Panels, Silver Diver

A slow day, wanted to take the day a bit easier. Toned the panels and traced over the drawings for the Pat Benatar paintings. Then got to work repairing a sculpture which Paul gave us a few years ago. It was bought second hand, and pardon the pun that it was sold without a right hand. It had broken off in its earlier life. I decided to model a new one.

First I filled the arm hole with Sculptamold, a mix of plaster and paper fragments which is a wonderful material to use. Its only downside is that it has a rough, oat-porridge-like texture, it can't be perfectly smoothed. As a gap filler it's wonderful, and it's very tactile and easy to model with. Then, modelled a hand from grey Milliput. I remember buying a pile of it cheaply, but it's rubbish stuff. The only good Milliput is the fine white, and even that isn't very good. Milliput is often flaky and dry, and a nightmare to mix. It remains flaky and stiff, and can crack and behave in generally horrible ways when using it. It sticks to everything , except itself, and stains everything badly, so it ruins gloves and tools, while falling off the sculpture that it is supposed to grip. I may throw away the lot I have.

Air-dry water-based clay is a little easier to handle but shrinks badly. This doesn't stick to itself (and will fall apart when dry) and has far too many other flaws to be useful professionally - but I use it for lighting models because it is cheap. Oil plasticine (or other oil-based clays) are by far the best thing to model with, but they don't dry. I'd love an oil-based clay which dries very slowly like oil paint. Perhaps a mix of clay, a linseed oil (stand oil?) and a resin, like Laropal A81 in some solvent, might make an interesting material. Would Laropal alone make a clay? It may be too sticky, and this would set by evaporation so may also shrink.

Anyway, the hand was modelled over a few hours to an adequate degree.

It's impossible to match the mirror silver finish, so I've painted it with oil size mixed with mars black, then applied artificial silver leaf. This gives a wrinkled, tin-foil type of finish, but may look better when all dry and cleaned up. While working on it, I pressed too hard and the hand came off (proof that Milliput doesn't stick well, it's also rather weak as a material; almost every other epoxy clay I've tried has been smoother, stronger, and stickier). I glued the hand back with viscous superglue. Now it's all drying.

The Empty House Begins

Work today on a painting called 'The Empty House'. Here's the idea sketch:

First step is to decide on a size, then draw up the full sized version. I thought that a model for lighting might help, so spent a few hours making a model from cardboard, then skinned with air-dried clay. This 'terracotta' clay (it's more like traffic police orange to me) was a gift, I'd normally use white, and normally DAS. This one was too liquid and sticky, and stainy. Awful to use, but I thought this would be a good job for it, to use it up!

Did lots of image collection too, references of textures and objects, all visual materials to set a mood; classical paintings, lightings and textures. Each of these source pieces will seep into the work as I paint it.

Final Gilding, Short Story Edits, Paper Compression

Half of the day spent preparing for artwork for the Oil Art Advisory. Inspected the reliquary and decided to glid a tiny patch which had a fragment where the gold didn't stick. This happens quite a lot, and can be attractive, but here it stood out too much, so I began by gilding that tiny patch.

You might see it as the flaky part in the lower right corner of the door's edge. Then, wrote an owner's manual for the cabinet, and assembled tools for possibly fitting mirror plates to the Monstrance of Life.

Then added all of the artwork text to the appropriate folders, for each artwork. I sometimes need to write information about artworks, descriptions etc. and until now have written these each time. Now I'll file these with the artworks for future re-use. I've also put this on the appropriate web pages. I used to describe a lot there, but gradually let the images speak for themselves for fear of spoiling the mood or surprise. I'm now reversing that. In an era of ubiquitous images, it's good to have more information about each artwork.

After that, refined my short story for the Cheshire Prize for Literature, and developed a new dynamic compressor. My changes to the Stone Compressor did not work, and I happened to think of another, so experimented with it and now this 'Paper Compression' is better than any I've made so far despite being simpler.

