About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts

Monday, September 22, 2025

M is for Meet Stiggy the Coo!

Mentioning both Highland Cattle and the Spring fair, as I was in the previous post, how about a bit of high-art! This sculpture was just on display, and while not promoting a business, one assumes the Artist - Meg Hawkins - was hoping for a corporate commission or two, from all the rep's wandering around?
 
He's actually Stiggy the Half-Coo, as his hindquarters are hidden in the boxed RSJ, and I forgot to take a close-up of his story, well, I didn't actually notice it until I was cropping the image, five minutes ago! But, he's figural, and I thought he was rather nice!
 

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

T is for There Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens

I was apologising to a correspondent and regular Blog Fan, the other day, for leaving not one but two poultry posts at the top of the home-page for three months (an irony in itself as the fascist Folgor once accused me of only posting 'cartoon mice and ducks' or something similar!), when he suggested I'd have been better-off calling the second one "There's nobody here but us chickens", which gave me this great idea!

I will get back in to posting in a week or so, one can't mope forever, but in the meantime; here are those chickens . . . 

Carved Ivory; Colonialism; Elephant Ivory; Farm and Zoo; Farm Animals; Farm Chicks; Farming Figures & Animals; Forbidden Ivory; Ivory Animals; Ivory Birds; Ivory Carvings; Ivory Chicks; Ivory Cock; Ivory Cockerel; Ivory Hens; Ivory Poultry; Mounted Ivory; Poultry Models; Wages of Sin;

Carved Ivory; Colonialism; Elephant Ivory; Farm and Zoo; Farm Animals; Farm Chicks; Farming Figures & Animals; Forbidden Ivory; Ivory Animals; Ivory Birds; Ivory Carvings; Ivory Chicks; Ivory Cock; Ivory Cockerel; Ivory Hens; Ivory Poultry; Mounted Ivory; Poultry Models; Wages of Sin;

Carved Ivory; Colonialism; Elephant Ivory; Farm and Zoo; Farm Animals; Farm Chicks; Farming Figures & Animals; Forbidden Ivory; Ivory Animals; Ivory Birds; Ivory Carvings; Ivory Chicks; Ivory Cock; Ivory Cockerel; Ivory Hens; Ivory Poultry; Mounted Ivory; Poultry Models; Wages of Sin;

They are some of the finest ivory carving you're likely to see, each pegged to the stand with a separate rod of ivory, funny stuff these days as you can't buy it, and you can't sell it, for perfectly obvious and 'good' reasons, so you can only enjoy the surviving stuff from yesteryear, while hopefully remaining conscious of what was wrong with it all along . . . Trump's Mid-West matrons might still believe in the Old Testament's invitation to us to hold dominion over everything, but it hasn't worked out that well has it?

About a perfect 54mm compatible, the cock slightly larger (but more fluffed-up) than the Britains' ones, it's an odd game of pooh-sticks isn't it, which will come first; the last living elephant or the loss of the right to even own something like this?

Cheers Andy!

One night farmer Brown was takin' the airs
Locked up the barnyard with the greatest of care
Down in the hen house, somethin' stirred
When he shouted, "Who's there?"
This is what he heard

“There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
So calm yourself and stop that fuss
There ain't nobody here but us
We chickens tryin' to sleep and you butt in
And hobble, hobble hobble hobble with your chin”

“There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
You're stompin' around and shakin' the ground
You're kickin' up an awful dust
We chicken's tryin' to sleep and you butt in
And hobble, hobble hobble hobble, it's a sin”

“Tomorrow is a busy day
We got things to do, We got eggs to lay
We got ground to dig and worms to scratch
It takes a lot of settin', gettin' chicks to hatch”

“Ohh, there ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
So quiet yourself and stop that fuss
There ain't nobody here but us
Kindly point that gun the other way
And hobble, hobble hobble off and hit the hay”

“Tomorrow is a busy day
We got things to do, we got eggs to lay
We got ground to dig and worms to scratch
It takes a lot of settin', gettin' chicks to hatch”

“There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
So quiet yourself and stop that fuss
There ain't nobody here but us
And kindly point that gun the other way
And hobble, hobble hobble off and hit the hay”

