Purky and the Rocket

So at my job, there are mostly casual/self employed staff and that seems to attract creative folks. Kim Von Coels 'www.KimKrumble.blogspot.com' is a photographer and all sorts of other things as well. She has ventured into the world of music and her track Rocket Love is pretty special.

I mused in her general direction that I could make some Rocket knuckle dusters and erm.....it actually happened!

First, some preliminary sketches. Kim has pretty massive hands compared to my dinky digets so I took a rough measurement and started playing about.

I was mostly inspired by Wallace's rocket from 'A Grand Day Out'

I am using super sculpey here because I had plenty on hand and it blends well. As per usual funds are an issue and I was not one hundred percent sure it was going to work anyway. So heres a base plate...

I started filling it in with clay sausages to build the dimensionality of the piece.

I then used my extruder to make snakes of equal diameter to edge all the pieces. I wanted that retro feel. I also added some detailing and rivets with a ball stylus.

Next up, what is a rocket without flames? I liked the idea of Kim having a duster for each knuckle and this seemed like the obvious choice :) So again here is a baseplate.

Feeling inspired by Christi Friesen techniques I built the texture of the flames up using snakes of clay. I wanted almost a pop art feel to this bit.

It also made the piece very strong from the sheer volume of clay.

Both pieces before baking :)




Another thing to mention is I place both of these on another sheet of clay and then cut round them to just make that tiny bit thicker and stronger. Super Sculpey is not known for being uber tough.

Undercoating with slightly watered down acryllic paint.

I wanted that organic burning feel to these flames so I used lots of hot colours and allowed them to bleed and blend into each other. The next stage after this involved a darker wash to show the recesses and then highlighting with metallic gold and bronze paints.

The rocket herself :) Really simple hot cherry red paint job with black detailing and eventually some silver highlighting.

What good is a rocket you cannot wear? Well fear not. I made a pad of sculpey and embedded an ajustable ring blank. This was baked and then glued on with e600 so there is a large surface area for the adhesive to attach to. Hoping for some durability here...

Both Knuckle dusters from the back. I painted the backs black just to make it nice and neat.

Both of my fabulous flaming knuckle dusters from the front :)

The music video they appeared in is not available yet because it is still being edited but will obviously post a link up here once it is online.


I had a lot of fun with these and I am pleased with the project...which does not happen that often.


Thankyou again loyal readers and blurkers, be keeping it Purky xx

All quiet at Purky Towers?

Hey folks, well I assume folks. Does anyone actually read this blog?


I appreciate that to generate you have to speculate and in this case it is literal mental speculation, littered with images and tidbits of my personality.

The last few weeks have been interesting for me in terms of making plans and understanding myself.

I have got myself into that position of having loads of photographs ready to put through photoshop and then turn into lovely, well structured blog posts. Tutorials, information, random experiments, my adventures into pop jewellery etc.

Just not got it all sorted yet, my sincere apologies.

I checked out my Klout score and my google page value and both are kinda so small as to be irrelevant so that is a dissapointment.

However it is all rectifiable with hard work and other such goodness.

My aim in life is to live conciously and not coast along aimlessly. So using the emotional score moments (Will elaborate on them another time) I have induced motivation! Whoop de whoop!

I hand write a word quota daily, that then translates into a weekly mass typing up session which in turn becomes the first draft of my novel. This will be finished by the end of August which is also when my contract expires at work.

I then spend September redrafting and probably throwing most of it away before producing a rewritten uber draft which I can then allow trusted folks to read :)

Then my friend who is  rather famous artist wants to do the cover so I had better make sure it is a bloody good book, no?

anyways going to run off and try and get today's quota done xxx

Cute critters for a wedding cake

Two very special guy friends of mine decided to declare their love for one another and asked me if I would recreate their family of critters as cake toppers.

I of course said 'Yeah!' and after much faffing with me completely failing to realise there were photographs of said critters on facebook I got them done....at 6am on the morning of their ceremony.

Whoop for Purky and his time management skills!

Anyways, to the critters!

Due to the somewhat rushed and hassled but strangely zen creation process on these guys, I have very few usable photographs sadly. I was intending to do a proper sculpting tutorial but alas it is not to be.  This is Jake who is a collie before he got painted.

There is a Collie (Jake) , a Jack Russel (Jack), two snakes, a frog and a hedgehog in this picture. Everyone has just had an undercoat of watered down white acrylic. I was terrified that the details of the sculpt would clog up. Normally I make things in fimo soft of the appropriate colour but this time I felt it was best to use super sculpey and paint them.

Base coats :)

'I feeeel sssssssso anaemic! hissss!'

