Wehey!! - Got my Arc Welder working today!

It's been a long time coming, and today I finished the extra special high duty cable wiring into my workshop so that I can power up a 160 amp arc welding rig.  I've had the welding machine for over 18 months now, and it's been languishing in my special tools cupboard.  But today, I was able to dig it out and rig it up to the new high current commander style socket I've installed.  (Welding machines need BIG current, and so standard domestic UK plug and sockets are not capable of handling the extra power / current).

I haven't wielded an arc welder for over 30 years!...  I can still hear the immortal words from my welding instructor during my time as an apprentice, learning just about every fabrication method... I'll never forget him saying in a very broad "Manc" (Manchester for readers further afield) accent, whilst peering over my shoulder - "Hadfield lad - you wan£$r, that welding looks like bird Sh#t !!!".
He was a good old boy, I wonder whatever happened to these old legends... Never minced his words but we all thought he was brilliant and would have follwed him into battle anywhere.   Anyway, I followed the newer and more exciting electronics and computing route that was opening up, and the need for mechanical technicians with welding skills at the time was drying up.

So I just about got the hang of welding when my year of mechanical engineering training was nearly over.  I've never needed to do it since, but I always had a hankering to give it another go.  So here's my first attempt after some 33 or so years...


It's not total bird sh£t either, just a bit around the edges perhaps,  (ha ha ha) - and it was my first attempt in such a long time...



My second attempt was a bit better, but like all things, I will need to practice....

Third time better still....

A few more reflections from sketches from Peebles / Selkirk & Northumberland...

Well, I've been back doing the usual admin today and generally tidying up both mine and my late brothers financial affairs.  It's  easy to come back to the real world again from a holiday, however I think we can all benefit from practising some creative art form, as any nice memories are so much more cemented and crystallized if one tries to capture these magical moments through drawing or painting.

I looked at a few of the simple line sketches I made whilst on our little sojourn in the northern latitudes, - there's no doubt in my mind that a drawing or a painting is far more rewarding than a hard disk or DVD of instant photographs, which from my own experience, often contains images that are snapped and then forgotten. I thoroughly recommend to anyone who is considering taking up creative arts to start drawing!  Well, that's the broadcast over, here are some more reflections from the last couple of weeks.

A couple of weeks in retreat, drawing in Scotland and Northumberland

A nice summer "chilled out holiday" for the last two weeks has been just enough to recharge my batteries.  I've done some good sketching practice too, mainly focussed on portrait sketches of my lovely wife, and also some architectural sketches as well, with a couple of more illustrative style line drawings with mixed media paints to compliment the work over the fortnight.

I think I am making slow improvement. My drawing is becoming a bit more confident, as I seem to be equipped now to at least attempt to tackle most subjects, however I know that it is, without doubt, essential to practice my sketching every day.    "Never a day without a line" still resonates in my mind as a regular reminder to make time for this most (in my opinion), essential of skills in any art practice.  I do find it hard though to make time some days, what with so many distractions, which quite often, are of my own making.  I wish I could drop out of all the hustle and bustle of our everyday on-line existence (like e-mails, social interactions, surface mail, banking duties, Facebook, twitter etcetera), and just live to paint and draw!...

Well, here are some examples of the sketches over the last fortnight, in no particular order...
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 Continuing the exercises from Betty Edwards Book, "drawing on the Right side of the Brain", I sketched a small abstract from one of the great Masters of 20th century art, that being

  "Self-portrait", by Edward Steichen. Published in Camera Work No 2, 1903

The next exercise I gave myself was to do a toned paper (3B Graphite stick) three quarter sketch of Julie.  Now, I also bent the rules a little bit here to experiment, and it seemed to work!! - I tried to draw Julie with much thinner features and younger look, - amazingly, I seem to have pulled this off and I (and of course Julie too) was very pleased with the result.

  So onto some further 3/4 portraits, but this time, from different facial expressions and an angle looking down  on a seated model.  These too, came out pretty well.

But it wasn't all portraiture, and later in the first week of our stay in Scotland, I spent an hour or so doing a simple water colour sketch in my travelling notebook, of the cottage at the head of the glenn, = Yes, it really did look like a top of a chocolate / biscuit tin scene!  The colours were magnificent, the purple heather was in full bloom, and the wee bothy had just recently been re-whitewashed....

The watercolour inspired me to take some more photos of the area and use them as reference materials...

 For example, Traquire house has so much history I just have to paint this properly!

 

And Abbotsford, near Melrose, which was the home built by the 19th Century novelist, Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, FRSE (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet.  his house architecture seduced me into a good hours worth of sketching, which only ended when I had to take shelter from the rain!