Wednesday 28 November 2012

Quick Catch up!

Hello everybody its almost been too busy to keep track of.

I have left Purky Towers and now live in the new Purky Enclave.

Phileous Mogg has recovered and is here alongside my new beau and I. Much happiness appears to be forthcoming.

I have started several new ventures and expanded upon elder ones.

There will be more details when I manage to compose myself properly.

However, the next event is my Magnificent Maker's Market which is on Sunday and here is the poster :)



Much love and hope to see you all soon

H xx

Wednesday 24 October 2012

The Dark and Curious Market



The Dark and Curious Market is a new venture.

Following the recent success of the Purky Parties I have created a new sister company to Purky Products – Purky Productions.

 It is my intention to bring exciting events to Wincanton and surrounding towns.

The first market event being both Dark and Curious!

I have assembled a crew of Tarot Readers, Reiki Healers, Jewellers, artisans, craftspeople and entertainers over the course of this year and brought them together for a different kind of market.

There is also free entertainment throughout the day! 

Come and join us at the Nog Inn Function room on October 28th why not treat yourself to Sunday lunch as well?

It is free entry and the doors open at 11am.

I am very much looking forward to seeing you there.
Captain Purky



Would you like to join Captain Purky's crew? He is always looking for artists, performers, venues and interesting creative folks to perform and trade at his events.


Monday 22 October 2012

Arcane Encounters



You may be thinking to yourself, ‘What is an Arcane Encounter?’ well my friends.

Arcane Encounters is not a magic show, nor is it a demonstration of clairvoyant ability. This is something else.

It is an up close and personal voyage into the unknown. 

The techniques of a séance with the intrigue and excitement of a ghost hunt wrapped up in an evening of paranormal, interactive entertainment.

Audience members will have the opportunity to hold and experience objects with a haunted past, make contact with the spirits that are around them and even feel or see a ghost themselves!

There will be demonstrations of the various techniques used in a séance, including automatic writing, table turning and even the Ouija board itself!

Dare you approach the dark with your eyes open?

Come and join us at the Nog Inn Function room on October 27th
Tickets are £9.00 in advance from Purky Productions (Hjp@purkyproducts.co.uk) or £10.00 on the door.
If you spook easily, bring a group of your friends to hold your hand!
I am very much looking forward to seeing you there.
Captain Purky

(Please note this event is for adults only and will take place in candlelit surroundings.)

Saturday 20 October 2012

A mixed few months

Hello....failed at blogging every day....hugeous apologious! (actual spell)

Here is a list as a recap as to what has been happening in the purkiverse!

  • Horrible depression
  • Creative genius
  • Fear and self loathing
  • Falling in Love! (been rather enjoying that)
  • Anniversary of Mum dying
  • Planting beautiful bulbs upon her grave ready for spring
  • formulating business plans
  • trading at lots of exciting shows
  • Organising lots of events
  • Being horribly stressed at work
  • Taking on a second job
  • Leaving the second job
  • Going part time at job one
  • Moving house!
  • My beloved cat being run over
  • My beloved cat not dying (thank goodness)
  • and lots lots lots more stuff has been occuring.

So guys I apologise for not blogging and not posting pictures and being rubbish. However, when my new part time hours kick in, I shall be blogging at least once a week again, if not more.

Lots of love to you all

Captain Purky xx


Tuesday 25 September 2012

The grand plan

So I have two weeks away from work.

As far as I am concerned I have to change my life in that time.

Prepare to move house.

Reinvigorate my creativity and business.

Build a future that is sustainable for me, the lovely cat and my lovely new fella.



I am waiting for a new camera card to arrive so I can upload new photos.

Catch you soon folks x

Sunday 23 September 2012

Absent Blogger

I spend a lot of time saying sorry for not posting, don't I?

A very wise friend of mine says 'Apologies are worthless the second time, you should have learned that value comes from action' or something...

Anyway, I am going to try and post every day for the next week and see how it goes!

Exciting, non?

Mwah to you all and I shall be back with epic bloggage xx

Tuesday 31 July 2012

Getting Ready for the Cardiff Steampunk Market :)

Very soon, I shall be trading at the Cardiff Steampunk Market


I am rather excited about this so I did a quick stock check and I am a tad low on my Gearpunk range.

This range is inspired by Steampunk but moves more across to revering the gears, I am officially obcessed with gears....

Anyways, I have run out of material now (waiting for a polymer delivery tomoz) so at 1am have decided to call it a night.

Heres whats been made so far!

I shall pop them in to cure and pop myself into bed!

Mwah everyone! xx

Friday 27 July 2012

Ego a Go Go



So I was messing with my Goggles (www.thebobbu.com) and my new blow torch and my digital camera.

