More aircraft parts

Emergency Exit!

 

Along my travels I came across this matching pair of aircraft emergency exit panels. I think that the shape and the nature of the objects are fantastic! I have a few ideas for them, but I'll keep you guessing for now...

Just wanted to share my findings for this month:

 

Strand Theatre Lantern

Here is another project I've been working on that falls into the category of vintage lighting:

This fixture is a patt.123 fresnel lantern and was made by Strand Electric from the late 1950's. These type of lanterns were usually accompanied by the patt.23 profile lantern to provide small scale lighting solutions for stages and exhibitions. Now they have become obsolete as most venues have been updated to more modern forms of lighting. However, the iconic design compliments the 'vintage industrial' interior design which is popular at the moment.

This particular lantern has been stripped of its paintwork and polished to produce a mirror finish with some minor blemishes which indicate its age. It has been mounted on a beautiful wooden tripod of a similar period.

EDL Machine light

Its been a while (too long!) since my last post due to other work unfortunately not worthy enough to make it to the blog. There are many more items in the pipeline, some very close to completion, so keep an eye out in the next coming weeks.

For now..

Here is a vintage EDL 3 Tier machine light. I acquired this one in not too bad condition but it still required a large amount of work to strip and polish to the finish I was looking for. I kept the original green enamelled shade as I feel this keeps some of the character of the piece. The original base is mounted on a custom weighted hardwood block, which has been subtly shaped and varnished and allows the light to be placed on a desk or table.

Vintage Coughtrie Industrial Lamp

Ok, Finally I've finished this vintage coughtrie lamp.

Coughtrie is a Lighting company from Glasgow which established itself in the 1940's producing 'durable' lighting products often used on farmhouses, factories etc. I bought this lamp in a sorry state with the hope to restore it. After pain painstakingly stripping no less than 5 layers of paint and polishing the dull aluminium casting to a mirror finish it looks like this:

A few arty shots....

Arched Gate

This month has been a little strange, I seem to have too many ongoing projects with little time to finish any completely. Maybe I've been slightly ambitious with what I've taken on. Plenty of interesting items in the pipeline, some of which will become available for sale very soon!!

In the meantime here is something I've done on the side for a local customer who I've done some work for before. Its only a gate, but I was pleased with how it turned out, plus it helps to keep this blog like an online portfolio.

Before powder coating.

Finished and fitted. Picture quality not great, apologies!

Old Portholes

I've had these 2 sitting around for ages... Originally on my boat but removed them some months ago so I could make some adjustments.  I hadn't really decided what I was going to do with them, especially as the glass in them wasn't up to much. I have a few ideas now, but I'll hopefully update you soon with the progress.... They are nice items with a bit of wear on them, which adds to the character. I cleaned 1 of them up to see how it would look.

Before

Now sanded and polished!

New treasures for 2012

After a few fruitful visits to a local salvage yard the week before Christmas I had quite a collection of very unique items!

Here are a few:

Various aircraft components

Jet engine capping

Few bits of a wing

This last year has been quite a steep learning curve in the world of becoming self employed. I started working for myself about 18 months ago after deciding that my perfect career doesn't exist, therefore I must invent my own. A burning desire to create fantastic things was responsible for my naivety. My business had to start somewhere, so for the majority it has been functioning as a metal fabrication company, something that I only envisaged for a short while in order to get off the ground. So far I haven't been totally unsuccessful and have survived the tricky 12 months everybody goes on about.

Thankfully my creativity never died in the cold grey world of metal fab but grew from the repression. I'm beginning to question the finer details of iconic pieces and what makes us warm to them. This is something I've never understood and maybe I never fully will, but at least I can hope to capture some of the essence of what makes a piece work!

Getting back to the point... I've become fixated on salvageable components and I'm intrigued by the term up-cycle, however, up-cycling may be a by product of what I'm trying to achieve with certain items but I feel its more than just finding a different use for something that already exists. I'm trying to change the way that an object typically of an industrial origin is viewed and appreciated. Therefore I'm using the term Industrial revival, I'm not sure if this exists but its the best way I can describe what I'm doing.

Blogging...

Hi, Welcome to my new blog space!
I've wanted to compile a personal space for a while now, primarily for portfolio purposes. This blog will hopefully function as an archive for past works as well as a live diary for ideas and current projects. I hope anyone who visits will feel welcome and find what I do interesting.