Tim Floyd

2012-01-08T10:18:00.010Z

Wild Cherry spoons

A couple of spoons carved from the branch of a felled Wild Cherry tree that I found in a copse bordering Netham Park.

Spoon 1:

Spoon 2:

2011-11-03T18:25:00.006Z

British Summer Time Ends (Photos)

Some snaps of my recent exhibition 'British Summer Time Ends':

Thanks to everyone that came along to see the show.
Special thanks to Ruth for organising the Capacity Bristol project, to Lisa for letting us borrow her van, and to Eve for helping me set up, pack down and for invigilating.

2011-10-18T08:35:00.007+01:00

British Summer Time Ends
A solo show at the Parlour 26-30 October

I've got a little autumnal exhibition on next week. -A lot of the old stuff, a few new ones.

'Assembled using fallen leaves and other found natural materials, the work in this show reflects on the passing of time and the fragility of life.'

26-30 October 2011. Open daily 11-6
The Parlour
31a College Green
Bristol
BS1 5TB

2011-10-17T12:10:00.007+01:00

Still Life with a Skull

My version of Philippe de Champaigne's Still Life with a Skull.

This collage was made using: Purple Sycamore leaves and seed casings, Red Birch bark, Purple Beech leaves, pressed Tulip flowers and strips of paper from a Wasp's nest.

2011-09-29T09:14:00.011+01:00

Sylvan Song at the Nails Gallery

My 'Sylvan Song' sculpture is currently being exhibited at the Nails Gallery (under St. Nick's Market) as part of their 'Paradise' exhibition.

This group show also features the work of: SMUDGE, EDIE OP, JAMES DAW, SIMON UDEN, ERICA SURLA, ALEXIS SNELL, MARY COLLETT, EDWARD TAYLOR, EDITH MEIJERING, KELLY O'GORMAN, CHRISTOPHER EYLES, LIVIU OVIDIU MIRCEA, ROMINA BERENICE CANET, ALESSANDRA BOTTICELLI.

It runs until 20th October.

2011-09-18T14:26:00.004+01:00

Ghost Bikes at The Showroom

The two Ghost Bike sculptures that I made a couple of years ago with my friend Oliver Hayles are currently being exhibited at The Showroom on College Green as part of this years Bristol Cycle Festival.

One of them is prowling in the centre of the room:

The other is stooped in the window offering a bedraggled bouquet to passers-by:

The show includes a library of books, magazines and manuals dedicated to cycling alongside artwork from Boneshaker, Pinhole Pedallers, Papergirl, Cycling Cultures, Dokumenta Ciclista, animation from Tim Wheatley and more.
It runs until Sunday 25th Sept.

2011-08-30T22:42:00.012+01:00

Sylvan Song

The sculpture 'Sylvan Song' comprises of a second-hand, half-size violin and a covering of Silver Birch bark.
I wanted the finished object to look like something that could have been found lying around in the woods and for it to hopefully evoke some of the feelings a person may experience when immersed in the natural world.
Here's a close-up:

Inside the violin is a layer of birch leaves which are visible through the sound holes.

I collected my slivers of bark from fallen and semi-rotten Birch twigs and limbs found in Wales and Bristol.

2011-07-13T10:12:00.003+01:00

Lime Flower Wine
'Municipal Planting Plonk' experiment 4'

Species of Tilia, or Lime tree are commonly found in the urban environment, lining streets and adorning parks. They've been widely planted by local authorities both historically and up to the present.
These trees are characterised by their delicate heart-shaped leaves and by the very sweet scented, yellow flowers which hang down in clusters. The leaves are edible (best picked in the spring when they're young) and the flowers can be dried and used as a herbal tea.
I'm using these blossoms to make a couple of gallons of plonk.

On a sunny, late June afternoon I collected a quantity of flowers from this tree (I think it's Tilia × europaea -the Common Lime) which grows on Brandon Hill in central Bristol:

When collecting the flowers I made sure that alongside the blossoms themselves I collected a number of the bracts that the flowers stem from. The bracts of the Lime tree contain tannins which will benefit the character of the finished wine.

Recipe: (Makes 1 gallon of wine)

Ingredients
roughly 2-3 pints of Lime blossom (with some bracts included)
a gallon of water
1kg castor sugar
1 teaspoon of cold black tea
1 lemon
half tspn yeast nutrient
white wine yeast

Method
Put the flowers and thinly peeled rind from the lemon in a large pan, cover with boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes. Let it cool and leave to steep overnight. Strain the liquid into a second pan, heat it, dissolve in the sugar and add the lemon juice and tea. When cool, put into a demijohn and add the nutrient and yeast. cover the jar with a clean cloth temporarily during the initial frisky fermentation, then after a few days top it up with water and stick on a bung and airlock.
Rack, mature and bottle.

2011-06-23T17:03:00.009+01:00

Easton Arts Trail 2011 photos

Here's a handful of snaps of my stuff at this years Easton Arts Trail.

GREEN(bank) MAN

On Saturday afternoon I headed over to Co-operation road in Greenbank and spray-painted an image of a Green Man on one of the bricked up doorways of the old Elizabeth Shaw chocolate factory.

The foliage and berries of a Hawthorn tree are forming, and being disgorged by the character.

I got my inspiration for this piece from images of traditional Green Man stone carvings and from a row of mature Hawthorne trees that form a border between the chocolate factory and the Bristol to Bath cycle path.

E.C.C group show

I deposited a second disgorger of vegetation in Easton Community centre.
Named 'Briar' and consisting of a Bramble root and Cherry tree bark constructed head, this character has a living thornless Bramble cascading from it's mouth.
It's a re-working/second version of a 2009 piece called 'New Growth'.

Displayed behind this sculpture were four 2D pieces...
'Exhalation'
'Link'
'Ghost' (Linocut version)
'Woodland Burial'

...alongside the small 3D piece 'Coffin Smoother'.

Cheers to Patrick for organising the factory painting opportunity and to Lisa for organising the group exhibition.

2011-06-09T21:08:00.002+01:00

Cabineterpillar

A sculpture I recently fabricated from former furniture for the Eastside Roots community garden centre next to Stapleton Road railway station.

The Cabineterpillar's head features a couple of drawer fronts fixed to a toilet seat:

The wood used to make this piece came from Bristol Wood Recycling Project, from furniture left/abandoned in the street and from the scrap-wood bin in the woodwork room at Inbristol Studios.

Three of the drawers making up the larva's segmented back contain compost and a bark mulch and have been planted with a small, creeping variety of Sedum which has a blueish hue. Hopefully over time these plants will spread across these areas and spill over the edges of the drawers.

Here's a pic showing the sculpture in context with the station platform in the background.

Thanks to everyone at Eastside Roots.

2011-06-08T18:15:00.006+01:00

Coffin Smoother

This sculpture features an old 'coffin smoother' wood plane which I customised with the addition of a resurected corpse -carved from a Plum tree branch, and four coiled wood shavings.

A friend commented that the character looked to her like an Egyptian mummy flinging off it's bandages.

The head and torso of the figure were carved from a freshly cut bit of Plum back in the early spring.

The arms were carved a couple of months later from chunks of the same bit of wood and were then glued onto the body.

The figure in this piece was inspired in part by a striking stone-carving which rests above one of the crypts at Wells Cathedral:

Another of the statues in the cathedral that I particularly appreciated wears a shroud of scratched autographs:

(Cheers to Mike for supplying the log and to Bianca for producing the wood shavings.)

2011-02-27T14:20:00.016Z

Inbristol Studios group show pics

A couple of snaps of the Inbristol studios group exhibition 'Made by Hand' at the Showroom...

...and photos taken of some of the studio members mitts as they go about producing their work. (These pics are displayed in one of the Showroom's windows.)

2011-02-20T19:37:00.009Z

Made by Hand
Inbristol Studios group exhibition

I'm participating in a group show together with people based at Inbristol studios.

A bit of blurb:

A diverse exhibition of hand-crafted work by artists and makers from Inbristol studios.

Thurs 24th February to Saturday 5th March
Open daily from 10-6 (11-5 on Sunday)at the Showroom.

Featuring:
Assemblage, ceramics, collage, furniture, jewelry, painting, printmaking, stone carving, upholstery, wood carving and more.

Live demonstrations:
Leigh-Anne Treadwell will be demonstrating traditional upholstery techniques from 11am onwards Fridays and Saturdays.
Zoe Cameron will be using tangerine peel to make a glove at 4pm on Saturday 26th Feb. She will be continuing with this or embroidering bread at 3pm on Tuesday 1st March.
Tim Floyd will working on a wood carving from 11am on Thursday 24th Feb.

Thanks to Ruth and Bristol City Council Neighbourhood Arts Team.

2011-01-30T21:18:00.006Z

Log mallet

I was shown how to fashion a mallet using this method a couple of years ago whilst doing a green woodworking course. The mallet I produced has since rotted (after being left out in the rain) so I recently made a replacement, photographing the steps as I went.
This is a nice basic woodworking project which doesn't take too long and provides the maker with a good solid tool. Here's how to make one:

Choose a suitable log. (This is a bit of Ash.)

