Thursday 11 August 2022

For want of a puff of wind (compressed doldrums)


Google refuses to let me sign in to my blogger account on my phone, which explains why my comments have been a bit sparse of late. I can do anything on the computer, but when I get home I need to sit down and relax before cooking - especially in this heat. By the time I am perked up and ready to read all your stuff, H.I. has hijacked the machine and is watching 1980s crap on it. 

I don't know if it is long covid or just the heat which is sapping my energy at the moment. I suspect it is both. Yesterday my compressor stopped working and today I have ordered a new part for it which won't arrive until Saturday. That is a fine excuse to spend the rest of the week in the shade.

When compressors break down I realise just how much I depend on them for saving time and effort. Also, a strong puff of wind is ideal for clearing the dust which accumulates in and on everything I make. I keep my tyres inflated with one too. 

I used to know an Irish sculptor who outright refused to use any abrasives. Everything had to be finished with hammer and chisel. Consequently everything took her four times as long to make and the prices reflected that. Also consequently, she hardly ever sold anything.

In the days when I had an actual work ethic worth mentioning, I was training up a young man to cut stone and he asked which chisel he should use on a particular task. I told him that if a soup spoon worked best then he should use one. He said that his college teacher had told him exactly the same thing. He was a slow learner.

I know a male sculptor who is particularly difficult to deal with on account of him being borderline nuts and a know-all of great renown. He proudly says that he dropped out of training at a large masonry school when his tutor told him that there was nothing he could teach him. For the last 50 years he has been telling everyone this story, believing that the tutor meant that he knew so much already that it would be a waste of time to continue the course. That's how nuts he is.

20 comments:

  1. I have the same problem signing in with google on my phone, and unless I'm sitting at my desktop computer, commenting on blogs is almost impossible. The heat here has been unusually terrible, too. I'm longing for a good strong breeze with a bit of a chill behind it. That's still a long time off for us, I'm afraid.

    Hang in there, Tom. Autumn has to come....eventually.

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  2. I had to laugh at your know it all acquaintance. Does he make a living from his sculptures or does his insanity drive everyone away?

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    1. He has never been poor. somehow he attracted some very good looking women in the past.

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  3. The smaller the computer the more problems...Chrome is going exceeding slow on my tablet....seems a common problem...

    A siesta is the order of the day, with working early and late.

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    1. Have have had three siestas today - one in the morning, one midday and one in the afternoon. No work.

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  4. I have known a few folk like that in my long life Tom. Slow down a bit in this weather. You never show us any of your work.

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    1. Never show you my work?? I thought I had been boring you with that for years.

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  5. Great sculptors I have known. All nuts.

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  6. One of my tutors at Chelsea had been Anthony Gormley's tutor once upon a time. She wasn't that keen on him.

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  7. Many creatives are nuts but humble - it's the arrogant nuts that are the problem, and in my experience seldom nice to deal with

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    1. I don't mind creative nuts, so long as I don't have to share with them.

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  8. I have a creative nut nephew currently serving a prison term, so I won't be dealing with him for some time.

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  9. I haven't been able to sign into Google and comment on my iPhone for months ..... so annoying ..... I can only comment on my laptop which is why, I also, haven't commented as much as I used to ! Don't do too much, especially in this weather ..... after Covid you need to do what your body tells you { oooo ehrrr missus } Most artistic people have a quirky { nutty } side to them...... I mean that in the nicest way. XXXX

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    1. Don't worry Jack@, I am not overworking. Oh, so you have problems with iPhone and blogger too. In my experience there are many more eccentrics in the non-artistic world - well, genuine ones anyway.

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  10. The know-it-all sculptor sounds like a real winner.

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