photographing the dead.

I have always had a fondness for photographing dead creatures, Is this wrong? If you find a dead bird in your garden is it not okay to take a lasting image... I don't know.

Made and taken.

made and taken by connor-

How to make wax art.

To make a piece of art out of wax you need a whole mess of candles, a piece of wood or board, an old or unused saucepan, an old or unused ladle and a nine inched nail.
First cut the piece of board to your required size and set up a little area of your home (not too far away from the cooker) that you can get a little messy.
Now start melting the candles in your old saucepan, fish out the wicks being careful not to splash any way on your cooker.
Once you have a good amount of melted wax carefully walk it over to board and use your ladle to pour the wax out.
After a few trips back and forth you should have a completely covered board (ideally about 8mm thick), you can now snap off any wax that is overhanging the board and melt that too.
Once the wax has all dried, cut off any pieces that are overhanging and use a knife to smooth off the edges.
Now comes the time consuming part:
The way I did it was to hold the flat end of a big nail in the flame of a candle and then push it in to the wax to burn a hole. You have to keep cleaning the nail with an old cloth to remove the unwanted wax.
This part takes time but once your required pattern starts taking shape your enthusiasm will grow.

If your board has twisted or bent in the process you can simply bend it back, use force if necessary, I did and these beautiful cracks appeared.

The final piece will be surprisingly resilient to the heat of your home. This piece hangs about 8 feet away from my open fire at home. Before it even occurred to me that the wax could heat up and fall off, it had been hanging there for months.

If you have some metal letters like the ones used in baking (shown below) you could even burn words in the wax.

Experiment and progress!

Babahogs exhibition

how to make a lightbox.

To make a lightbox you first need to buy, steal or find yourself some wood. Wood 1 inch thick will make a super sturdy lighbox that could take a punch no problem. You also need a rectangular piece of glass or thick transparent plastic that doesn't bend.

Cut the walls of the box to fit the size of the glass or plastic.

Drill a hole in one of the end pieces of wood to put your light bulb through.

Now screw together all four sides and cut out a thinner piece of wood for your base.

Once you have a 5 sided box it's time to paint the inside white (to help make it as bright as possible).

Any bulb will do as long as it's bright enough for you. You need to take the plug off the cord and thread it through the hole you've made in the end wall. Once you've reattached the plug you need to push the light fixture in to the hole so it's tight enough to not move or fall out again.

Cut some small pieces of wood to act almost as legs for your glass, you have to calculate the measurements of these pieces of wood so that your glass will lye flush with the top of your box. Screw these in all 4 corners and lye your glass on top.

Now simply apply some thick duck tape around the top edges to hold the glass in place and to hide any sharp edges you may have. I found a piece of double glazed glass at a reclamation yard so it has no sharp edges.

Plug it in and away you go!

A lightbox is a handy tool for all you creative types, and it gives your cat a nice warm place to sit on those cold winter days.

Why not give it a try...

Buttchester will give you really bad knees.

Skateboarding in your youth will give you really bad knees, busted up shins, t-shirts with holes on the side, appreciation for smooth floors and a couple of really good friends.
blaah blaah we do it ONLY ghetto baby.

Alfalfa sprouts

Alfalfa sprouts are chock-full of essential vitamins and minerals such as... almost everything.
It can be grown all year round on any (sunny or dull, hot or cold) windowsill.
To grow Alfalfa sprouts for yourself you'll need a large kilner jar and a small piece of fabric that will allow water through it but not the seeds.
Soak the seeds for 8 hours in cold water. The seeds will make the water go yellow, drain this water away and keep rinsing the seeds until the water runs clear. Hold the jar upside down for a moment to drain out all of the water you can. Now you just rinse the seeds once or twice a day and in 7 days the jar will be bursting with finger licking good Alfalfa sprouts.

They seem to keep for weeks in the fridge.
Good on salads, toast, soup or just on their own.
enjoy!

lovely lovely titlt shift