“Hey, hey, boss man, what do ya say?
It's easy pickings
Ain't nobody here but us chickens”

Carved Ivory; Colonialism; Elephant Ivory; Farm and Zoo; Farm Animals; Farm Chicks; Farming Figures & Animals; Forbidden Ivory; Ivory Animals; Ivory Birds; Ivory Carvings; Ivory Chicks; Ivory Cock; Ivory Cockerel; Ivory Hens; Ivory Poultry; Mounted Ivory; Poultry Models; Wages of Sin; Britains Poultry; Britains Farm; Britains Hen; Britains Chickens;

Late shot - Britains hen comparison

Thursday, April 18, 2019

E is for Eggtastic!

Kicking-off a small Easter season, or small season of Easter posts? Anyway, these are old Hungarian egg-painting designs, recorded in the main cultural museum in Hungary which I did name in the past but can't find the notes for! It'll be their equivalent of the V&A or 'British' in London or New York's Metropolitan.

Craft Art; Craft Eggs; Decorated Easter Eggs; Decorated Eggs; Decorations; Easter Crafts; Easter Egg Art; Easter Egg Designs; Easter Eggs; Easter Folk Art; Egg Art Designs; Folk Art; Folk Art Eggs; Hungarian Craft; Hungarian Folk Art; Hungarian National Museum Collection; National Craft; Painted Easter Eggs; Painted Eggs; Red & White Designs; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
Strange how reminiscent of some other tribal art - from all over the world - some of these designs are, while the pointillist or stippled hatching is very like some Australian native work. I think I like the oak-leaf design (dead centre) most.

Craft Art; Craft Eggs; Decorated Easter Eggs; Decorated Eggs; Decorations; Easter Crafts; Easter Egg Art; Easter Egg Designs; Easter Eggs; Easter Folk Art; Egg Art Designs; Folk Art; Folk Art Eggs; Hungarian Craft; Hungarian Folk Art; Hungarian National Museum Collection; National Craft; Painted Easter Eggs; Painted Eggs; Red & White Designs; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
Slightly more geometric and/or repeat or mirror designs in red and white, whether they painted the eggs red or white before putting the other colour on, or if they are single colour designs for white or brown eggs is not so clear, but I suspect they are meant to be two colours, as the little kids/infants could block-in and feel they'd helped, while older kids or adults could do the intricate work in a second colour?

My favourite is probably the top-left one, which is another very Aboriginal-looking design.

Have an Eggtastic Easter loyal readers!

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

News, Views Etc . . . Catching-up

Couple of Links - Soldiers in Art

Mitchell Gaudet's glass 'toy soldier' sculp

More painted 'army men' in art - no artist, this is commercial 'home-decor' four-hundred and sixty-quid; I'm in the wrong business!

-------------------------------------

Barney's site's news!

"We are delighted to announce that we have been chosen to sell a substantial plastics collection on behalf of London collector, Roger Saunders. It is a fabulous single-owner collection of mainly plastic toy soldiers, by Britains and Herald, a feature of which is the large number of early trade boxes and packaging, with many rare gems. Most of the collection was amassed by Roger during the 1970's and has only now come to market for the very first time. There are a number of rare and sought after items and we have listed the first few (farm) models today with many more to follow over the coming weeks."

Monday, March 4, 2019

News, Views Etc . . . Catch-up!

Obviously the garden has not the same appeal this week as it had last week! Nice to see TJF's little friend making friends with the rest of the gang over the weekend, should have paid more attention to me two year's ago, would have saved a lot of damage, but hey-ho, some people prefer their train-wreaks in slow motion, witness Brwreakshit!

London Toy Fair Reports 2019  - Bandai
Next London Toy Fair post was sent to those who know best!

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2019/02/bandais-thunderbirds-are-go-at-london.html

Outrage
The Daily Wail getting hysterical . . . again! What would they have made of Yorkville's Importhaus! The Mirror joined-in because nobody does outrage like the Tabloids! Still, unaffordable publicity for PSR - Go Dave!

Toy Soldiers in Art
Al-Dowayan

RIP
Another collector has shuffled-off to the great toy-box while we were distracted.

