• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Word Search

    Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Word Search

    The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is perhaps the most remarkable, certainly the most successful book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor. It is an indispensable companion to any weary traveller roaming the celestial highways. While providing a huge amount of vital galactic information, it is well known to have a hugely popular word search section to help pass the hours while waiting for the next passing spaceship.Till now this section has never been published or even seen on the mostly harmless planet Earth. So, I was very excited to find a battered and …

  • Fun with glass

    Glass duck made at Zoë's Leeds glass studio

    I went to visit my friend Zoë at her stained glass studio in Leeds. Zoë designs and makes beautiful stained glass windows and has done installations in Leeds and all over Yorkshire.

    She was running a glass fusing workshop teaching you how to design and make a glass placemat. My design is of a duck (I'm a bit obsessed with ducks at the moment, but I'll probably get over it). I spent some time getting my design right on paper first before tracing that onto the glass. There are two layers of glass that get melted together in the kiln. There are lots of options of which layer of glass you draw …

  • Criticism

    I’ve played with art through my life, not enough to be a master, but occasionally enough to get better. While studying and practicing art for my A-Levels we were given a still life scene involving a skeleton and some barbed wire to paint. This is the perfect scene for inspiring a teenage artist (far better than fruit).We were being taught by a different teacher than normal. He was a bit intimidating. I wish I could remember his name. All I remember is that he told us that he specialised in punching clay while angry to make sculptures of people. He showed us some pictures of his work and they …

  • Fun colouring in

    I've bought a lovely colouring book from my friend Andy.

     

    To show how much fun I had doing one of the colourings I made this simple stop frame animation of my work. If you'd like to have this much fun, why not buy the Hexjibber Colouring and Activity Book.

  • Snowbots

    Snowbots outside Old Broadcasting House

    The great thaw is upon us now and these snowbots are no more. I've loved the snow, in particular, making stuff out of it. The snowbots are one of my favourite creations. There were a collaboration with the very fine snow artist Squirrel. He created the one on the left, but is also responsible for the eyebrows on mine. We made them while at January's Open Coffee and it was brilliant fun.

    You can see more snowbot photos on Flickr.

  • Draw doodles on Flickr photo

    This is my latest creation using Flash and ActionScript 3. You can draw a lovely doodle on one of your Flickr photos and then save it and send it to your friends.

    It started as a simple doodle program, but I thought adding Flickr photos would make it more fun. It uses the Flickr API to load the photos and a web service I've written in ASP.NET to save and load the doodles.

    I've been sending people Christmas doodles this year as Christmas eCards.

    So, why not go and doodle on your photos and send them to your friends.

  • Kirkstall Festival 2007

    Picture of Pyramid of Arts proudly marching through the streets

    Kirkstall Festival was fantastic this year, and we had good weather for possibly the first time this summer. I'd helped Pyramid of Arts' Youth Group make an armada of sea creatures for the parade. We joined various other groups and schools from Leeds marching through the streets of Kirkstall. Everyone’s work was fantastic, and we were particularly pleased to be given the best group prize for our underwater parade creatures.

    I'd gladly volunteered to play a giant drum in the parade. I like making a lot of noise, but I didn't realise how much pain a drum can cause repeatedly hitting your legs. …

  • Our sculpture on Google Earth

    I've made a 3D model of Pyramid of Arts' sculpture at Thwaite Mill. Pyramid of Arts is an arts charity bringing together artists with and without learning disabilities to work on large scale arts projects.

    I wanted to have an experiment with creating 3D models in Sketch-up and see if I could get it added to Google Earth. Google Earth is a program by Google that displays pictures of the whole world and 3D models of some of it.

    Pyramid made this sculpture about 3 years ago and had just finished it when I joined. It's Pyramid's first permanent work, so it would be really nice if it could be …

  • Making a noise at Thwaite Mill

    I've just recently started leading another art project. This time I'm working with the adult group from Pyramid of Arts. The BBC have very kindly leant us some sound recording equipment. We've used this to record some sounds and we're going to splice them together into something musical.

    We spent the first few weeks of the project exploring sound. Making it, listening to it, drawing it and recording it. We've just got back from a sound recording trip to Thwaite Mill. We recorded a huge array of sounds made by the mill and pretty much anything else we could find that made sounds.

    So, now we' …

  • Mmmmm, Easter egg

    Picture of cracked open easter egg

    For a long time I've felt the Easter eggs you buy in the shops were missing something. There's never enough chocolate, and when I was a kid, the chocolate treats used to be inside.

    This year I decided to make my own. I made a mould out of paper mache and cling-film and coated the inside with chocolate, a lot of chocolate. The finished product was fantastic. It looks a bit like a dinosaur egg, which wasn't quite what I intended, but I think it adds to its charm.

    Next year, I might try and perfect the mould to get a smoother outside. I might also try and make it twice as big. Mmmmmmmmm, …