The only culture I'm engaging with is 'The Twilight Zone' from 1959, 'The Wheel Tappers and Shunters Social Club' from 1975, Kafka's Diaries from 1911, and Tom Karen's autobiography from across the 20th century.

Kafka and Karen, Prometheus to v3.80

As well as the diaries of Kafka, I'm reading the autobiography of industrial designer, Tom Karen. Amazingly, I discover that the two may be related. Kafka's uncle was married to a Prague Kohn, and Tom Karen's father's family were Kohn's from Czechoslovakia.

Both are inspiring in different ways, I feel a connection to both, perhaps more to Kafka, as perhaps I share an isolation. I am beyond comfortable when alone, for me it is a refuge from anxiety. Karen was a lone refugee, but took part in many things, formed connections and forged a path. I have done this too at times. Perhaps I can again. I seem to have extreme Apollonian and Dionysian personalities, sometimes a mix, sometimes either, but Apollo will take over if a Dionysian extreme threatens health or wellbeing. I can often be manic in a busy work or anxious sense, but never in an unhealthy excess sense, and never depressive.

The Love Reliquary gold is complete. I had a thought that the God Being Killed frame might not be lacquered or varnished in entirety. Some parts are (certainly the figures in the centre of the arch, and I probably added more varnish to other areas), but I failed to record how much and when I did this. If the metal browns, it may be better, as the gold is very bright and I like the idea of a natural decay, so this may suit the artwork, providing the decay is pretty like the browning of copper, and uniform.

I should be writing my short story but yesterday diverged. I've updated Prometheus to v3.80 with little settings for the silence level and length, a setting which was called zerosamples. This feature will shut off a track after so much time of silence to save processing time. A note will re-activate it. These settings set the level and time considered silence. By default I consider one 16-bit sample or lower (somewhere around -50dB) for 1 second silence, but audiobook pauses after noise-gating can lead to longer pauses, hence this setting.

I also tried to fix some aliasing artifacts in my noise gate. Mine is a 'perfect' gate, but I hear slight distorting artifacts as the signal crosses the threshold. I think my processing it too stark and digital. The one in SoundForge seems to add some noise to help mitigate the transitions over the threshold. I also finally framed the 'owl painting' which I have been repairing. This is all a distraction. I should be forging forwards. I, like Kafka in Oct 1911, must write (he did not, the entries so far of a frustrated procrastinator; yet there was a lot of energy and literary sparkle in his diaries).

Much of the last week has been integrating into the Oil Art Advisory, and my works today appear in their newsletter. One exciting element of forging.

Onwards.

Gilding The Reliquary Edges

Started the day trying to write, well partly succeeding, a story for the Cheshire Prize. I'm out of practice.

The gold and oil arrived before lunch, so I decided to gild after. I ordered 250ml of oil. I have in the past ordered more, 500ml or even a litre, but it's one of those products which thickens or sets in the bottle, and the old tin was poorly packaged and a nightmare to pour from. I only used 50ml or so before the rest spoiled, so I elected for a smaller batch. I made a plastic funnel from lighting gel, and poured into 4x30ml solvent-tight amber bottles from Baldwins. This should keep the precious stuff in good order. The rest I left in the tin and sealed it, plus much clingfilm.

Then, gilding, which was also nightmarish when I first tried it many years ago. For my first ever attempt, in 2008 or so, I applied the oil too thickly and didn't wait for it to grow tacky. I applied the gold, which broke and let through some oil. This stained the surface and make my fingers sticky, making everything worse. The oil never set, making all of the gold break, ruining it with yellowy oil, and creating a disaster.

For my second attempt, and the first reliquary, I decided to use epoxy resin as my size, knowing that this sets chemically not by exposure to air. In many ways this was much more successful, though of course, epoxy can yellow, so shouldn't be permitted on the top of the gold. I used a casting resin designed to be more stable. Applying it thinly was very difficult, and of course it grew thicker by the minute, even though it was 12-hour resin. Being a resin glue it had the power to stick everything, such as the work to the floor permanently.