A bizare funky fluke led to the creation of this image and I really like it! Random, huh?

Hope all is well in your universes, maybe you should send me your random pictures? It might be fun to do a post with them.

Captain P

x

Wednesday 25 July 2012

Pebble Experiment with free tutorial

Aloha folks, this is the next part of my series of tutorials for using up leftover surface treatments.

Inspired by some of the faux turqoise recipies out there I decided to try using my trimmings to create fantastical geode stones.

Ingredients : surface treatment scraps, acryllic paints, food processor,

first you need some surface treatment trimmings....


Then you need a food processor.....



This was five pounds at a car boot sale (obviously can no longer be used with food)


Trimmings


Plus some translucent in this case


Whizz it up into polymer kibble


Turn it out onto work surface. In this case my usual glass tiles are topped with recycled paper.


Paint all surfaces of the kibble


I wanted to experiment with two colours



Mmmmmm! I think it looks like robot vomit....but hey ho I am known for being peculiar.


Squish the kibble into lumps, compressing it really hard. I tend to dust my hands in cornstarch to make it all stick to me a bit less.


I prefer to cure my beads and things like this in cornflour in cheap metal food containers. Cure as per packet instructions.



Take the cooled cured pieces out and give them a wash in water.


Then sand the out surface off to reveal the internal colours. The paint between the kibble creates this lovely effect.

Et voila!


I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, more are en route eventually, I promise.

Captain Purky

xxx

Monday 23 July 2012

Mokume Nendo Experiment with free tutorial

Ahoy, I have been meaning to post this tutorial for ages. Unfortunately things are somewhat brassic at Purky towers so I am working two jobs and my time has been consumed by mundanity.

However, this tutorial is a photographic explanation of my attempts to use left over surface treatments to create lovely Mokume Nendo pieces.

Mokume Nendo - wood eye clay - is a technique adapted from the Japanese Mokume Gane - wood eye metal- a method for producing beautiful layered metalwork.


Step 1 condition some translucent clay, here I am using fimo brand and have rolled it to setting 9 on my eberhard faber fimo machine.


When experimenting I prefer to use a cookie cutter to do my mokume nendo, this way its just easier and quicker.


These pieces form the basis of your layered stack.


Take a piece of left over surface treatment, here ink and powder technique.


Begin layering your stack. Do not worry about the gaps.





Keep going until the stack is as high as you wanted. As this is an experiment, this is a pretty small stack.


One primordial mokume nendo stack! Time to get squashing...


Compact the stack to create a united piece. You may find that what is inside affects the unity of the stack. For example as this is an ink and powder piece, the powder natuarally prevents clay adhering to itself. Just keep manipulating the piece until it obeys you.


Continue compressing the stack until it can be rolled through the thickest setting on your clay machine.


Then restack. You can do this as many times as you like but be aware that the finer the strata between layers the more inticate and less bold the mokume patterns will be.


At this point I trim my stack and place the trimmings to one side. Then begin torturing the stack by impressing it with textures. The purpose of this is to cause internal distortions that create the mokume nendo pattern.


While the main stack rested I had a play with the trimmings. Those wooden stamps are chinese seal 'chops'


This is a ginkyo leaf texture from the discontinued studio by sculpey tool line.


Once the stack has rested, take a tissue blade and finely slice across the top. Imagine you are taking slithers in order to produce a veneer.



Like so.


Apply the slices to a base sheet of polymer clay. Here I am using a slightly muddy piece of white clay.


Use a brayer to ensure your slices are adhered. Then roll the sheet through the clay machine. Be aware that depending on the setting you use, there will be distortions in the sheet of veneer.


Trim the sheet. I would normally back this veneer and turn it into jewellery components but I want the experimental sheet for my archive.



After baking and sanding. Interestingly the inks tinted the translucent which gave the lovely reddish hues. However, the dark polymer also over shadowed the translucent layers. It has an interesting finish and I think with further sanding and buffing something very exciting would ermerge.


The other two experiments prior to sanding


And afterwards. I am not really patient enough to sand these experiments down hard enough to explore the full potential but I will pop them in a box and get round to it eventually.



this is the most intrigueing piece for me, the fine levels of detail in the closely layered textured lines provide the most scope for future pieces.

I have another four tutorials using leftover surface treatments planned. Most of the pictures have been taken its just finding the time to edit them and get the tutorials up.

My apologies for being slow, I hope this inspires you to experiment with Mokume Nendo

Captain Purky

xx

Friday 20 July 2012

Goddess experiment

I am off work with poorliness at the moment but have been challenged to create some goddess beads.
Its a pleasant distraction from the coughing and sputtering.
The clay is a quick mix of ink, mica and a few colours.
Not bad for a first go, hey?
First post from my blogger app as well.
Hope you are all well x

Friday 6 July 2012

Butterfly dreams

A few weeks ago, I had a beautiful dream.

