Hammy written by Paul Howes

Today i stood upon the landing atop of the stairs looking out of our tiny window, and after counting 20 or so cars speeding up and down the St Faiths road i spied Hammy flicking his tail upon the tree just beyond our nut tree that stands in the first tree line in the wooded area that is our part of fiddle wood.  Now it must be mentioned here and now that all the grey squirrels are Hammy's to me,and i often write of their adventures throughout the years as they roll out their days of each and every months cycle. As i near my 75th year of my expectation of gaining more insight upon many a thing, i tend to name such wildlife wonders that i see near and far in such a wonderful way. After all concerning all the Hammy's that pass my window throughout my day i would get rather confused trying hard to remember each ones name, would i not? But i do remember one that was so aged he had a very faint wisp of a flicking grey tail.It was him alone that stole the coconut liner to our raised flower baskets in the front of our little house in order to construct his. And in that brave attempt of his,i grudged him not a single thing that he in turn rolled up in his endeavour to keep snug and warm. Yes he himself having been gone for many a year now, is often in my thoughts as his offspring dance and flick their own days display in sight of my window, a well earned place where i type so in my own remembrance as each day slowly unfolds in such a sweet thoughtful way. 

May you one and all stay safe,

 and in doing so stay well. BB

Thanks Giving, Lets Talk Turkey Shall We ? Presented by BB

                                                                                        BB

Over 14,000 Little Book Props For Sir Percys Library presented by BB

I hope you will enjoy your visit BB

i especially adore the Alice in Wonderland Books of old,along with other classic books written many a year before i arrived and took my first deep breath of fresh air way back in Norwich early 1949. 

Presently it being the 18th day of  October 2023,i am still scratch building item large and small for Sir Percys Library. One could say that I'm building it from the inside out,rather than outside in.

 It all began after i made a tiny little book,and then i was upon the yellow brick road to improve upon a self taught way lots more books. My adventure had begun. 

 So yes, once upon a time,i had none. Then i made one and was completely hooked upon just how to make them in a much faster cheaper way. Well one cannot buy them for a certainty in this smallest scale of 28mm, and it being  my own unorthodox hobby, and abstract obsession too.  i certainly have no great wish to sell them either. For that would turn everyday into a chore and i have no great need to work away my time left to me slaving for others demands.                                                                                                              

                                                                                                   

It was a thursday night,around 9, and Mrs B,reminded me that the district nurse was comming sometime on Friday,to give my Covid shot in my arm. i thanked her for the reminder and after giving her a loving gentle hug and a peck on her lips she turned and slowly climbed her sleepy eyed bedtime tippy toe top stairs. Bella,our dog,as usual had waited for her treat from the plastic jar,and soon after , off she went trotting along to sleep upon the large leather coutch in the lounge...  As for myself,i made a sweet but strong cup of coffee,and began working on the P C. It was soon quite lazy late but story telling episodes do not type themselves do they? No, certainly not. Eventually after 11,10 had ticked itself away upon this fast fading day,i began typing this. My coffee mug, stood half full and stone cold,beside my favoured ginger biscuits, so shortly thereafter i made myself a fresh steaming hot brew.

i began making my own design style of book props on April 6th 2021,that were printed out. 

Megga structures that can hold around 700 books all loose, and put to standing upright upon, or indeed of present thought just a laying sleepy like upon each favoured pleasent side.

Now i plan to scratch build 25 new double sided archways for the books of several sizes,however they must be larger than those ones above. 

                                                                  14,000 Book Props

Making a few each day over a period of 2 years, meant that now there laid out two large 

 shoe boxes full of all kinds of wonderful home made old style books from many periods...

and another 6,000 book props already fixed in loose place upon the old shelving units all ready painted.

... i like the oddity of the Alice books of timely tick tock adventures. For most certainly the Mad Hatters,tea time party and all those present were prisoners of a full stop of perpetual never ending Cambridge time. 

Now comes the part time fun of cutting paper card to size in order to house each, and every one of them in Sir Percys, classical library of enclosed authors dreams!

OK,i'll see you on the next update, Stay safe stay well and help others if you can. BB

FRED & MAYBELL presented by BB

                                                           THE WILDERNESS YEARS

                                     Fred,is upon MayBell's right and both came from the stars!

VOGUE presented by BB

The sound of numbers are indeed words,and the sound of words are truely numbers

All,like the one viewed above have been traced around and indeed of plan shrunk down for printing out in order to produce little books 4 Sir Percy's Library! 

              When one can become 2,

               or 1 can become two,

              that is indeed of play,

              the very start of playing the sound game!

                                      Way over 1 hundred years old it seemed apt 2 use them.                                                                           

                                 How i realise them all becoming so damp and dirty in their heyday.

At  seventy 4 years of ambling age,                                        

    and having now no nimble fingers myself,                                      

                                 i feel that some older books with aged ironed on looks,                                                nonetheless will have a certain charm about them.                      