Other problems include the opposite to the first attempt, waiting so long that the oil dried and the gold would not stick. So, I learned that there is an element of exact timing involved. Another problem was the gold itself. The loose leaf took huge skill to handle and manipulate. I was determined to learn, and made my own little bed, and obtained the correct gilder's knife and soft brush for lifting the gold (a gilder's tip). I managed it in the end, but once I had I started to use transfer leaf, which is a joy to use by comparison. One downside to transfer is that it can't as easily cope with lumpy textures and pits, which loose gold be be prodded into. Apart from this, transfer is always better.

I've also tried using PVA, which can be simply called water-based oil size. This works, but isn't brilliant because it dries so quickly. For this, one must apply a little glue, then gold, then glue etc.

So now, I use oil size. The first trick is to make sure the surface is non-absorbent, or else the oil will sink in, so I may apply a sealer first (like acrylic medium or paint). I mix a little oil paint with the size, to more easily see where the transparent oil is applied, and to aid drying, then paint it on the area to gild. I paint it very thinly, as thinly as possible, almost scrubbed in. In no time, a 15 mins, it will be sticky, like the tack on Sellotape, then it's ready to apply gold.

I cut the gold with a rotary blade of the sort used for fabric. This is easier than using a gilder's knife. For transfer leaf, it's a simply matter of picking up the leaves on their backing and applying. For real gold, tools are needed to pick it up. I seem to have better luck with metal tools than the gilder's tip, on which the hairs need some slight grease, traditionally rubbed on from one's forearm. Once set down, real leaf is tamped with something like cotton wool, but the wool strands can glue onto tiny holes where the glue remains and white hairs start to appear, so this is a pain compared to the joy of transfer leaf.

Today I used transfer leaf (23.5kt) and Handover 3-Hour Size, which seems very good. Prior to this I used Robersons Fast Size, and also LeFranc; all equally good.

Now, another lesson (or trick) is to leave it all, complete with flappy bits of gold on the top. Everything should be left for a day or two to fully dry and only then can the bits of gold be brushed off, and perhaps little holes (these are inevitable, and sometimes even part of the aesthetic, allowing organic fragments of undercolour to show through) gilded yet more.

The Love Reliquary Updates Day 2

More work on 'The Love Reliquary' today. Started by neatening the 'tree' stands for attaching to the base, then applied a brown base layer to the door edges.

After that, started some experiments with Laropal A81. It needs a rather strong solvent. For Paraloid B72, I can fill a bottle with crystals and pour in acetone to the top to fill the gaps, and everything will dissolve. Here it seems that half or 40% of crystals are needed, so about 2:1 solvent to crystals. My Diall White Spirit, with about 30% aromatics, didn't seem quite strong enough to dissolve it. I've tried a mix of 2:1 White Spirit:Isopropynol and it seems to be having a better effect. It seems stickier than Paraloid, perhaps a better glue.

Gold is a a record high price, not a good time to be buying gold leaf, though it makes all of my works with gold more valuable. I'll probably gild on Wednesday. I have a small list of art supplies to buy when I can afford it, none are vital.

Meanwhile I need a new job, and perhaps writing something for the Cheshire Prize is a good target. I'm reading Toymaker by Tom Karen, and Kafka's diaries. Both are inspiring. Tom is inspiring me to declutter. Kafka will aid my short story.

Love Reliquary Adjustments

A very full day yesterday assembling lots of art paperwork and 80Mb or so of images for my exciting debut with Oil Art Advisory. I've supplied information about every artwork, written more than perhaps ever about them. I keep lots of technical information, but not so much analysis of the artworks as art, only a few hints about inspirations.

Today, adjusted my website to reflect the new gallery, then went out early with Deb for some shopping. My main job of the day though was an update to The Love Reliquary. I've made a few changes:

First, removing the 'tree' plates which were designed to screw the cabinet to its oak base. These used clay to cover the screws, so this needed to be removed. These plates are now optional, to be fitted when the base requires them.

Then, fitting mirror plates to the rear. I've chosen 4 plates, not 2, as opening the doors means motion, and I don't want the cabinet to wobble.