Work out the depth needed to cut into the log so that when sawing around the circumference a central (handle width) circle is left un-cut. The saw blade could be marked with pencil to help judge this.
Then cut around the log's circumference.

Working on a hard surface, use a hammer/mallet and chisel (or a side-axe if you're flash) to remove the wood bit by bit down to the cut.

Work around the handle using the chisel or a knife to round off the surface. A little more careful sawing might be required to cut away slivers of wood-chip.

Get the handle nice and smooth.

Remove the bark if you want to.

The finished implement:

2011-01-09T10:24:00.012Z

Ghost (lino-cut print)

I've recently been working on some lino-cut print versions of my 'beyond the age of motoring' themed image Ghost.
Here's a close-up...

2010-12-16T20:39:00.004Z

Frost fringed Holly

I've been pratting about with some photos I took during the cold snap a week or so ago. The original pics were of Holly leaves that had been encircled by unusual ice crystals.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

2010-11-27T15:44:00.023Z

Milk carton zombie

This puppet was cobbled together from scrap plastic, the majority being old plastic milk cartons.

She was spray-painted green, dressed in a burial gown (an old net curtain from a charity shop) and fitted with LED lights to give her an erie glow:

My friend Rhiannon (who's idea it had been to make these puppets) built a similar ghoulish figure and we used them to do a walkabout performance at the Illuminate festival which took place in St. Georges park at the end of October.

(photograph by Paul Green)

Here's a short video by Keef Chemistry of the puppets in action. (As we wandered round, an MP3 player with a couple of portable mini-speakers played the sound of buzzing flies to add an audible sense of decay to our lumbering corpses. The fly soundtrack has been added to this footage.)

Keef's film of the Illuminate festival (which the above clip was pilfered from) can be viewed here.

Thanks to Phoenix52 for organising the event.

2010-11-22T18:49:00.009Z

Front Room photos

Here are some pics of my stuff in the Shakespeare during this years Totterdown arts trail....

...and at the Totterdown Lights exhibition in the Bocabar:

2010-11-20T13:29:00.010Z

Letters of support needed for the Emporium Gallery and Classics Free Shop

The Emporium and Classics are under threat of eviction.

Testimonials and messages of support can be sent to emporium37@gmail.com

Blurb from press release:

History and Work

These listed buildings are on the Bristol City Council ‘at risk register’. They had both been boarded up, as there were no shop fronts to the buildings. By December 2008 new shop fronts had been built voluntarily by local carpenters using reclaimed timber, windows and doors. Internally the structure of the buildings was strengthened, staircases were installed to access the many levels of the buildings, toilets and plumbing were installed, many of the levels were completely re-floorboarded and several roofs received professional attention to either fix or replace broken tiles or in some cases entire sections of roofing. This has included hundreds of hours of physical and skilled labour, not to mention thousands of pounds garnered through community donations and fundraising, all by volunteers.

Classics – Free Shop

Since opening over two years ago Classics Free Shop has become an increasingly popular community resource, it provides accommodation, workshop spaces, and a thriving ‘free shop’ where people can bring and take away clothes, household goods and books for free. The property has been left to rot by the ‘owners’ and previous owners for decades and it is only down to the hard work of volunteers from within the community that the space is now a flourishing resource for people from all walks of life.

The Emporium – Events Space

The Emporium opened its doors with a flourish, hosting its first event – a photography exhibition, entitled ‘Waiting Rooms’, documenting just these types of empty buildings dotted around the city, advocating their use by local communities rather than lying derelict. Since then nearly 50 events have been held in the space, lasting either a few days, weeks or up to a month. From art exhibitions by local artists to community projects such as the Somalian Youth Group, an Alzeimers Awareness project, grass roots project meetings and discussions, film nights, performances, workshops, these events have all been for free, open to everyone. Thousands of people have come through the door to experience whatever event is occurring, where once the space was full of dead pigeons and used needles. In October 2010 a wheelchair ramp was constructed with the aid of local carpenters to gain access to the 1st floor of the space. A full list of all the events held at the emporium can be found at http://emporium37.wordpress.com along with further information, how to propose to use the space, and how to help defend the space in the legal battle.

Legal Battle

On 9 November 2010 Maggs and Allen, an auctioneers claiming to represent Hong Kong-based Jerwood Trading, appeared at Bristol County Court in an attempt to obtain a possession order for the premises. Fortunately residents of Classics managed to get an adjournment until early December in order to have more time to file a defence.

http://emporium37.wordpress.com

2010-11-11T21:19:00.015Z

Dueling Duchamps wheeled out again.

'Pedal Power' is an exhibition of cycling inspired art at The Showroom, an empty shop at 31 College Green, Bristol.
The exhibition includes customised bikes that were dolled up for Septembers Freewheelin' Carnival alongside other cycling themed artwork that featured in the Bristol Cycle Festival (such as photographic portraits, sculptures, paintings and my Dueling Duchamps installation.)
The show runs from 12- 21 November opening daily 10-6pm.

2010-10-29T19:47:00.004+01:00

Razor Clam nail extentions

These elegant nail extensions were collected and photographed on Saundersfoot beach a couple of days ago.

2010-10-09T12:13:00.011+01:00

Ebb at the Big Draw

A few snaps of my Sweet Chestnut leaf piece 'Ebb' meandering its way around a video projection at the Centrespace gallery's Big Draw exhibition.

2010-09-22T21:47:00.010+01:00

Dueling Duchamps

I made the installation Dueling Duchamps for Bristol Cycle Festival. I wanted to make sculptures that used old bike parts, were musical and were something that people could interact with. My inspirations were Marcel Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel and the Dueling Banjos scene in Deliverance.
Materials included: wheels, forks and strips of inner-tube from broken bikes, 2 secondhand stools, reclaimed wood, bits of plastic from takeaway container lids, various fixings, black paint, glockenspiel note-bars.

Here's the blurb:

'Dueling Duchamps is an interactive, musical art installation consisting of two replicas of Marcel Duchamp’s readymade sculpture ‘Bicycle Wheel’.
When participants rotate the bike wheels, glockenspiel keys between the spokes produce a short but instantly recognisable melody from the piece of music ‘Dueling Banjos’.
The sculptures can be ‘played’ in a call and response fashion with increasing speed to mimic the original tune or simply spun at random to produce a jangling racket.
All are welcome to take part and two hillbillies will be present to supervise and demonstrate these contraptions.'

Here are some photos of the installation set up in Queens Square...

...and next to the upstairs bar in Colston Hall:

The sculptures sort of did what they were supposed to do, although the fact that the 9 note melody produced on rotation tinkled like a music box rather than twanged like a banjo meant that the tune wasn't as immediately recognisable as I'd hoped it would be. People generally seemed to like the installation though, especially the kids, and we got chatting to some sound people at both locations. I enjoyed being dressed as a red-neck in Colston Hall and supping their overpriced beer out of a jam jar.

Cheers to bearded hillbilly Matt for helping me out with this project.

http://www.timfloyd.co.uk/duelingduchamps.htm

2010-08-27T12:19:00.004+01:00

Exhalation

This collage was made with a burr Oak veneer (the background), European Oak veneer and Oak leaves.

The dimensions are 40x50cm.
Here's a closer look at the leaves:

2010-08-26T10:00:00.012+01:00

Rugosa Rosehip Wine
'Municipal Planting Plonk' experiment 3'

Rosa Rugosa is another favourite of municipal planting schemes that I'm going to try making a batch of wine from.
From Wikipedia:
"(the Rugosa) is widely used in landscaping, being relatively tough and trouble-free. Needing little maintenance, it is suitable for planting in large numbers; its salt-tolerance makes it useful for planting beside roads which need deicing with salt regularly."

It's edible fruits are larger than those of our native rose varieties and are therefore easier to collect in the volumes needed for wine making. They ripen around August and September.
Last week I wandered along to the Eastgate Retail Park to forage for some.

I'm using a variation of a Rose hip wine recipe from Suzanne Beedell's book 'Pick, Cook & Brew (Food from the hedgerows):

Ingredients
roughly a gallon of rose hips
a gallon of water
1kg castor sugar
1 tablespoon of cold black tea
1 lemon
1 orange
1 tspn yeast nutrient
1 tspn pectolase
1 crushed campden tablet
white wine yeast

Method
Wash the berries then crush them well before pouring boiling water over them. Use non-metal containers and equipment. When they are cool add the thinly peeled rind and the juice of the citrus fruit alongside the tea, campden tablet and pectolase. Leave for 24 hours, stiring occasionally. Strain the liquid into a pan, warm it and disolve in the sugar. When cool, put into a fermentation jar and add the nutrient and yeast. cover the jar with a clean cloth temporarily while the fermentation gets going (see pic), then after a few days top it up with water and stick on a bung and airlock.

Here's a link to the Rosa Rugosa 'Plants for a Future' database entry.

