low-tech, low-res, high-grain

I just got my first batch of photographs back from my tiny Pentax Auto 110 camera and they are really quite exciting. Despite being shot on ridiculously small film, all of which is out-of-date, these photographs have a really lovely quality, even the ones which went wrong:





The colours are surprisingly rich:





And it performs amazingly well in low light:





Overall, I'm very pleased.

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Had a meeting today with the editor of Indicate, a new glasgow-based magazine. There will be a photo-shoot of my jewellery in the next issue! Excitement!!

Nupenny loves you

And I love Nupenny.
Over the last half-year, I've been in intermittent conversation with a unique artist in America, Randy Reiger, creator of the mythical, poetic, nostalgic "NuPenny" series of sculptures, installations and ephemera. His work is quite brilliant and anyone interested in my work will probably find his appealing too, albeit in a very different way. Have a look...

NuPenny toy store.

Randy's Flickr photos.

Photo-essay on the NuPenny toystore.

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Not much to report. I've been in the workshop experimenting with making settings by actually scanning the stones in the digital scanner and then milling them out of wax for casting. Photographs soon.

i put a spell on you - slight return

Finished the ring at last:









Back from a long weekend in Brighton, which was great.

i put a spell on you

I've been working on a new ring over the last few days:



It is to be set with a huge amethyst in the top and red spinels and orange and green garnets round the rest of it. I started setting the amethyst tonight and lost my nerve!

skull-a-day

Featuring my skull pendants!

camera fun

Just over a week ago, I bought a Pentax Auto 110 camera in a charity shop for £10. It is a 110 film camera (110 film is, alas! no longer made) and came with a polythene bag full of lenses and bits. From my endless research over the week, I've discovered that I now own a real classic camera...





I also got all the lenses except one really rare one. It took me a few days to clean everything up and I also ordered an adapter from Taiwan which allows the lenses to be used on my lovely G1 camera:




On the G1 - 70mm lens and Soligor 1.7x f8 Telelconverter; Middle, front to back - 24mm, 18mm, 50mm; On the Pentax Auto 110 - 20-40mm Zoom


The only lens I am missing is the rare Pan Focus 18mm, a fixed-focus lens which turns the camera into a "point and shoot" unit. This seems a bit odd when you consider that this is a 110 camera and is an SLR and almost all 110 cameras were "point and shoot".

I took the cameras out today (and dropped the Auto 110, damaging the motor winder) and tried them out. There is a series of test shots with the G1 here.

I've also been shooting film, which will be interesting when it comes back from processing. It's very odd to have to consider whether a shot is worth taking or not. Eventually, the film will be irreplaceable, though the photography lecturer at work has assured me that it will be possible to refill a 110 cartridge with cut-down bulk film. The most surprising thing about this is that when I was at university, I was such a film obsessive and the idea of PanF, Rodinol, Selenium Toning and Gallerie Matt is actually quite exciting again! In a way - a bit like my work with iron and steel - I need things to be difficult in order to be inspired.

Shots from the G1 with the Auto 110 lenses:

Hello My Dear...

No. I really don't want to marry a Russian beauty, thank you for asking.

two pieces with skulls

Finished not one, but two pieces today. These are available for sale on Etsy.






I really like the blue stone on the second piece, though I have no idea what it is. A RI reading suggested that it is probably glass but it seems very bright and is also very tough (no hint of problems when setting) so it could be an antique "hard paste" stone. No idea where it came from either!