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

News, Views Etc . . . Jason Stieva's Pirate Ship ++

What can you spot? I saw the purple chap from Monsters Inc. straight away! Rack-toy tank turrets, a Marx cavalryman (?), some of those Tomy Battle Beasts, Papo and Schlich, knights . . . all sorts!

https://mymodernmet.com/jason-stieva-ghost-pirate-ship/?fbclid=IwAR1kTaht-l8DANC6ndW_AALhU1RmZrulOxgBiSUQVRKkBP0a7yXQlTnmWX0



Meanwhile, fans of new poured-metal might be interested in the news that Fleurbaix have a Faceplant page.

https://www.facebook.com/fleurbaixtoysoldiers/



Brian Berke sent the next link, I was going to hold it for a Lego-only News-Views, but there's so much in the pipeline, that may not be 'till after Christmas, and this is fun scrolling for when the in-laws are driving you mad in a couple of weeks (20 sleeps or something 'till the big day!) so it can go here . . .

http://toronto.transitbricks.com/torontos-forgotten-horsecars/ 

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Y is for Yarn Bombers! Fake Cover!!

Believe me - the title's the best bit of this one, but at least we're at the end of my self-indulgent day and there are mice! Woolly mice.

A tree got yarn-bombed in the late autumn, the drunks and yobbos had pulled half the mice off by the first weekend, but someone came out and knitted them all back on or 'in' or whatever you do to lose mice in the medium of wool?

Fleet Animals; Fleet Hampshire; Fleet High Street; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Street Art; Woollen Mouse's; Wool Mice; Woolly Mice; Woolly Tree; Yard Tree; Yarn Bomb; Yarn-bombing;

Fleet Animals; Fleet Hampshire; Fleet High Street; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Street Art; Woollen Mouse's; Wool Mice; Woolly Mice; Woolly Tree; Yard Tree; Yarn Bomb; Yarn-bombing;

Fleet Animals; Fleet Hampshire; Fleet High Street; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Street Art; Woollen Mouse's; Wool Mice; Woolly Mice; Woolly Tree; Yard Tree; Yarn Bomb; Yarn-bombing;

Fleet Animals; Fleet Hampshire; Fleet High Street; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Street Art; Woollen Mouse's; Wool Mice; Woolly Mice; Woolly Tree; Yard Tree; Yarn Bomb; Yarn-bombing;

Fleet Animals; Fleet Hampshire; Fleet High Street; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Street Art; Woollen Mouse's; Wool Mice; Woolly Mice; Woolly Tree; Yard Tree; Yarn Bomb; Yarn-bombing;
That's it, there was a notice but I didn't read it, I regard this stuff with curiosity and have a mixed view of it, it's fun, but it's become a bit formulaic . . . it was amusing to see a town in Kent, or Norfolk or somewhere (someone else's town) having all its bollards woollyfied a few years back on Faceplant, but realising your own town is victim to the ten-thousand-and-something'th yarn-bombing attack is more of a yawn than a yarn; if you know what I mean!

S is for Still in Fleet!

We do from time to time touch on art here, usually in connection with toy soldiers, but I was rather struck by these in a little boutique'y place here in town; minimal blurb - I'm indulging myself today!

3D Art; Art Gallery; Baby Toy Novelty; Gummi Bears; Gummi-Baren; Gummibaren; Ice Cream; Jelly Babies; Jelly Baby; Jelly Bears; Jellyman; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Unicorn;
How cools are these? To cool for the ice cream van that's for sure! Or not cool enough . . . they're resin alright! Only an idiot would take them out in an ice-cream van! Although when I say resin, they might be silicon; I didn't get to squidge them!

3D Art; Art Gallery; Baby Toy Novelty; Gummi Bears; Gummi-Baren; Gummibaren; Ice Cream; Jelly Babies; Jelly Baby; Jelly Bears; Jellyman; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Unicorn;
I shot these at the same time, they were not so striking, built up with glitter and the clear resin/silicon stuff, and some other stuff. The flowers probably worked better than the tree.

3D Art; Art Gallery; Baby Toy Novelty; Gummi Bears; Gummi-Baren; Gummibaren; Ice Cream; Jelly Babies; Jelly Baby; Jelly Bears; Jellyman; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Unicorn;
These were what actually drew me to the shop window; they look so real it's hard to credit them with not being luscious, fruity ice-lollies slowing melting in the sun!