Phileous Mogg (my cat) and I were on holiday in a jungle....random I know. We found a colony of beautiful huge butterflies. Their wings were like stained glass and about 40 inches from wingtip to wingtip.

Somehow we ended up in Paris with a gorgeous shabby chic white washed shop on a back street. I could speak perfect french and Phil was wearing a red  beret and could speak 'cat French'. Our shop sold the butterflies as pets and was warm like a jungle. There were beautiful hand turned ceramic butterfly feeders and houses. Also the caterpillars were as big as a mans forearm and wandering around the shop nomming on lushious plants.

It was a really lovely dream and although I am not sure how ethically comfortable I would be with stealing an animal from its habitat to generate profit in a real world situation. I rather enjoyed dreaming about it.

Catch you laters folks

(and try not to be surprised if there is a new butterfly themed Purky Collection soon....)

H
xx

Monday 2 July 2012

The Mushroom Village

So, I was walking in the woods at Alfred's Tower, doing some mental defragging and I stumbled upon this delightful cluster of fungi.



 I have dubbed it the 'Mushroom Village' and to me it looks like little huts built out of the side of the tree and I am sure it will be featuring in a short story sometime soon.




 It is just so perfect and beautiful.



Can you imagine little people living in there? 

I fully admit that I may just be odd...but I had to share this :)


Have you seen anything inspiring like this lately?


H

x


Friday 29 June 2012

Dirty feet

So, I love to be outside. I love Alfred's tower and I love to walk barefoot in the rain.



It was raining rather profusely a few days ago but dried off in the evening. I decided to take a walk to defragment my brain drives. I walked barefoot in the mud. Conifer needles and leafmould merged into the damp soil creating something quite firm underfoot. I enjoyed the way it squished slightly between my toes.

The grassy patches between the trees held my weight better. Happily I seem to be genetically advantaged for boggy walking. My feet are wide and there is a big gap between my big toe and first toe.

There is something very primal about barefeet. Shoes and boots protect our feet. Isolate them from cold, heat, wetness, sharps...

Do we really 'feel' the ground we walk on?




I have left footprints. They will wash away overnight but they are impressions of my feet. My toes, heels and soles. Not a mass produced bootprint but my footprint.

I was here. I am actually real, not a deranged figment of my own imagination. I am alive and I exist.

Or perhaps just in this corner of the multiversal conciousness....

I am going to try and visit the woods more often, the petrol is frankly a luxury but the exercise and peace of mind is not.


Captain Purky x

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Happy Birthday Mum x


Yesterday, it would have been my Mother’s 64th birthday. Beatles song lyrics aside it got me thinking.
At the moment I am averaging 75 hours a week at work between my two jobs (yeah I took on a second job…) and it is leaving me no space for anything else. 

Pragmaticism dictates that I should make hay while the sun shines but I am tired, stressed and irrepressibly angry. The anger is taking me very much by surprise and it’s a constant struggle every day to contain my rage.

It has been playing on my mind over the last week that my Mother who was such a beautiful, loving caring soul had a life filled with tragedies. My heart is pulled to pieces by this and the knowledge that there was no triumph at the end. 

I miss her most days anyway. At the moment it is much stronger and I wonder if that’s why my core is so hot, fiery and prickly right now.  However, in the search of future positivity I decided to make a list of what I actually want, for myself.

1)      To live creatively and express myself through my artworks, designs, writing and performances.
2)      Financial freedom.
3)      To find love again (Though I find the prospect of a lasting emotional relationship somewhat unlikely)
4)      To get married
5)      To raise children, in a loving stable home with my partner.
6)      Create a Purky Art Farm (A self sustaining small holding with studio and gallery spaces, offering  artists somewhere to work and teach)
7)      To build and sustain strong relationships and networks, offering something positive to all the people around me.
8)      To die at the right time, for the right reason.

And perhaps most importantly of all that all the things I think I ‘Want’ actually bring me happiness and fulfilment or points the way to my ‘Truth’.





Here is a 'Truth' that helps me. This is my Mother's oak tree. Right now it is not much more than a sapling but it will outlive me and quite possibly my grandchildren. As it grows and flourishes, over three hundred different kinds of life will be supported under, over and inside its mighty boughs. 

I like to think that my two very talented, hardworking brothers, my amazing sister and myself, are acorns from the oak that was Lynn Joy Pursey.  We are growing and building our futures, raising families, loving and living.

Things will get better, you just keep going...


Captain Purky signing off x