'Ahhh much better!!!' .... there is a mixture of different yellows and oranges as a base coat, then a wash with vermilion/burnt sienna and then a top coat/dry brush of metallic gold and copper here :)

Undercoated Jack Russel! and a drunk Hedgehog...lol The Jack Russel is particuarly special to me because he was my dog before I left home for university. My Mother was/is very ill and could not look after him without my help and so my friends adopted him. It was a very stressful time and I am constantly grateful for the love and care they have shown my little friend.

Some detailing....

Having a natter while waiting to be finished :)

This is Rogue, the cat who was sculpted and painted at 6am on the morning of the ceremony because I had struggled so hard to make her!

Say cheese everyone!

And from the side lol. Pretty much everyone got a dry brush or stippled coat with the metallic and opalescent paints just to give everything some gloss and life.

Just to give you an idea of the level of organisation I deploy in my paint department.

It was a very enjoyable project and at no point did I feel particularly stressed. I had a lot of fun with the sculpting and my skills progressed a lot. The guys seemed very happy with my renditions of their menagerie.

I have reconciled partially with the friend who upset me and I feel much better than I did last night. It appears the issues may sweep under the table and we will carry on as normal which is a relieving dissatisfaction to me. I would like things to change (positively) so this never happens again but I do not want to instigate the conflict which may be necessary for the change but leave us as a broken relationship.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this more positive post, I have been itching to type it up :) Got plenty more to follow xx

The emotions of a Purky chap

Yeah, I know. Opening with a title like that. Screams doom and gloom doesn't it?

I am an emotional man, it leads me to create beautiful works of art and literature, facilitates my ability to be compassionate and fuels my urge to be helpful.

It also allows me to be crumpled up like a paper bag or shattered like a.....yup you guessed it, a 'glass cannon.

I do not really want to go into much detail here because it could quickly become inflamatory but a long term close friend has behaved thoughtlessly and hurt my feelings. I am now second guessing many things in my life and getting increasingly distressed. Said friend would probably respond by calling me 'such an emo' but as part of my manifesto of living honestly, I accept my emotional nature.

Therefore to use it as a term of derision is meaningless.

I am struggling to remind myself that I am not meaningless and that each day is another minor step towards my life goals. Yeah I do not really like my job but as the days go by it is becoming more manageable. Yeah I have not completed any serious pieces of publishable work but I am making progress with my technique and storytelling. Yeah I don't have much money, but that doesn't upset me so much.

I have achieved everything that I have truly set my mind to. I have GCSE's, A-Levels and 2:1 BA(HONS) degree all set to a backdrop of family hardship and complex issues. I still got there.

I have a driving licence and my own car.

A large and diverse selection of wonderful friends (I do not advocate quantity as a measure but I am blessed)

A young man who loves me very much and I adore in return.

A beautiful cat who brings me joy every day.

The space to explore myself artistically in my studio.

I am not meaning to brag here but I feel the need to reassert myself in my own existance. It is all essentially meaningless and so you develop your own meanings and boundaries. For me, its living honestly and expressively.

Hence the creation of Purky's Place and thank you for coming to visit me here folks.

The rest of this months posts will most probably be centered around crafty things, so please pop back soon.

I have a sculpting post to pop up, a bronze tutorial post and some other things including rockets...

Much love and purkiness to everyone x

New Tool :)

I had a lovely day in Bristol yesterday with my friend Tamara and her son the brilliant baby Brian. We didn't really do a lot, just popped to 'Born' which is a fabulous baby shop. Then Yo Sushi, nom nom. Tried some things that were new because normally I just munch on nigiri and handrolls and possibly some maki. I at octopus balls, king prawn tempura, chicken T-somthing and other stuff as well.

Then we rolled over to Hobbycraft where they were having a 20% off sale and I picked myself up a new tool :)

I have been looking for a good ball stylus tool for ages and this one has four diameters of ball in it :)

I will be using it for detailing pieces, creating texture plates, cleaning my ears, fighting off alien invaders...

The tips are magnetic and interchangable so I can be all dynamic and stuff. Plus they store inside the handle so I 'might' not lose them :)

Just having a quick poke about in some super sculpey, I think we are going to have a long and happy relationship together this tool and I.


Catch you soon folks, I have mountains of bloggage for you but still waiting on time clearance before I can show you! xx

Productive Purkiness

Just to let you folks know, I have been working hard on Purky things.

However two of my projects cannot be unveiled until their either arrive to their recipients or they get their special day underway.

I have prepared photo tutorials / stage by stage progress shots for each project.

Au revoir for now

xx