3D Art; Art Gallery; Baby Toy Novelty; Gummi Bears; Gummi-Baren; Gummibaren; Ice Cream; Jelly Babies; Jelly Baby; Jelly Bears; Jellyman; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Unicorn;
Back to the jelly-babies, although they are more like gummibären! These work better with the 'splat' than the five with their nouvelle-cuisine jus-squiggles, if I had some spare cash I'd buy one of these, they are fun, quirky and you'll never get tired of looking at them, a naive landscape sinks into the background after a few weeks, a crying clown brings death to the house, rock-posters are for posers but splattered jelly-baby mirrors are brilliant!

3D Art; Art Gallery; Baby Toy Novelty; Gummi Bears; Gummi-Baren; Gummibaren; Ice Cream; Jelly Babies; Jelly Baby; Jelly Bears; Jellyman; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Unicorn;
This - like the plants - didn't work quite so well, but you can see with them all what the artist is 'working on' or trying to do!

That's it, weird 3D, jelly-baby art!

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

News, Views etc . . . Toys in Art

Hard to describe, pointless giving you my take, go check it out, it's fun . . .




                                  By Ye Hongxing

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

News, Views Etc . . . Breaking - "A load of old rubbish - but is is art?"

Received from Tom Clague in Oz earlier today . . . brilliant!

Hi Hugh,
There is an art exhibition on here in Sydney I thought you might like. It's called 'Jurassic Plastic', and its basically dinosaurs made from thrown out toys!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ulperc33jo2oadw/jurassicplastic.jpg?dl=0&raw=1

Closer in on the dinosaurs face, you get to see how many bits they're made from:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/btwicgwub6or95u/head.jpg?dl=0&raw=1

There are about a dozen dinosaurs roaming the floor. The landscapes across the floor were amazing too, colour graded into various toy types:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gx6t9rtemkq7qy1/landscape.jpg?dl=0&raw=1

No small scale stuff unfortunately (i found one Matchbox US infantry clone in amongst things), but some Japanese anime oddities. I wondered if anyone can id this bloke, about 1/50th scale:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v52ces9g2b90oo0/mysteryfigure.jpg?dl=0&raw=1

Hope you like it, exhibit is Jurassic Plastic by artist Hiroshi Fuji, if folks want to Google more.
Cheers,
Tom

=================================

Sydney Festival Page
Tom's Blog

Thanks Tom, we love this stuff! 

Saturday, May 21, 2016

M is for Mount Whomore...

It must be done...surely the next valley over? Further-up the range? And then the Simpsons!

Sent in by Blog visitor Jon Alderfer (who lives near Philadelphia in the US, has sold work to Heavy Metal magazine in the past and collects Disney, Dr. Who, Marx, and Britains [etc...!]), this is his own work and I'm privileged to post it here...talented stuff; thanks Jon.

Now; who do I see about hiring rock-drills...do you need a permit...is it in a national park....what will Smokey the Bear have to say about it...?

Sunday, December 6, 2015

S is for Shit Pile

I shit you not!

Lui Wei's Shit Pile

This kind of art is so popular at the moment our glorious leader, the inadequate cockwomble David Cameron has just cobbled-together nearly 16 airworthy aircraft to go and make lots more of these all over the Middle East, not something we haven't been trying to perfect for some time, but then when you really want to make people want to kill you, you need to really make the effort!

Saturday, June 21, 2014

T is for That There Interweb Thing

A return to our irregular round-up of Toy Soldier related 'stuff' on the Internet...

Knitted Toy Soldier

Life-sized Card Toy Soldier

Personalised Toy Soldier Mug



Toy soldiers in art from 1876, I can see French Zouaves and Cuirassiers? (Lucotte/Mignot?)

Antonio Mancini - Boy with Toy Soldiers



For hollow-cast fans; auction news of a major collection coming-up for sale next weekend in the States;

OTSA - present the James A. Henderson collection



British Pathe visits Peter Cushing with his model soldier collection...

Peter Cushing and his Toy Soldiers

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

O is for Optical Illusion

Clever!

Toy Soldiers Optical Illusion



Toy Soldiers and Plastic Flowers - Joe Black again!