One final change was working out how to secure the paintings, as these can fall out at times. All three panels (today reminded me) are fixed using magnets, but the magnets are not quite strong enough to hold them firmly. I pondered many different solutions but the simplest was to add another magnet. This is perfect, it's not even permanent, as it can be removed as required.

I've made a special 'key' tool to hook behind the left painting, allowing it to be pulled free. Without this, there would be ne way to remove it. The central panel uses a hole in the rear of the case, and the heart-shaped hole in the right panel can be pulled to remove that.

The extra magnet now means there is a gap between the panel and the box. the wobble annoys me, so I'll need to cut a surround to calm it. I've also ordered more gold size to go with the new gold leaf I ordered on Friday. The gold leaf is now 3 times more expensive as it was the last time I ordered it; for the price of 75 leaves then I now have only 25.

I need to cut this surround (something like a spacer, from board), and some arch-shaped bubble wrap for storage. Then, paint the inner edges with a base in preparation for gilding, which I'll probably do on Wednesday, as I expect the gold and size on Tuesday in the day, which may be too late to begin in these dark days.

Lyric Videos, I Seek My Solace Plaster

Have spent the last couple of days recompiling the 50 or so YouTube 'lyric reading videos' for my albums, and moving these back to the music channel, all helping separate music, visual art and computer games.

Then, a little work on the 'I Seek My Solace' artwork. I've now cast three plaster sheets with different methods. There are many ways to make this backing for the painting. A plaster and slightly wave-like finished was in my mind when conceiving the idea. The ideal way would be to model it in a clay like Plasticine, then make a silicone mould and cast this. This is ideal for mass production but perhaps overkill for one work, and silicone is expensive, and I have none. The reliquary doors used epoxy clay, which is ideal too, but it's very cold for such a material (it's always hard work to mix, but especially so in winter); and it's hard to carve the lettering into epoxy.

In the third sheet I carved the poem while the plaster was semi-dry. This looks good, but the sheet is very delicate. I may be able to do better.

My next task for the month is to record audiobooks, so I may do this. I'm unsure if it's worth it, whether I'll sell a single audiobook, but 21st Century Surrealism has sold over 400 copies now, so it is perhaps worth a try. I'm not particularly looking forward to the job, it feels more like a chore than creative or artistic.

Everything feels a little uncertain, the normal mood for a self-employed self-motivated artist. What is best? I must do my best, every day. Grow, learn. Do better than what has been done before, and keep producing good works to an uncaring world.

It's too snowy to travel, so I can't see Deborah, and we may not get to visit Congleton on Wednesday, though I suspect those ever-busy main roads will be clear.

I Seek My Solace

Today, compiled images to send to a gallery, and once done did some work on 'I Seek My Solace Where Love Lies Lost'. I found a branch of dried wood, very mossy and pretty. I sawed this to make a flat base, then cut and glued it to make a gallows for the panel to hang from. Once dry, I'll preserve it all with Paraloid resin.

Then, cut and drilled a piece of lime wood for the painting panel's rear, and drew out the poem. My plan is to gild this. I may need to enhance the lettering with a dark colour.

My gums are aching aching, despite weeks of meticulous cleaning. The problem which became evident in December seems to be no better.

Making Snowy

Spent much of today creating this fellow for the forthcoming video for 'Will You Be My Snowflake?'. I had a plan for a much simpler digital video, but the idea of a snowman came to be a seemed to be ideal.

My original idea was to photograph the different parts; body, head, hat, and background, and animate each separately in Argus. This worked, but looked rather digital and artificial, slightly less cute, not helped by the dark outer edges.

It has the advantage, however, of gliding and dancing exactly to the music, but only with this viewpoint, I'd have to rephotograph each part for different parts of the song. I'm thinking that a series of full scene photos may work better, like the old 'Jarre's Party' video. While musing on this I finalised the music for a new Flatspace Music Pack, for Another Violet Night

In the evening I sang to Queen songs, and managed the notes of songs like 'Breakthrough' and 'The Show Must Go On'. I can imagine doing this often and growing stronger, but growing stronger seems to be much harder, to take longer and be much harder to maintain, after 50. Yet, this is possible.