2010-08-23T13:23:00.008+01:00

Inhabitant of the Hurtling Corridor
11-12th Aug 2010

A continuation of my 'Inhabitant of the Bristol Wilds' project in which I've been staying in green spaces in east Bristol for 24 hour periods and making sculptures in situ, using natural materials that occur abundantly in these locations.

My temporary home on this occasion was the middle of a large wooded round-about at the point where the M32 motorway meets the M4.

The sculpture's a bit daft looking.
It was made by weaving together the stems of some of the Ivy that covers the ground and the trees in this spot.

It's tash/teeth combination are made from the the dead flower-heads of Knapweed:

It's eyeballs are old, weather-bleached snail shells.
I carefully tied them onto the Ivy structure using stinging nettle fibres which I'd previously stripped from nettle stems and then hung on a branch to dry in the wind:

It's eyebrows were made from nettle fibre too.

During the night I was hoping to see a bit of a light-show courtesy of the Perseid meteor shower and opted to sleep in a bivi-bag with my head out in the open. I had a reasonable view of the night sky and spent ages peering, squinting and craning but didn't see a single meteor. I slept really badly and had a pretty shoddy night all in all.

2010-07-26T18:04:00.009+01:00

Mummified Ferret

Some oddbod has displayed the mummified remains of a ferret in the branches of a small Blackthorn tree next to one of the footpaths up on Purdown. I passed it earlier today and had to stop and take a few snaps of its grisly little frame.

2010-07-22T13:44:00.011+01:00

Highland cow planter

Back in May I built this planter for the Eastside Roots community garden centre up at Stapleton Road railway station. It's made from re-claimed wood, some from Bristol Wood Recycling Project and some just scavenged off the streets.
The beast's rump is made from a broken chair I found in a local park. It's back is alive with grasses and (what I think are) Crocosmias. It's muzzle is tucking into a tyre full of cornflower plants.

I'd originally planned to make the planter in the shape of a dog, but from the outset it looked nothing like a dog, much more bovine than canine, so I went with it and the sculpture became a highland cow.

Thanks to Eastside Roots, to Matt and James for their help building the thing, to James Adamson for planting it up, to Jake and Fran for 'moral support' and to the young lad pictured here who came to the Eastside Roots Spring Fair with his mum and helped us do some painting and whack a whole load of nails in:

2010-06-19T12:13:00.004+01:00

Ebb (framed collage)

A collage based on my Sweet Chestnut leaf piece 'Ebb'.
The skeletal fish are set back from the picture frames glass by about a centimetre to allow some of the leaf veins to lift up slightly and to give the vague impression of a museum specimen cabinet.

2010-06-18T18:47:00.011+01:00

Mahonia wine
'Municipal Planting Plonk' experiment 2

Mahonia Aquifolium or the 'Oregon-grape' is a common garden shrub which is frequently used for municipal planting schemes as it needs little maintenance. Mahonia shrubs have edible fruits which are fairly low in natural sugars and contain comparatively large seeds. They're not great for eating but I thought I'd have a go at making wine with some.

There's several well established bushes next to the entrance to Broadmead shopping centre's car park in central Bristol. During a hot spell at the end of May I visited Broadmead and collected around 4 and a half pounds of berries.
They were convenient to forage, being at an accessible height with the fruit growing along rope-like stems that are easily harvested.

Making the plonk:

Ingredients
roughly 4.5lb. Mahonia berries
around 3lb castor sugar
2 tablespoons of cold black tea
half a teaspoon of yeast nutrient
a gallon of water
red wine yeast

Method
I poured boiling water over the berries until they were submerged then left them to steep for a few days, mashing them occasionally. They were then strained. The juice was heated, the sugar dissolved in and the tea added. When it had cooled I strained the mixture into a demijohn, added yeast and nutrient and put in a bit more water so that the container was about 3 quarters full. I covered the demijohn with a tea-towel temporarily while the fermentation got going (see blurry pic below), then after a few days topped it up with water and stuck on a bung and airlock.

2010-06-16T21:19:00.003+01:00

Easton Arts Trail 2010

At this years Easton Arts Trail I contributed to the group show at St. Marks Baptist Church. My stuff was clustered around a stone that was laid there by Mr Samuel Iles back in 1911.

I exhibited the following things:
(each of the titles links to a previous blog post with a bit of info about that particular piece.)
1. Link lino-cut print 2010
2. Core wood-carving 2010
3. Twilight collage 2010
4. Black Horizon collage 2010
5. Miner screen-print 2009
6. Tributary wood-carving 2010

I also took a few unframed prints down there and temporarily 'planted' an Oak sapling next to my work.

Thanks to Julie, Jo, and our hosts at the Baptist Church.

2010-05-31T11:27:00.002+01:00

Black Horizon

This collage was made using Sweet Chestnut leaves and paint on paper.

2010-05-28T11:38:00.008+01:00

Twilight

This collage was made using Birch bark, Birch leaves, Hawthorn leaves and Broom seed casings on paper.

Update 16/6/10
I've now added a grey background to this image after my girlfriend Eve told me that the picture looked a little un-finnished against the original white paper. I also crushed some Mahonia berries and used the strained juice to paint a streak of shadow beneath the toppled skull.

2010-05-27T17:43:00.022+01:00

Inhabitants at the Emporium
Stick Figures exhibition

My Stick Figures exhibition featured an ongoing project 'Inhabitant of the Bristol wilds'.

Here's the blurb:
'In the late summer and early autumn of 2009 I temporarily inhabited four ‘wild’ locations in east Bristol.
My aim was to spend a 24 hour period at each of these green spaces and whilst there, to assemble sculptures consisting of natural materials that occur abundantly in and around the locations.
The sites I chose were all situated within the boundary of the city of Bristol. I selected them so that each had a slightly different habitat and would therefore yeild differing materials for the construction of the four sculptures.
The pieces I produced were made to loosely resemble the un-earthed remains of fictitious, historical inhabitants of the area.
Alongside building these sculptures I took photographs, made notes detailing some of the flora present and drew maps of the sites.
I slept in a different type of rudimentary shelter at each of the locations.'

Below are pics of the sculptures:

Islander

Made from: Ivy stems, Hazel twigs, Hazel nut shells, Oak galls, Nettle fibres, Ash sapling driftwood.
Tools used: A Swiss army knife.
My shelter: A hammock.

Caveman

Made from: Stones, Beech nut casings, Bramble fibres, Bramble twig, Blackberry juice, Snail shells.
Tools used: Stones.
My shelter: A cave.

Highlander

Made from: Oak branch section.
Tools used: Saw, chisels, mallet.
My shelter: Under a 'space blanket' in a thicket.

Woodsman

Made from: Roe Deer skull, Alder roots, Hawthorn wood.
Tools used: An axe.
My shelter: A half-arsed bivouac.

Each sculpture was exhibited alongside snaps of the location, the shelter I slept in, the tools I used and a photographic representation of the habitat.
My plan now is to work on continuing the documentation of this project, resulting in some kind of comic/map hybrid detailing each piece.

2010-05-14T21:08:00.008+01:00

Tributary
Stick Figures exhibition

Back in January I cycled up to Purdown and cut myself a section off a fallen branch that's been lying under one of the old Oak trees for a year or two. The log that I took home had seasoned naturally and I set about carving it into this piece. I saved the chips and fragments that came off it to be incorporated into the sculpture (by scattering them in a heap around it's base).

The following text and photograph accompanied this sculpture:

Tributary 2010

Made with an Oak log obtained from Purdown.

2010-05-09T18:37:00.006+01:00

Rebuild
Stick Figures exhibition

'Rebuild' was created using the Hazel poles (and twiggy branches) of my geodesic dome. As with the dome the various sections were tied together with old bike inner-tubes.

My intention was to make an archway that could be walked through when entering the exhibition space. The resulting construction looked a little like a pair of human lungs.

The following text and photograph accompanied this piece:

Rebuild 2009/10

(Re-arranged geodesic dome.) Made with lengths of Hazel coppiced in woodland next to the Bristol to Bath cycle path and next to Crew's Hole and old bicycle inner-tubes from Kebele bike workshop.

2010-05-02T16:23:00.008+01:00

It's Curtains
Stick Figures exhibition

The young twigs cut from Dogwood shrubs have a flexibility to them similar to Willow. I collected a few bundles of these sticks during the early spring and worked them into hoops which fitted together to form a red 'curtain'. Into this I placed a couple of dead Fatsia Japonica leaves that were cut to resemble human hands with their stems resembling the bones of the arms.

The following text and photograph accompanied this sculpture:

It's Curtains 2010

Made with Dogwood collected from Crew's Hole and the Bristol to Bath cycle path, Ash found next to the cycle path and Fatsia Japonica leaves picked up Lewins Mead and Cumberland road.

2010-04-28T18:13:00.009+01:00

Link
Stick Figures exhibition

A lino-cut image printed on cardboard (2010) in a restored Oak frame.