                                                                                                                             

                                         All  pictures were, and still are in public domain.  

 The bookcases and archways of the great library that does not exist or ever will,also has spiralling staircase's leading to many levels of story telling books. Now it must be mentioned here and now that larger towering bookcases are being designed for the masses that will stand resting upon their shelves that will never gather or hold the aged on dust to come.

 Hopefully I can show the easy parts of them here later,as the coming days arrive and then dimming age themselves away.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit here,and have had a good safe day?                                      Remember,  any simple idea often needs like a reflective Well, looking into.BB                                   

GINGER & PICKLES open book covers presented by BB

It has been quite a while indeed so it has,that i have  taken time out for myself from the annals of time itself. To my oddity of spaced out imagination there seems to be many a topic just queuing up like waiting for the next bus. However i have just taken up enough  white winged space to post one of the oldest picture books to pass my way.  So below that  process in active display begain again with the formulation that will helpfully fill a library space or even two.

the i shows the way

                                                                                 Four

                                                                                Three

                                                                                 Two  

                                                                               One

Brand new shelving style much larger than those which came before, are being mapped out upon their own blue printed page, as i take a little time out to do that and other gliding fancifree things too.

I hope that you have enjoyed your visit here?

May you all have a fine safe day ahead of you.

Help others if you can.   BB   

High Rise Scratch Building.............. Updated Version presented by BB

           

All the needed cut-outs were cut out free hand with the aid of a very sharp pointed craft knife,and as such this is as always an elementary artisan endeavour to aid the arts and crafts in others.                          

-

Sample of my iron work Stairs

water based black is below,

The uniformity of paint always prove a point,which asks the question is it all worthwhile spending ones time creating something that never existed before? For the scratch builder the answer is simply yes.

                                     Main construction is of  Picture Framers paper card ,

                                      which by the way is very strong for making toy's. 

However,Yes the humble cotton bud was added too.

A small word upon the subject of cotton buds

Originally designed for safety methods which are universally known and its use understood, they however were in the past and even at this present time, perfectly well suited for blocking up the Filter System at your local Water Works Plant. So please help save Minted Millions by not throwing them down the full flush toilets of our relieved hygienic way of each passing day.                                                                                                           

                                        My Scratch Building Preparation Process                                                       

                                                                                                                                           

The up to date Cotton Buds, can be easily dipped into glue. It being carpenters white glue thinned down with a little water and dish washing soap added too. The soap helps break the surface area of the dry spun cotton thus allowing the mixture to soak in nicely.

                                           

The part way ban on plastic upon this product means that they have a rolled paper spine which is quite strong!  Plastic drinking straws were likewise replaced by the old fashioned paper ones so after all those years both are certainly in VOGUE again.  Rhetorical Question, 'Will this help save the planet?'

The wet soaked cotton will retain most of the white glue mixture. However it is just a small matter of letting them drip after dunking! One, Two, Three, and Four Drips fell from their Tips before placing them all out  to dry.

                                       

These have added ornamental value to my hobby style work

              that does not come off the peg on  the high street market so to speak.

Sure the cotton buds were bought on line,

but the idea of use did not. Yes i hope that makes sense? 

Here at home settled snug and peaceful in the evergreen gardens of Fiddle Wood, the days dipping dried out very hard with all 60,given 120 pieces in total that were returned to the safety of the strong storage box that they had thankfully arrived in.                                                                                                        

                                                 

         The card board tube is that from the Kitchen Foil packet, so sort of came in price wise free!

                                                     Just who is the figure upon the stairs? 

Spiralling  Adventures are set to come.

                         Meanwhile                               

                                          

                                            Down below a little bit of help is always welcome.                                                                         

Old style iron work of spiralling stair ways are upon the leap upwards within Sir Percy's Library of many a recorded printed dream. As this topics scratch building has already entered way into its third year  thousands upon thousands of little book props, have amassed themselves into the regimental style of utter playful disorder.                                                                                                                                               

Meanwhile the cotton bud can also pave the way  to create the palisade features needed too.

                                                                                                      

Resting upon a cardboard box and a tub of glue helped form a spindle ideal for sticking the cotton buds in place one at a time while turning the piece gradually to reveal the next little space that needed such sticking upon it in this topsy turvy way.

There is another high rise feature like this to bring up to speck before proceeding upon this cool endeavour of heart felt adventure. However the other has steps spiralling in another direction.

Yes one to twist to the left while the other makes its way up to the right.

106 Steps 736 parts so far make up one high rise spiralling staircase at this present time of course there is also the long cardboard tube within each structure.

One of my own open book cover printing plates below 

The first of three base support rings was cut out of paper card.

  In way of illustration only a dry run, is shown above which shows two ring supports glued together with the stem pushed in tight where it will later be stuck into place with another step attached to it.                  

There will be more updates added later.   

As always this has been a low budget tongue in cheek presentation 

Thank you kindly for your visit

Stay safe , Stay well BB