Love Reliquary Preparations, All Controlled By Someone Video

Determined today to focus on the 'All Controlled By Someone' video today, and charged into filming Herr Kasperle, the star of the puppet sections. I'll play him in certain parts. Other parts will use Argus. I often feel frustrated at these videos, everything is an artistic compromise; too little time, too few resources, the argument is that any video is better than none. Pushing to limits in these circumstances can be good. I must make it the best I can.

Video lights work best in secondary colours; yellow, cyan, magenta; and the modern LED lights which essentially flicker between primaries to achieve this often look better because fragments of primary leak in at the fringes. A music video really needs cuts every 2 secs; but I rarely have that luxury, rarely have the resources. Still, thanks to Argus I can make objects appear for exact notes.

The next step will feature me as Kasperle. I may need to add more for the sake of variety, though Avisynth is already creaking with one minute of video.

The morning started, however, with weighing and preparations to list The Love Reliquary with Galleria Balmain. Hardly anyone has seen this artwork, one of my best. I can but hope that Colin will help me here.

Onwards I forge.

Art Photography

Today, scanned 3 paintings with my photography and lighting rig, then entered the Castle Park Open. The photography phase alone can take a day, but things are a little faster now. I could still optimise the process if I had the money for more equipment to make the guide runners. After that, photographed my white mouse lamp, ready for listing for sale online. Main job the rest of the month is making music videos for Another Violet Light, including the single release.

Mouse Lamp, Claire Luce 3, Blockx Mars Red and Natural Umber

A slow day yesterday. Confirmed submission of Another Violet Night, this will release on October 31st, and painted a mouse lamp to look like an actual white mouse. The plain lamp was an ugly black resin. I also shaded a study for the cat in 'Can There Be A Refuge' painting.

Today, re-drew a Claire Luce portrait, with shading this time. It seems that a shaded outline works well, and my 0.5mm pencil seems better for this than my usual 0.3mm line drawing pencil. The likeness is much more easily checked and adjusted this way.

Was happily helped to deliver two paintings to Tarporley for the weekend community exhibition there. New paints arrived. Blockx Mars Red is instantly beloved. A fine and powerful red, more violet than Venetian Red, but much redder than Mars Violet. Mars Red and Mars Yellow Orange would make perfect flesh I suspect. Oddly, I use mars violet and light red, and rarely ever involve venetian for flesh, using the still beloved venetian for other 'general red' use (often for my signature). I can see the Mars Red replacing this, especially as the Harding Venetian Red is very fluid, almost watery, like many of his paints. Blockx Natural Umber is indeed a raw umber, rather neutral and green-shaded compared to the Michael Harding version I use in every painting. Blockx Natural is very close in hue to Winsor and Newton Raw Umber Green Shade, though more opaque and a little more granular. I'm less certain if this will replace my invaluable Harding Raw Umber, but I will give it a try when my Harding tube runs out. Every Blockx colour I've used has proved to be lovely, they make the best oil paints.

Also signed a new contract with Galleria Balmain today, and heard that I have at least one poem accepted in the Morecambe Poetry Festival Anthology 2025.

Brigid The Corn Dolly

A punishingly hoy day here, 30 degrees and the hottest of the year so far. I started by updating the music pages on my website with some new code, then making small changes to the Violet Night music, small things based on a first full listen yesterday. I may need to add another track, or at least work on the transition. By 12pm it was too hot to work on the computer.

At 1:30pm I started to pack for the solstice event tomorrow. Deb and I, and a few friends will perform a few things outdoors. We'll have no power, so no keyboards, but I'll bring a guitar, a battery powered amplifier, and a backing track for 'Sunchild'. After 2pm, in the blazing sun, I worked on the lawn on the Brigid the Corn Dolly, sponging it with yellow and orange-browns.