2010-04-27T19:45:00.019+01:00

Ebb
Stick Figures exhibition

'Ebb' comprised of a shoal of fish skeletons that were fashioned from Sweet Chestnut leaves picked up last autumn.
My winter evenings regularly involved the fiddly process of prizing the sections of foliage away to reveal a bony structure. I reckon that for every fish that made it onto the wall around five were cock-ups and ended up back outside with all the other fallen leaves.

The following text and photograph accompanied this piece:

Ebb 2009/10

Made with Sweet Chestnut leaves that were gathered in Netham park and Eastville park and disected using my mits and gnashers.

2010-04-25T10:49:00.010+01:00

Ghost Bikes
Stick Figures exhibition

The two Ghost Bike sculptures that my friend Oliver Hayles and myself constructed last summer had a little room of their own. I created an installation which had them prowling around in a darken chamber with the unsettling clamour of rooks bickering as a soundtrack.

The following text and photograph accompanied these sculptures:

Ghost Bikes 2009
A collaboration with sculptor Oliver Hayles

Made with broken and discarded bicycles that were found on the streets of Bristol, in vegetation next to the cycle path and abandoned at the Magpie.

2010-04-24T20:50:00.009+01:00

Decomposing Disc Jockey
Stick Figures exhibition

The Rotter was only intended to be positioned in a corner, clawing at 78's, for the shows opening night (when we had a bit of music.)

It seemed a shame to dismantle it the next day though, so it ended up skulking at the back of the room for the rest of the week.

2010-04-23T12:57:00.006+01:00

Wraith
Stick Figures exhibition

I decided to doll up my Wraith for this show by dangling a light bulb inside it's cranial cavity.

The next snap was taken from the back of the sculpture looking into the room through it's hollow eye sockets:

The following text and photograph accompanied this piece:

Wraith 2009/10
Made with Holly gathered in St. Georges park and Eastville park and Ivy collected from Albion road.

2010-04-22T22:50:00.003+01:00

Core
Stick Figures exhibition

The sculpture 'Core' is a combination of carved apple wood and woven twigs, all of which were cut from the mature apple tree that grows on our allotment.

I whittled the five individual sections that fit together to form the face just after the wood had been cut. At this stage it was still very green and easy to work with. The finished pieces were rubbed with olive oil on several occasions to prevent them from drying out too quickly and splitting. The pupils of the eyes are circles of the tree's bark which were left attached to the wood.
The wooden 'bones' and surrounding basket-like structure were finally mounted on a white-painted board.

The following text and photograph accompanied this sculpture:

Core 2010
Made with wood and twigs harvested from an apple tree on my plot at Royate Hill allotments.

2010-04-21T08:46:00.007+01:00

Ghost 2010
Stick Figures exhibition

This replica of my illustration 'Ghost' was doodled onto one of the Emporium's windows using paint-marker:

Stokes Croft reflected in the window:

2010-04-19T20:41:00.020+01:00

Stick Figures show: pics

Over the next few days I'll be sharing snaps of last weeks exhibition at the Emporium.
These first three give an overall impression of how the space looked:
(There was a recording of a dawn chorus playing on loop in this room.)

I plan to follow this post with some that concentrate on individual pieces of artwork that featured in the show.

2010-03-26T11:27:00.007Z

I've had a pretty hectic couple of months getting new artwork together for a show I'm doing in mid April.
Here are the details:

Tim Floyd solo show – Stick Figures

'Stick Figures' is a collection of new sculptures and installations that pay homage to the continuous natural processes of decay and regeneration and the relationships between human beings and our surrounding environment.
The materials used to construct this artwork have been found in and foraged from the local woodlands, scrublands and byways of east Bristol. Some materials have been chanced upon whilst walking or cycling, some gleaned whilst immersing myself for 24 hour periods in four of the city's 'wilder' locations, some have been grown and harvested on my allotment.
'Stick Figures' features: sculpture, drawing, photography, twigs, logs, leaves, bones, forgotten bicycles, wooden eyeballs, lumbering limbs and the unsettling sound of Rooks bickering.
The show runs from Saturday 10th – Saturday 17th April 2010. 10am – 6pm daily. (Except for Sunday 11/4/10, 2pm – 6pm.)
There'll be an opening preview on Friday 9th 7pm – 10pm with drinks, snacks and decomposing disc jockey.
Venue: The Emporium
37, Stokes Croft
Bristol
I look forward to seeing you there.

2010-02-04T16:11:00.008Z

Grapplers

My friend Rhiannon recently put on an exhibition at Colston Hall called 'British Wrestling Legends'. It documented the golden age of British pro-wrestling and included Mad Eli's collection of photos and memorabilia.
I worked with Rhiannon to sketch four portraits of oldendays wrestling stars onto the windows with blue paint-markers.

We tackled Catweazle:

Kendo Nagasaki:

Mitzi Mueller:

and Crusher Mason:

Here's a close up of Brian Mason's bonce:

(Cheers to Rhiannon and Zoe)

2010-01-31T16:41:00.020Z

Pine Needle Wine

Update 2011
Both of these wines have matured in their bottles and on tasting, neither taste particularly nice. If anyone has read this blog post and is considering trying these recipes I'd advise against it.

Continuing with the evergreen theme I'm having a go at making wine with pine needles foraged from the cycle path:

...and Greenbank cemetary:

I collected about a lb. and a half of needles from each location. They were quick and easy to collect which is what you want on a cold winters afternoon.

I tried two different techniques to make my wine. Both variations combined recipes I found for Pine needle tea and for Oak leaf wine. The raw needles themselves were quite pleasant to chew and are apparently riddled with vitamin c.

Recipe 1

Ingredients
roughly 1.5lb. Pine needles
around 2.5lb or 1kg demarara sugar
1 lemon
1 orange
2 tablespoons of cold black tea
half a teaspoon of yeast nutrient
a gallon of water
white wine yeast

Method
I cut the needles into inch long segments, removing any bits of wood that were attached, then boiled them for about 20 minutes in half a gallon of water. I left them to steep for a few days then strained and reheated the liquid. When it started to simmer I disolved the sugar in it. The fruit was carefully peeled (avoiding the white pith which has a bitter taste) and juiced. These were then added in along with the tea. When it had cooled I strained the mixture into a demijohn, added yeast and nutrient and put in a bit more water so that the container was about 3 quarters full. I covered the demijohn temporarily while the fermentation got going, then after a few days topped it up with water and stuck on a bung and airlock.

Recipe 2

Ingredients
roughly 1.5lb. Pine needles
around 2.5lb or 1kg castor sugar
2 lemons
2 tablespoons of cold black tea
a gallon of water
white wine yeast

Method
I left the needles intact for this second attempt. They were rinsed then submerged in half a gallon of boiling water. They were then left to steep and I gave them a daily pummeling with a potato masher to try and extract more flavour (I'm not sure how effective this was though.) After a few days I strained and reheated the liqid and proceeded as I did with the first recipe.

When the yeast started to get to work on this grimey liquid it looked something like fizzy ditch water.

As with the Christmas tree wine, these recipes are a bit of an experiment. I've no idea how they'll turn out. If the wines don't have any flavour when I rack them off into their second demijohns I might drop a ball of pine resin in with one of them to try and achieve a Retsina-like taste.

Update July 2010
I've just racked both lots of wine off into their secondary demijohns. Whilst doing this I dropped an infant pine pine cone (like the ones pictured below) into 'Recipe 1' for added resinousness. (The cone was submerged in boiling water beforehand as a precaution against bacterial infection to the wine.)

2010-01-19T21:13:00.015Z

Xmas tree wine

This time last year I used salvaged, post-xmas detritus to build a rocket stove.
This year (inspired by the likes of Spruce beer, Retsina and herbal cough medicines) I decided to make a conifer themed beverage using one of the many Christmas trees that show up on the pavements in early January.

Christmas tree wine:
I found a discarded specimen of the 'Abies Nordmanniana' species of Fur which still looked fairly fresh and whose needles I thought would be suitable for flavouring my wine.
I took the tree home and set about stripping it of its needles until I got bored. At that point I had roughly half Lb/0.2 Kg of needles which I then put into a pan, covered with 2.5 litres of boiling water and left to steep for a few days.
The needles were strained out and I re-heated the remaining liquid, dissolving 1Kg of castor sugar in it. The juice and rind of 1 lemon and a couple of table spoons of black tea went in too. When the mixture had cooled to body temperature I strained it into a demijohn, added some white wine yeast, filled the jar to the neck with water and stuck on a bung and air-lock.
Now it's just a matter of waiting for the fermentation to run its course, although looking at it, there's not much action. In hindsight I think I should have added some yeast nutrient too.??

This wine is a bit of an experiment and I don't really have high expectations for it. It could end up tasting of nothing, or like turpentine or toothpaste or something. It might surprise me though.

A drink from the fur-tree cup:
Getting a bit carried away with myself I decided to carve a goblet from which to sup the finished brew next winter. I chose another Abies Nordmanniana and cut a section off the bottom of it's trunk.