Skulls

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

News, Views Etc...Links, Art Etc...

So a round-up of recent bookmarks and other stuff which may be of interest to others....

Setting off with My Modern Met who I've rediscovered through Facebook;

Pierre Javelle and Akiko Ida play with food!

and

Zeng Chunhui carves wood

while

Brian McCarty makes us think about war

Further afield this made me laugh;

Knitler and the Knotsies

In Morgantown - West Virginia, Toy Soldiers are being used to teach....art and history by the looks of things!;

The Dominion Post/Charleston Gazette

Meanwhile, my namesake has some rather nice watercolours here;

Carlota Attlee Fine Art

And looking at the life-size fad we visited before;

Not a Game!

Wrapping-up this post...

A Company History Prinze August - from the horses mouth!

Thursday, February 28, 2013

S is for Self-indulgence

 No toys here...move along...nothing Toy Soldier...keep walking...next stop some other blog...

Still here? Oh well then, I'll try and explain, but really you need to have 'been there' or have to be familiar with the back-story, and I have to be careful what I say, because - unlike some of the staff involved - I don't want to libel or slander anyone.

So, certain things happened, some more stuff happened, I was exonerated in an internal investigation, certain other stuff then happened which was outrageous, I held my ground (with the help of my Disability Advisor and the County Psychologist [try spelling that when you've got bits of brain missing]), leading to a Chief Executive's No. 2 making an assurance that doesn't seem to have been kept, which all came down to my kicking my heels in the studio today waiting for nothing much else to happen as our tutor kept wandering off to 'meetings' - a dangerous thing to do with no cover and a studio full of adult students with 'issues'!

As a result, and because I'd taken all my files off and cleared the PC's history, cookies and the rest of that tedious stuff (registry mend, disc-clean, defrag, etc...), I was mucking about with Google, looking-up Photoshop blogs and AutoCAD tutorials on Youtube, when I put the following in to the search bar....

....and got bollocks up as the first result! Try it, it works, with or without the apostrophe! Like I said, you really needed to be there, just take my word for it, it's funnier than it looks to you - casual viewer! And a half-dozen visitors (by request) will - I suspect - be tickled. I also suspect if you put 'Google' in any random sentence you stand a good chance of getting bollocks, but then everyone knows that!!

Elf
While I'm being self-indulgent, and for the invited viewers in particular, this was done by my mate Jimijames (who sent me the too-cool email the other week), he was also treated pretty poorly by the same institution and is now 'doing it for himself'! If any design company in the Southhampton/Eastleigh area likes the look of this and has an opening for a trainee illustrator I can put you in touch. I think it's very good and given he was 2D Autodesking a few weeks ago, bloody good, but then you should see his free-hand black&white work, sublime.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

M is for Morris Museum Morristown

Sadly. I can't go, but for anyone over the pond who's liked the art-links I've been posting; this looks like a lot of fun if you're looking for something to do over the holidays...

Morris Museum - Morristown


Monday, November 12, 2012

C is for Canucks

No time for pictures tonight and continuing with the theme of the last post, here are two remembrance day related posts (a day late!), both from Canada, a large number of who's soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice carrying out their feint, probing raid, reconnaissance in strength - call it what you will - at Dieppe in the Second World War, to help buy our freedoms - may the gods grant restfulness to their souls.

Paper

wraps

Stone


Sunday, October 21, 2012

S is for Soldiers in Society

Let's get the sad news out of the way first;

Big Tex 'Bought-it'

Then we'd better get the 'Adult' stuff dealt with;

Chen-yang Wang (Artist)

Don't click on the image/link if you are easily shocked, a prude, or in some other way tied to religious mores or small-mindedness of some variety...it's art, apparently!

Meanwhile Scott B. Leach has got some of his cartoons on to Penn's Sunday School;

Atheist Toy Soldiers

We've seen a coloured 'Flag' - here's a Black & White version;

Valerie Leonard

This on the other hand seems a bit silly;

Chocolate from Stephen J Shanabrook

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

D is for Dispatches!

This has just come back from the front...it's not pretty...

Dragonframe Animation

while night maneuvers are getting pretty explosive over here;

Bright Sparks

And I hate the 'Mail', why do I do it to myself!!