The paint dried in seconds. The card had curled due to the paint, so I wetted the back to curl it back, then added some grass, which has already started to dry out.

It's too hot to work much on the computer, still 26 in here. I'd like to work more on the album art, but am forced to pause.

Corn Dolly, Prometheus v3.70, Art

An artistic get together at Linda's; inspiring and delightful in every way. Like the old art group meetings, I felt pressure to bring some artwork to actually do. It's ironic that I didn't particularly feel like doing art, feeling pressure only because it was described as a drawing/painting day, yet in the end I was the only one who prepared or made any art.

Deb and I will be performing something in a casual way on the solstice, so Deb had the idea of making a 'life sized' corn dolly. In the end it was about 1M or 1.5M tall, and made from a cardboard core, with lots of cardboard strips glued to it to emulate hay. Today I painted it crudely, with cheap paint. I was reminded that a lot of art in medieval times was made for special one-off events, religious celebrations or parades, and so the art was primarily cheap rather than high quality. This is certainly the case here, though of course I did my best given the few hours of time and budget of zero. The dolly (christened Brigid) is intended for one day of use.

I aim to film the Solstice event, so the world can see Brigid then.

I managed a few little jobs. The filing of the remastered Finnegans Judgement EP is complete, and today I updated Prometheus again to fix a bug in the Noise Station 1 importer. I had an idea of releasing the Radioactive theme as part of a war-themed EP. I'd much prefer to remake the music in Prometheus than use Noise Station 1. Technically, the results should sound identical, but there have been years of updates and changes in Prometheus, and it has a less harsh, less tinny sound than Noise Station. I don't mind this, but the limiter and spectrum tools are hugely useful for mastering, and those don't exist in Noise Station.

When updating to v3.70, I added the option to view and change sample loops in either seconds or samples. Until now, all units were in samples, and the boxes were primarily for informational reasons, not really for hand editing.

The days are slow. Being around other artists for a rare time was nice, but reminded me that I'm as unknown and obscure in the art world as perhaps I ever have been, that compared to other full-time artists I barely ever sell paintings and can't seem to find anyone who will exhibit my art in any capacity. I must be doubly grateful for my friends and those who encourage me. I've been far less proactive in visual arts since 2020 when music became more of a passion. I am, I feel, better at painting than ever before, and better at music and every other creative discipline. I must remind myself of these things.

Onwards we roll our heavy rock.

Cardboard Bates Motel

A busy first half of the day, building props for the 'Fear Of The Thing Itself' and 'Norman Bates' videos. Making the Bates Motel was most fun, using cardboard and a glue gun, and few plans. It's more of an imaginary dream version of the Bates Motel rather than a copy; there are merely some similarities:

I made this without much of a plan about where the model will be used in the video, though I imagine it would be in the chorus.

The 'Fear Of The Thing Itself' models were made with a basic storyboard planned. By 3pm I felt so tired I almost fell asleep, and didn't feel like moving until this evening! I've made a basic set, and fixed the broken tripod with the ever-useful Polymorph. A few test scenes looked very good, but the felt model was very hard to control, he kept falling over and was nearly impossible to move or hold firmly to any degree. The scene is also very limited in view, the room is note much bigger than what is visible:

Which, funnily enough, was the case for the 1960s Psycho house, which mostly had a front and left side and nothing else.

Red Cow, Soap, Sofa

A very nice evening at the Red Cow last night; so little has changed since we were last there, but it was a nice to reconnect with the ever-lovely Natalie and Steve. We never seem to have time to talk to everyone, in this case hardly anyone else. The performances were dominated by Nigel and his friends, as we have come to expect, I think he performed 8 songs vs. the 2 that everyone else was allocated. He's a first class performer but I don't really like his music or style, so this aspect of these nights can be a drain.