The bowl of this goblet was carved out using my new 'Crooked knife' which is similar to the one endorsed by Ray Mears on his Canada series. I used a saw, hammer, chisel and pen knife to tackle the rest of it.
I oiled the goblet a couple of times whilst working on it and again after I'd finished but the things started to crack already. Maybe it's down to the temperature changes it's encountered or maybe this type of wood's just no good for carving. I may try patching up the cracks with something at a later date.

2009-12-27T21:41:00.010Z

A befuddled mutt

My Dad asked me to do a portrait of his young short-haired Collie 'Bryn'.
The dog often wears a perplexed expression like the one in this drawing.

2009-12-16T22:17:00.014Z

Plunge

A supple limb extends from the edge of Grove Wood and propelled by the storm-swollen Frome, strikes an erratic rhythm.

(Filmed in Bristol at the end of a very wet November)

2009-12-09T13:19:00.006Z

Wraith
-A holly and Ivy festive phantom.

This yuletide wreath was built from sprigs of Holly and shoots of Ivy collected in east Bristol.
Oldendays folklore had it that during the winter months when many plants die off or lie dormant, those evergreen species such as Holly, Ivy and Yew that persisted would invite good luck upon the householder that hung them indoors. These plants served as symbols for the strength of life and a reminder that the new growth of spring was not far away.

'Wraith' is currently suspended above the fireplace at Cafe kino, 3 Nine Tree Hill (just off the Stokes Croft/Ashley Rd/Cheltenham Rd junction.)
Kino is a not-for-profit co-operative owned and operated by its workers and run in part by volunteers. They do excellent vegetarian and vegan foods and drinks at reasonable prices.

Thanks to Lucy and Cafe Kino.

2009-11-23T17:33:00.009Z

Inhabitant of the Bristol Wilds. -photos

A new project I'm working on. Here are some snaps:

Islander

Caveman

Highlander

Woodsman

2009-11-19T21:12:00.009Z

Autumn foraging roundup. (Foraged Sept/Oct)

Fruit:

Nuts:

2009-10-21T12:56:00.015+01:00

Rowan Berry Wine
'Municipal Planting Plonk' experiment 1'

The Rowan tree (also known as Mountain Ash) is widely used for municipal planting. It can be a prolific fruiter and it's berries hang in bunches making them easy to harvest. They taste minging.

As these berries are so abundant, dangling in clusters over many of our city streets, I thought it'd be a shame not to use them for something. I decided to have a go at making wine with them reasoning that their acrid flavour will mellow after a long sugary fementation.

My berries were collected from Clarence road in Easton. I gave them a good rinse and after getting rid of stalks and bad ones I was left with somewhere between 2 and 3 pounds of fruit. These were put in a pan and boiling water was poured over them until they were submerged. They were left in the pan of water for a couple of days, occasionally mashed and stirred, then the resulting pulp was strained through muslin to extract the juice which looked like flat Tizer.

The juice went into a sterilized fermentation jar with a couple of tablespoons of black tea (for it's tanin), a syrup of castor sugar (1kg) dissolved in boiling water went in next, then a bit more water was added to fill the jar to about 3 quarters full. White wine yeast was added when the mixture had cooled to luke-warm.
The fermentation is pretty lively at the moment so there's just a bit of muslin covering the demijohn. Things should calm down after a couple of days and at that point I'll fill the jar to the neck with extra water and add a bung and air lock.
Over the months the plonk will ferment to a finish, I'll rack it into a second jar then eventually bottle it in something like 9-12 months time.

(The 'Transport' font used for the above label is the same one that's used on UK road signs. It can be downloaded here.)

2009-09-30T23:31:00.008+01:00

Geodesic Dome -Part 5

My dome is being used by Trapese Popular Education Collective as part of the Platform exhibition 'C Words' (a two-month investigation into carbon, climate, capital and culture) which takes place at the Arnolfini during October and November.

Trapese are going to be running three day schools titled 'START PRODUCING THE FUTURE' -"A potent mix of inspiring workshops for collectively changing our world."
Day 1- LIVING SUSTAINABLY, ORGANISING CO-OPERATIVELY, (17.10.09)
Day 2 INSPIRING CHANGE AND LEARNING TOGETHER, (31.10.09)
Day 3 DIRECT ACTION: ORDINARY PEOPLE DOING EXTRAORDINARY THINGS, (14.11.09)
A full programme can be seen here.

I was asked to add a door to the structure so people can easily access the radical library that will be housed within. I thought that some Ash poles (with their bark removed to expose the white wood) would make a nice contrast to the Hazel dome struts.
It's not the right time of year for coppicing but I was able to collect some lengths of Ash that had been previously cut (by Bristol City Council?) and left lying around in woodland bordering Netham Park.

A draw knife was used to shave off the bark.

I decided to tackle the construction of the door at the venue itself. The various parts of the dome were transported to the gallery by bike using this bike trailer:

Eve and Natasha helped me to put the dome up and cut and tie strips of bike inner tube around the joints where the struts meet. I was given a hand making the door by Charles, one of Arnolfini's resident technicians.

Cheers to Eve, Natasha, Steve, Alice, Charles, James and Jane from Platform and whoever kindly lent us the bike trailer.

UPDATE 29/10/09
Here's a nice snap of the dome from last Saturday's paper:

2009-09-07T19:09:00.009+01:00

Making the Ghost Bike sculptures

Following on from the previous post, here are a series of photos showing how we made our 'Ghost Bike' skeletons. -To start with I collected discarded and unwanted bikes/bike parts and transported them to my studio on my bike.

When I had enough to work with I cut them up into suitably shaped pieces using an angle grinder.

We then took the pieces over to Oliver's studio and he welded the parts together....

... to form a couple of skeletal figures.

Next they were spray-painted white...

... and a couple of days later, placed in location at the Shambala Festival.

(Cheers to Oliver, Sally, Rick, Scouse Paul and Ben/the Magpie.)

2009-09-01T14:49:00.012+01:00

Ghost Bikes

I've recently been working on a couple of sculptures in colaboration with my friend Oliver Hayles. The two pieces we produced were part of the art trail at this years Shambala Festival.

These skeletal figures were inspired by Ray Harihaussen's animated figures, fairground ghost-train rides and ghost bike memorials. Their 'bones' are pieces of abandoned, broken and unwanted bicycles.

The first Ghost Bike clutched half a crumpled bicycle and was seen lurking in the bushes next to a pathway leading into the festivals woodland area.

The second character held a staff and stood forlornly in the river that leads out to the lake.

The figures both had rear reflectors for eyes. The water based one also had a white wheel reflector as a mouth. When a photo was taken using a flash they glowed quite nicely.

We recieved some nice feedback and comments about these two spooks. A chap who had been working as a steward on the bridge next to the watery Bike Ghost told me that to him they looked as if abandoned bikes that had been dumped in the lake had joined together to form entities that haunted the surrounding area, which is sort of the impression I wanted to create with them.

At some point over the next few days I'll write a little bit about how we made the sculptures.

2009-08-15T22:29:00.009+01:00

Bound

This series of photos of the sculpture 'Bound' show the progress of Bindweed as it climbs the (Fatsia Japonica leaf) arm, flourishes and dies.

The piece was a bit of an experiment. I'm planning on doing more stuff with Bindweed at some point in the future.

In her book 'Wild Flowers', Anne Pratt says of Bindweed:

'Like many other climbing plants, our flower shows a remarkable instinct of vegetation. If a prop be placed within six inches of one of its young shoots, it will reach it, although the prop be removed daily to a little distance. If after having twined some way up the pole, it be unwound and twisted in an opposite direction, it will either return to its former position, or perish in the attempt. Yet if two of these plants be placed near each other, and have no prop around which to entwine, one of them will alter the direction of its spiral, and they will wind round each other.'

2009-08-11T13:29:00.005+01:00

Miner

Dynamic accumulators are plants that mine nutrients from the soil through their roots. When these plants decay these nutrients are then made available to other species around them.

My 'Miner' series of screen-prints illustrate the ability of Dandelions to extract the elements Sodium, Magnesium, Potassium, Calcium, Iron, Copper, Silicon and Phosphorus from the soil.

A couple of larger images of prints can be seen here:
http://timfloyd.co.uk/Detail22.htm

I gave most of the prints a light dusting of spraypaint to give the impression of soil/grit/minerals.

2009-07-29T09:55:00.014+01:00

July Foraging Round-up.

Rock Samphire
At the begining of July I got the train down to the Devon sea-side town of Dawlish to collect Rock Samphire. There's an abundance of this distinctive plant growing round those parts and I harvested young leaves to be pickled.

A view of Dawlish from up on the cliffs.

Rock Samphire growing out of the sea wall.

Heather Tea
I collected Heather blossoms from Troopers Hill which is carpeted in the stuff. The dried flowers can be used to make a subtly flavoured but refreshing herbal tea. (I've found that you need to put quite a lot in your cup -about the equivalent of 6 to 8 teaspoons.)

