https://www.facebook.com/GemsCreationsx/

I found this fantastic site on Facebook, creating unusual gifts, for everyday events. What I love about this crafts site is that speciality gifts can be created and personalised according to the seasons, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc etc. Its well worth a look and a bit of forward thought, as the years whizz by and that special time will be on us once again .Remember that quality crafts are not made overnight so a bit of forward planning will make life much easier when you are scratching your head and looking for that something special. Five start rating for this one.

Newport Through Time

                                                      Newport Through Time

A book of comparisons The Newport of Old and how it I now. Lots of pics and dialogue , please buy a copy I have  big brown Hairy dog which I mind for my son and she eats everything . Also my 60 frogs are pregnant and will need constant attention.

Woodend Mining Museum Burnley

WOODEND MINING MUSEUM BURNLEY

Some images from the Wood End mining museum diorama at Reedley Hallows Burnley. A fantastic camp site and museum, well worth a visit.

This is quite disgraceful , all this time and no additions to my blog. I am amazed its still here, even I had trouble finding it. So much has gone on in the last few years, both good and bad. My Book Newport through Time is published and is going well. (Amberley Publishing). As for the models well where do I start. The enthusiasm shred by many for Jack the Ripper and old London Scenes reached a pinnacle with a large East End scenario  in O Gauge. The mine project at Woodend Burnley progressed culminating in a large diorama of the underground workings. This was really enjoyable to build, I only wish I could have added an underground railway, but space did not permit. I have added some images of recent work including that of the Old Cornish Candy Shoppe in St Ives Cornwall. This was a pleasure to create as I adore St Ives and have been a visitor for over 50 years.

These are The Olde Cornish Candy Shoppe St Ives, well worth a visit you wont get out without a packet of their home made goodies I promise.

Christmas last was a mish mash affair , all very strange with the other half no longer with us. I started experimenting with lights and other mediums of creativity. I am quite in to light boxes and

creating images with both models and reality such as wood small branches etc.

This is a row of shops and cottages using more interior shop fitting cast from my own designs in resin. Interiors can be so much fun but, unfortunately rarely scene.

Wood End Colliery Burnley

At last it is finished. I have had so much pleasure building this . It was a classic of virtually no information and even when an odd picture appeared something else came along to contradict the evidence in hand. So it really is a case of run it up the flag pole and see who salutes. The colliery in the Pendle Bridge area was closed after the war due to flooding and a drift mine was opened just along from the original site.

It is strange to see a Pit without a rail link but this had none. The coal was conveyed from the main shaft to coal drops which were over the road. Now there is a very pleasant camp site on what was the old colliery and an up and coming mining museum in which this model will be displayed.

The building of the model was all quite conventional;, art board with plasitkard cladding and painted in oils and acrylics Some quite heavy weathering was required to age the whole model . Coal mines are never the cleanest of places. Though when it came to adding dirt to some of my excellent model vehicles from Oxford Diecast and Base Toys I chickened out.

Details of the Camp site can be found on my website www.ogaugemodelbuildings.com  where progress pictures of the models construction can be seen.

The Ripper Connection Berner Street, Dutfield Yard

The Jack the Ripper Connection, Dutfield Yard Berner Street Whitechapel London, .
Where they found the Rippers third victim Elizabeth Stride.
Theories and possibilities abound but still no one has dicovered the identity of Jack the Ripper, . Was he, or perhaps a she? connected to nobility or was it the American Doctor. Who knows, but one thing for sure is that it will remain perhaps the greatest crime mystery in British History.
This model in O gauge depicts Berner Street in 1909. I changed the empty shop into a end of terrace pub, the other terraced buildings are as they wedre in that period.
Dutfield Yard which was to be found directly after the end terrace will be the subject of another model.

The absolute joy of model making is that History can always be a part of the creators lives. I looked at this model in the half light and imagined Victorian London and the terraced streets of flat roofed dwellings in yellow brick. How it must have felt to  walk through those dark terraces of Whitechapel knowing that the knife was but a foot fall away.

National Health Breakthrough

It wasnt a very good idea, slicing through my thumb with a craft knife, but for the nail it would have been history. Waited a while for the bleeding to stop, it didnt so I headed to the hospital. This new national health system they have adopted is wonderful. One waits for so long in that morbid waiting room that it heals itself Amazing.