June Holland's rendition of 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' was stunning, vocals as good as Mariah Carey, but with greater star quality. June's recordings do not do her live performances justice. So much in art is personality and presence; not content, or so much skill. Those who lack this star qualtiy, this 'X Factor', often try to force their work on an audience and wonder why they get so little in return, despite producing pleasant, high quality work. These people will never become stars, but many can eke out a miserable living. Of course, many with the star quality don't make it; but for great success it is essential. The Beatles, above all other factors, above skill and imagination, intelligence and hunger, were successful because of their personality.

I didn't realise it was a 'festive' event, so performed 'Norman Bates' and 'The Arm', rather than anything Christmassy. I rather enjoyed it all and relished the fun aspect of everything. Deb performed a new poem 'Abacus Overload'. She is a natural performer.

Today, a slow day. The day started with a 90 minute Windows update, then a trip to the shops with Deborah. When home I made this soap dish from stainless steel. Soap often melts into a watery mess, so this rack should keep things cleaner.

After than, upholstering my 'Warm Comfy Sofa' model with needle and thread, and updating Argus on Steam.

I'm frustrated with slowness, not moving forwards enough. I must push harder and set more explicit goals.

Video Sculptures, Red Cow Practice

Today, made the start of a new video for Falling Apart Again. Found a small bug in Argus, so fixed that to update it to v1.45.

Then modelled a 'Warm Comfy Sofa', and a Richard Dadd for other videos. Tonight Deb and I will perform at The Red Cow open mic event, so I've created a few sounds for it and practiced a little.

More Square Spoons, Production Work

Three jobs today. first, updated indiesfx.co.uk with the new SFXEngine logo, Bluesky links, and a few other small things. Then making the spoon even more square!

Then, work on yesterday's vocal recordings. Adding these to the tracks involves noise gating, then compression, then editing into sections, and inserting at the right time. A few tracks needed special edits due to mistakes or retakes, just the odd word. All tracks generally have one full take and that's all; we don't record lots of takes (or even two!), but some little mistakes can happen like stutters or misspoken words. Given the tongue-twisting complexity of the words in these it's a testament to Deborah's brilliance as performer that there aren't more retakes. Generally, I say 'go' and everything is done perfectly first time in the right voice and perfect timing.

Adding the words can take time because of the timing, which is quite exact, yet it's not like a pop song where it is 'obvious' where the vocals need to be. The mixing is fairly easy for me now, but hampered at the moment due to my deafness in one ear. This means I simply can't mix at the moment, but I can do this workman-like job of inserting the words and work on the details later.

Today I added words to 'The Cabinet of Dr Eckelmann', 'Kingfisher's Handcup', 'Lilac 12 Fold Dodecahedron', 'We Used to Store Sunlight', 'I Slip Into French Like Tolstoy', and 'The Candle Burns'. Sunlight and Candle are typical Fall in Green fayre of piano, strings and beautiful melodic romance. I like all equally, and strive for that. Kingfisher and Tolstoy show the influence of Björk.

Square Spoons, Ty Pawb, and Vocal Recording

Two very full days, I'm feeling overwhelmed and need to pause. The tracks for the new Fall in Green album are now finalised, there will be 15, though 8 lack vocals as yet. I bought a spoon with the aim of making a square one. Here are the stages of sawing, sanding and carving:

It's not square enough, so I'll do more work on it. Then, a trip to the Ty Pawb Open 2024 opening event. The artwork was great, imaginative and skilled. There were one or two boring landscapes; a portrait, no matter how conventionally done, is always more interesting; but generally, the artwork had huge variety in styles and themes. There were no trending themes or media, it was a wide gamut of media and of theme, but all works skilled and professional looking.

There have been four such open exhibitions and I've featured in three (I didn't apply for the first!) and I feel doubly honoured at this statistic; the quality here is really high.

Today Deb arrived to record vocals for the new album, and we managed 7 tracks before darting out to a Christmas event, a purchase of some 'Alphabetti Spaghetti', and other essential duties. Social duties tonight with a gamer night, my second and perhaps last of the year. Perhaps tomorrow I can start clear the backlog of jobs. I've barely had a few minutes to myself to think, but I know I have messages to respond to. Sisyphus cannot linger. Onwards we much push our weary selves.