Wild plums
Over the past 3 weeks there's been branch-drooping quantities of fruit ripening on a couple of wild plum trees that grow next to the cycle-path. Eve and myself have been up there a couple of times to pick some. They've been eaten raw, made into iced-lollies and used by Eve to flavour tarts and make jam (The pectin that's used to help solidify the jam can be obtained from the stones of the plums themselves. -A muslin bag containing a handfull of plum stones is suspended in the simmering fruit pulp/sugar mix in order to extract it.)

Here is a recipe for making wild plum iced-lollies:

*Frost-bitten Plums*

Ingredients: Wild plums, water, sugar, brandy.
After rinsing your plums, put them into a pan, pour boiling water over them to cover and leave to simmer for around 10 minutes. Next pulverize your plums with a potato masher, then cover the pan and leave to cool overnight. Strain the pans contents through a piece of muslin or a jelly bag.

The resulting liquid will be quite concentrated in flavour and of a vivid red colour.
To make the iced lollies, mix this juice 50/50 with water and add sugar and brandy to taste (I added 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 of brandy for every 100ml of water/juice mixture.) then pour into lolly moulds and freeze.

Sour Times
My attempt at making Broom ale was a failure. It started off smelling and tasting vaguely like beer but subsequently took on a cider-ish sourness. It's just about drinkable but I doubt the barrel will get finished. I think it must have been tainted by a bacterial infection when I added finnings (to clarify the ale) late on in the fermentation. Next time around I'll make a smaller batch so that if I cock things up it wouldn't be such a waste.

2009-07-20T11:33:00.017+01:00

Watering-can rocket stove

This rocket stove was made from an old watering-can, a chocolate tin, four baked bean tins and a dog food tin. It's insulated with vermiculite.

With tin snips I cut the top off the can and used the semi-circular piece of metal to cover the hole to the spout. I also shortened the spout.

Three (415g) 'baked bean tin' sized tins were fitted together to make the chimney, elbow and fuel magazine of the stove in a similar fashion to the construction of my olive tin stove.

The lid of the chocolate tin had a circular hole cut in its centre to accommodate the chimney. It was then pushed snugly into position to seal off the top of the stove.

Another hole (the size of a dog-food tin) was cut in the back of the watering can to allow me to poke around inside and assemble the internal parts.

I used this same hole to fill the stove with vermiculite, then sealed it off with the base of the dog food tin.

The fourth baked bean tin was flattened and and used to make a fuel shelf which was fitted into the stoves fuel magazine.

Finally I cut the bottom off the chocolate tin, then used the tin as a skirt to hold the pan in place over the chimney and to keep heat focussed around it.
The spout of the can has the potential to be used as a storage space for a wooden spoon or some other utensil.

UPDATE 29/07/09
The chocolate tin 'skirt' has a tendancy to be a bit wobbly so to stabilise it I attached a spring to the side of the watering-can that can be hooked/unhooked onto a bolt on the tins side.
(The local hardware store didn't have any metal washers of the right size for the bolt on the stove. Instead they let me have a couple of their key-cutting bodge-ups to use as impriovised washers.)

2009-07-12T11:27:00.014+01:00

Herbarium Archive

I've finally finished the boring process of sorting, editing and uploading photos of the Stokes Croft Herbarium exhibition onto the Blogspot page I put together for it.
There are now photos of all the pieces of artwork and all the plants alongside the text each had relating to them in the exhibitions program.

I tried to make the exhibition accessible and used the common rather than latin names of the plants on display. The text about the various plants was generally a sentence or two of trivia about that particular species.
I also wanted to make the show multi-sensory. Visitors were encouraged to smell (Gorse flowers at nose height), touch (Nettle fibres and the leaves of 'Lambs Ears'), taste (Evie Wonder's wild food cookery and Nettle beer were available to sample), listen (Evie Wonder's audio recording of 'Adelaide Place') as well as look at the artwork and plants.

The artwork itself was varied in style but I think it worked well together. Between them, the pieces portrayed the natural processes of decay and re-generation, growth, abundance and diversity found within the plant kingdom.

http://stokescroftherbarium.blogspot.com

2009-07-04T10:39:00.013+01:00

Wild Cherry Wine

The fruits of the Wild Cherry trees growing beside the Cycle-path have ripened nicely over the last week. I picked a load for wine-making using the following recipe (which I adapted from a recipe I found in Suzanne Beedell's book 'Pick, Cook and Brew Food from the hedgerows')

roughly 3lb or 1.5kg cleaned and stalked cherries
around 2.5lb or 1kg demarara sugar
a teaspoon of pectolase
a level teaspoon of yeast nutrient
a gallon of water
red wine yeast

Put the cherries in a large pan, pour boiling water over them to cover and simmer for ten minutes or so. Let it cool, add the pectolase and leave covered to soak for 1.5 - 2 days. Make a syrup using the sugar and a couple of pints of boiling water, let it cool, strain and press the fruit juice into into it, add the yeast nutrient, stir, then sprinkle in the yeast. After about 15 minutes stir in the yeast, pour the mixture into a sterilized fermentation jar and add water to fill the vessel. Attach a bung and airlock, ferment to a finish, rack, mature and bottle.

I decided to put in less sugar than Suzanne Beedell's recipe in order to achieve a dry rather than sweet wine. I'll find out if it tastes ok in a years time.

2009-06-26T16:14:00.010+01:00

Gangrene Tea

Oldendays British folklore had it that bringing Hawthorn blossom into the house would bring sickness and death with it. This may be attributed to the fact that their scent is similar to the smell of gangrenous flesh (apparently).

Hawthorn blossom or 'Mayflowers' can be found in abundance beside the Cycle-path during the month of May and I collected a load to be dried and used as a herbal tea.

They were scattered on newspaper and left for just over a month to dry at the bottom of my wardrobe:

Then stuck into jars for storage:

A heaped teaspoon of the dried flowers in a cup of boiling water makes a brew with a flavour like the gangrene whiff you get from the fresh blossoms.

In herbalism the active ingredients in Hawthorn flowers are: tannins, flavonoids, essential oil, triterpene-carbonic acids and purine derivatives. They can be useful in the treatment of anxiety, appetite loss and various heart and circulatory problems.

2009-06-24T18:26:00.010+01:00

Easton Arts Trail '09
-Hemisphere Installation

The geodesic dome (with accompanying 'canopy') that I've just finished making was my contribution towards a collaborative installation with poet and textile artist Baljinder Bhopal.

Baljinder re-tailored clothes and created textile pieces that were attached to and and hung from the dome. Her materials were sourced from the ‘rejects’ of a local charity shop on St. Marks Road. These un-sellable clothes and pieces of fabric were transformed and given value again by cutting, sewing, and adding decorative elements to them.

Here's a snap of the (part covered) dome with the Eastside Roots shipping container and St. Marks church in the background.

And a snap taken facing the other direction towards the wooden shelter.

This is the blurb from the Arts trail website:

"The Guardian newspaper recently stated that “15 of the world’s biggest ships may now emit as much pollution as all the world’s 760 million cars.” This installation focuses on the movement of consumer products around the planet. The artists, Tim Floyd and Baljinder Bhopal, intend to mix together locally sourced sustainable materials with materials that have been shipped around the globe, used and discarded in this unique installation. They intend to avoid the use of fossil fuels in the process of construction. Hand tools will be used to build the structure and all the materials will be collected by hand and transported to the site by bicycle."

Here's a link to the Guardian article mentioned above:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping-pollution

The Story of Stuff animated documentary film is a (slightly annoyingly presented but very informative) 'look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns.'

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

The documentary film Manufactured Landscapes about the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky contains striking imagery showing the production of consumer goods and the disposal of decommissioned ships.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufactured_Landscapes

Thanks to Eastside Roots.

http://www.eastsideroots.org.uk

2009-06-23T18:14:00.027+01:00

Easton Arts Trail '09
-Easton Community Centre Group Show

This years Easton Arts Trail took place over the weekend of the 20th and 21st June. There was loads going on and I had a top couple of days. My artwork was split between Easton Community Centre and Eastside Roots Community Gardening Hub.

The stuff I had at the Community Centre included:

Stinger Resurrected

I dragged the sculpture 'Stinger' (which was part of a nettle themed installation at last years Arts Trail) out again for this years trail and and planted it up with fresh nettles. The head is woven entirely out of nettle stems and fibres.

Bloom

My little swamp-beast character 'Bloom' was positioned in front of a wooden backdrop which has an image of clouds and rain burnt onto it. The sculpture was made back around 2003 out of wood, algae and found organic debris.

Shoesect

'Shoesect' lay on a surface of grey tiles dusted with talc masquerading as bug powder. This sculpture was made in 2006 out of and old shoe, shoelaces, wire, glue, felt and spraypaint.

Invasive Species

The two photos above show a new sculpture titled 'Invasive Species'. I found the shell of an old TV on the pavement round the corner from my house and thought I'd have a bit of fun with it. Where the screen used to be I've placed the dried seed-head of a Giant Hogweed -a particularly nasty introduced weed due to its phototoxic properties and invasive nature. The TV's exterior was painted black and it's interior space covered with black felt.

