.

Tormund attacked the glue stick and vanished it into kitty territory so it's still unstuck :(

A Boat a Day (no.33)

A Boat a Day no.33
Pirate Ship (one block at a time)

Good Morning!!

This morning I have completed my epic ship for the 1st of the month, drum roll please...

Pirate Ship - One block at a time.

Please follow the link for a tour of my ship!


I built this ship on Minecraft having never played the game, it was a bit of a love/hate relationship. The end result is pretty satisfying, but I went through many tears to get here. I began a whole different boat which turned out to be too small, then I once I had layed down the foundations of my gargantuan boat I tried to play with the idea of canons. The result? Lava, all over my lovely wooden ship, eating at my hard work. But fear not it was saved with buckets of water, here is an amusing image my friend made at my distress :)