Next to the TV I hung my mobile/sculpture entitled 'Us'. The characters were made in 2002 from found natural materials and the Blackthorn cross that they hang from was added in 2008.

Ghost

I had a couple of 2D pieces in the Community Centre. -This image 'Ghost' was drawn with Biro on watercolour paper.

Portrait of a Rotter

-A digital photo printed on watercolour paper and set in a re-claimed frame.

Bound

Not a great picture of another recently made sculpture. 'Bound' consists of an old chocolate tin which was spray-painted purpleviolet, then filled with soil, compost, several Black Bindweed plants and a couple of dried Fatsia Japonica leaves that were cut to resemble human hands.
I plan to take a series of snaps of this sculpture over the coming weeks as the Bindweed climbs up to and over the upper hand. I'll post em up on this blog at some point.

Battenberglars

This final picture shows a quickly doodled little piece I made a couple of years ago from Post-it notes with images drawn in Biro. These were stuck to the wall in a corner of the Community Centre.

2009-06-20T13:25:00.010+01:00

Geodesic Dome -Part 4

Between the Cycle-path and St. Phillips Causeway in Lawrence Hill sits this little patch of woodland:

A while ago some of the Hazel and Ash growing there had been cut back, presumably by the council, and there's now several large piles of branches scattered about. From these piles I collected some of the Hazel pieces and added them to my dome to give the impression of a natural canopy.

2009-06-17T20:20:00.016+01:00

Geodesic Dome -Part 3

Putting up the dome: Today I bungeed the struts I made at the end of May onto the back of my bike and wheeled them to the Eastside Roots Community Gardening Hub up at Stapleton Road Station to construct my dome.

To Join the struts together, I tied them with strips cut from a load of damaged bike innertubes kindly given to me by Kebele Bike Workshop.

The following series of photos show the dome in various stages of its assembly on the decking at Eastside Roots. It was a lot easier to put together than I'd anticipated and despite the grim weather, went up relatively quickly.

Thanks to Eve, Nick, Eastside Roots and Kebele Bike Workshop.

2009-05-31T12:12:00.022+01:00

Broom Brew

Troopers Hill nature reserve is unique among Bristol's open spaces because of its heathland habitat. It's home to burrowing Mining Bees and there's an abundance of Heather and Broom growing across the site.

The Broom is currently in flower and I took a little stroll around the hill on Friday to collect some to make Broom Ale with.

I'm following a recipe from Stephen Harrod Buhner's book 'Sacred and herbal Healing Beers'. I've made nettle beer a few times before but this is my first attempt at an ale. I'm not sure what it'll be like. Here it is in a bucket just after the yeast was added:

2009-05-29T10:42:00.016+01:00

Geodesic Dome -Part 2

This week I've been doing a bit more work on the geodesic dome I'm attempting to construct.

I cut the lengths of Hazel that I harvested a few months back to the sizes needed to form the struts. There's 35 struts at 117.4cm in length and 30 at 103.8cm. I used a tape-measure to size the pieces, a Swiss army knife to mark them, then cut them with a pannel saw trying to be as accurate as possible with the lengths.

I used a brace with a 2mm bit to drill holes in either end of each pole and then fitted eyelet screws to them.

When assembling the dome, the plan is to use strips of old bike inner-tubes threaded through these eyelets and tied together as a way of connecting the struts.

2009-05-09T18:21:00.009+01:00

New Growth (Version 1)

I made this version of 'New Growth' to be exhibited in the Stokes Croft Herbarium exhibition. Materials include: Brambles and Bramble roots, various other found natural materials, chicken wire and paper torn from the Financial Times.

I'm pleased with the creature's chirpy yet deranged facial expression but want to have another go at sculpting the body. I plan to do a re-working and produce a second version of it during the coming months using more bramble roots and incorporating some spider plants.

As with my sculpture 'Downfall', the bull skull section of this piece was made using copies of the Financial Times published in late September and early October 2008 (a time when the collapse of the banking industry and subsequent bailout plans were at their height.)

2009-04-29T16:14:00.010+01:00

Phytoremediation

Phytoremediation is the name given to the process of removing man-made contaminants from the environment through the use of living plants or trees grown in situ.

This illustration entitled 'Phytoremediation', was drawn directly onto one of the inside walls of the Emporium (using paint-markers and a bit of spraypaint) and was one of two pieces I put into the 'Stokes Croft Herbarium' exhibition. It illustrates (In a fairly abstracted way) the use of the Poplar tree to extract heavy metal contaminents from the soil.

Larger versions of these images can be seen by clicking here.

2009-04-27T20:33:00.013+01:00

'Come hither mortal caft a eye

Then go thy way prepare to di

Read here thy doom for know thou muft

One day like me be turnd to duft'. . .

. . . reads the inscription on the gravestone below:

'Death calld for me To-day tis true

To-morrow -he may call for you.' . . .

. . . reads this next one:

I've been told by a couple of different people about the ace old tombstones in the graveyard of St. Andrews church in Clevedon.

Eve, Scouse Paul and myself spent an afternoon down that way last weekend and we found the 'Old Church' by chance. I got pretty excited thinking that this must be the place I'd heard about and sped off round the gravestones in a bit of a frenzy, something like Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, until I located these gravestones.

I love the skull, crossbones and hourglass motifs. Here are some more skulls from other graves:

St. Andrews church can be found to the west of the village on Clevedon Point. If you're stood facing the sea, follow the coastal path round to the left and you'll get to the churchyard. The tombstones pictured in these photos are round the front by the churchs entrance.

About quarter of a mile away, the Moon and Sixpence has a balcony that overlooks Clevedon's Victorian pier, -a good spot for an afternoon pint.

2009-04-23T13:22:00.013+01:00

The Stokes Croft Herbarium

Below are some snaps of the 'Stokes Croft Herbarium' exhibition which I've spent the last couple of months organising and which recently ran for a week or so at The Emporium on Stokes Croft. This group show featured the artwork of Andy Council, Chris 'Cavetroll' Drury, Evie Wonder, Nicky Cornwell and myself alongside an array of plants.

The blurb: "The ‘Stokes Croft Herbarium’ exhibition mingles together plant specimens with works of art that draw their influence from the plant kingdom -creating the impression of a botanical garden/art gallery hybrid."

The exhibition has a dedicated blogspot page and I'm planning on uploading images and descriptions of the artwork and plants to this soon:

http://stokescroftherbarium.blogspot.com/

2009-03-26T16:07:00.010Z

The 'Tripe Pipe' Rocket stove

Last weekend and the weekend before I ran a couple of rocket stove building workshops. One at the Eastside Roots community garden centre at Stapleton Road station and the other at Transition BS3's community smallholding on Bedminster Down 'C' allotments.

The workshops proved to be quite hazardous -several lacerations were incurred to fingers and an arm up at Stapleton Road station and a compost heap was accidentally ignited down in Bemmie.

Here's a snap of my 'chocolate box rocket' being used to boil water for brews:

I made an A4 sheet of instructions for the workshop participants which is now available on the download section of my website. I called this particular stove design the 'Tripe Pipe Rocket Stove' because it makes use of 3 large dog food tins to form the stove's chimney, combustion chamber and fuel magazine:

A photo of a finnished stove:

2009-02-25T18:42:00.012Z

Brambles as a resource.

Eve and myself have been up on our allotment brandishing a brush cutter, garden fork, spade and secateurs in an attempt to oust the brambles that have pervaded the upper half of our land.

As well as doing away with these interlopers from the areas we'd like to cultivate, I've been looking at ways in which our bramble/blackberry plants can be used productively.

Right at the top of our plot we've left a dense strip (about one and a half metres wide) of brambles untouched to serve as a natural fence, wildlife habitat and blackberry foraging site.

I've been collecting the roots we've dug up and plan to use them to form part of a sculpture I'm working on.

Some of these roots have had young shoots emerging from them:

These shoots are edible and have a nutty, slightly bitter flavour.

Small pieces of the dead bramble stalks can make good kindling for lighting a rocket stove. Larger, woody chunks of stalk can be used as fuel for the stove:

The Plants For A Future database entry for Blackberry mentions that "A decoction of the leaves is useful as a gargle in treating thrush and also makes a good general mouthwash." and also that "A purple to dull blue dye is obtained from the fruit." and "A fibre is obtained from the stem and used to make twine."

2009-02-22T11:31:00.019Z

The Great Carrier Bag Wave.

Further out to sea from the location of Hokusai's Great Wave lies the North Pacific Gyre. This vortex of ocean currents is also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch due to the exceptionally high concentrations of suspended plastic and other man-made debris in the water.

I spent Friday and Sunday afternoon copying a section of Hokusai's woodblock print onto the window of InBristol's Salisbury Street studio. In 'The Great Carrier Bag Wave' I've replaced the boats with strips of plastic carrier bags to represent some of the estimated 100 million tons of debris that's polluting the area.

Some larger pics of this drawing (showing it in it's entirety) can be seen here.

These two photos of doodling in progress were taken by Eve Houston:

Here's a little snap of some Hokusai inspired waves I drew on the window of my friend Mel's house during the 2006 St. Werburghs art trail:

2009-02-16T18:12:00.007Z

Geodesic Dome -Part 1

A little project I'm having a go at this spring is building a 2V geodesic dome. I plan to make the dome from locally sourced, sustainable materials and re-claimed waste materials. I also want to try to avoid the use of fossil fuels in the process of it's construction -including the collection and transportation of the materials.

An online dome calculator was used to work out the size of the struts.
To make a dome with a radius of 190cm I'll need 35 Struts at 117.43 cm and 30 Struts at 103.84 cm.

I decided to use lengths of Hazel for the struts and during January and early February I scurried around in the woods in various areas of east Bristol collecting straight, solid poles.

I asked a couple of people about coppicing techniques and was told that making clean cuts close to the bottom of the trees should encourage fresh growth from the base. I was also advised to cut at an angle so that water doesn't collect on the sawn bit of wood and lead to rot.

My poles were obtained a few at a time and transported by bike. They're currently in my shed drying out for a bit before I cut them to size.

2009-02-06T12:37:00.012Z

Snow Dome

Yesterday I built an unauthorised dwelling on 'our land' in contravention of condition 6 of our tenancy agreement.

It was a stupidly cramped and uncomfortable structure to sit in.

This is the view from the inside looking out:

Here are some mystery markings in the snow at the allotments -some kind of avian imprints, and what could have made the question mark shape ????

2009-02-01T16:30:00.005Z

Our Land

A few snaps of the allotment we've just taken on.
The paperwork's being sorted out at the moment, we've got the keys to the allotment gate and we've spent a bit of time up there.

Our plot is situated on a steep south facing slope. Here's a view taken from about halfway up:

A view from the top looking down:

And a snap of some of the brambles we've got to contend with:

2009-01-25T16:14:00.011Z

Paper Brain.

Here's a bit of fake origami I rustled up for my double-bass playing friend Sneaky. He asked me to fold a brain to be used as an illustration for his track 'Mental Origami'.
I found an amazing example of an origami brain on the internet that had been created by Brian Chan using an uncut square piece of paper. There's no way I'd be able to manage such a complex model so I cheated by sticking together lots of individually creased bits of paper. My paper came from a 1942 motor vechicle manual and the Reader's Digest complete library of the garden. The finnished thing was photographed and photoshopped by my friend Ben Page.

Below is a logo I designed for Sneaky about a year ago.

UPDATE June 2010 Here's the printed record label:

2009-01-15T13:27:00.013Z

Chocolate box rocket.

A key element of Larry Winiarski's rocket stove design is that it can be easily constructed from locally sourced low-cost materials or junk materials such as tin cans, old stovepipes, and scrap metal.

The traditional festive recreation of slobbering around on low quality sweets means that come January there's an abundance of tins that are suitable for stove making. The tins used to make the 'chocolate box rocket' were left out on the streets of St.George for the recycling collection.

This stove's body is made from three stacked chocolate tins (the upper two with their bottoms removed.) The chimney and fuel magazine comprise of 3 baked bean tins assembled in a similar way to those in my olive tin stove. A strip of metal cut from one of the spare lids sits inside the horizontal bean tin to act as a fuel shelf. The stove is insulated with vermiculite.

An extra tin (and the lip of it's lid) is added to suspend a pan just above the chimney and to act as a 'heat exchanger'.

2009-01-14T16:16:00.011Z

Foraging for wildfoods on the cycle-path. -Some conclusions.

During 2008 I made monthly trips onto the Bristol to Bath cycle-path to rummage around on the verges and in adjacent wild areas in search of edible plants. I started foraging in January with a very basic knowledge of a few edibles, a rocket stove for cooking on location and Richard Mabey's book 'Food for Free' to refer to. Eve has accompanied me on most of these outings. Over the year we've become more familiar with some of the South West's native plant and tree species.

Some things I've learnt whilst foraging:

Bristol has it's own Onion.
Anything that's been battered and deep-fried is gonna taste good. (Comfrey leaves, Dandelion flowers, Elderflowers, Mars bars and so on.)
'Pick, Cook and Brew food from the hedgerows' by Suzanne Beedell is a top wildfood recipe book that includes loads of wine and beer recipes. (It's out of print but easy enough to obtain second-hand.)
Shaggy Ink Caps turn swiftly into sludge if they're not eaten straight after picking.
Home-made Elderflower cordial is well worth the effort.
The chopped leaf stalks of Alexanders make a great pizza topping.
Jelly Ear fungi have a tendancy to jump out of frying pans.
Ash twigs are an ideal fuel for a small rocket stove.

The logical next step after experimenting with wild food foraging is to get an allotment and have a go at growing some of these 'weeds' on it. Eve and myself are in the process of obtaining an allotment close to the cycle-path and plan to give this a try.

2008-12-30T22:40:00.021Z

December Cycle-path forage.

Eve accompanied me on the last of what have been monthyly forays onto the Bristol to Bath cycle-path to grope around in the bushes for wild foodstuffs.
We took with us a rocket stove and water and brewed a tea on the bench that overlooks Packers Field allotments.
This tea was made with a handful of crushed pine needles . . .

. . . and a couple of the young, small leaves of Tansy:

I thought the taste of pine coupled with a hint of aromatic Tansy might make a good Christmasy brew but the pine flavour turned out to be a bit weak.

Tansy should only really be used in small quantities. The Plants for a future entry for it states that: 'Tansy should be used with caution, however, it is possibly unsafe for internal use, especially if you are pregnant. The essential oil in the leaves is toxic and as little as ½oz can kill an adult.'

On our walk we also collected some bits and bobs to be used as pizza toppings back home. These included the stalks and young leaves of Alexanders . . .

White Dead-nettle leaves . . .

Daisy leaves . . .

Sticky Willy (Cleavers). . .

. . . and a couple of sprigs of Savory.

As we walked along the cycle-path from the Brixton road entrance to Packers Field allotments we saw that someone had stuck a load of posters up offering health advice to smokers:

A cheap, shop-brought pizza garnished with hedgerow fodder:

2008-12-29T15:34:00.007Z

Mr. Potato Dead

Before Christmas I made some 'Mr. Potato Head' inspired zombie facial features from Fimo modeling clay as presents for a couple of my friend's kids.
Here are the body parts, including a couple of eyeballs oozing out of their sockets:

Here's a blurred snap of a zombie potato:

I recon a forgotten, wrinkled potato with shoots sprouting from its skin would make a particularly nice zombie head to add features to.

2008-12-14T18:55:00.038Z

12 Days of Xmas

Here are some pictures and details of the artwork I've got upstairs at the 12 Days of Xmas exhibition on Stokes Croft.

It's a pleasure to be involved in this show which has a strong DIY ethic and features the work of around 60 artists. I'd certainly recommend heading down there and taking a little look round:

It's open 12pm-7pm everyday until 23rd December. -19 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3PY.

At the top of my section of wallspace hangs the Birch bark sculpture 'Silver Lady':

Under that is the photogram 'Woodland Burial'

Next to that is a 'Portrait of a Rotter'

'Feel like a king...' sits below:

Elsewhere in the room is the sculpture 'Downfall' (mentioned in the previous blog post) . . .

. . . and my 'Rotter' sculpture is lurking around with a sprig of mistletoe hanging from it's left mitt. Here it is silhoetted against the windows:

2008-12-12T15:59:00.007Z

Downfall

I've just finnished assembling the sculpture 'Downfall' and left it to dangle at the 12 Days of Xmas exhibition on Stokes Croft.

The dimensions of the piece are roughly 1m x 1m x 1m. It's designed to be suspended about 6ft above the ground to give the impression that it's plummeting down to earth.

I made it from old copies of the Financial Times published in late September and early October this year (a time when the collapse of the banking industry and subsequent bailout plans were at their height.) Bits of the newspaper were glued over a frame fashioned out of chicken-wire.

Here's a close-up of the piece:

The United States and the European Union have so far allocated $4100 billion to bail out the banking industry from a financial crisis that the banks themselves created.

2008-12-11T12:49:00.006Z

Free M32 Orchard cards in Breadolution

Last week I had some copies of my 'New Found Land' M32 Orchard cards printed. There's now a load of them in our local bakery Breadolution free for people to take away.

Breadolution is at 427 Stapleton Road, Easton, Bristol

2008-11-30T20:24:00.019Z

M32 Orchard card -free to download/print

I've just added a seasonal greetings card to the Download section of my website.
It's a picture of the M32 motorway transformed into a snow-covered orchard and is a combination of linocut print and drawing.

A bit of text on the back of the card reads:

‘New Found Land’ Snow falling on the Newfoundland Way stretch of the M32 Orchard.
The apple trees of this linear orchard run the length of the former motorway from Bristol city centre to Winterbourne.
The area pictured (by St. Agnes church) is maintained and harvested by residents of St. Pauls, St. Agnes and Easton.