The Star of India and Captain Woodget's portrait

I made this dinner plate sized version of The Star of India for the Twinings tea tin Christmas tree this year at the Cutty Sark. 

The original is a beautiful domed object about 40 cms in diameter which I hadn't seen before I made this version. A new one has been made for the stern of the ship and has the look of a jelly mould and is much deeper than the original. I did this from the original drawings so has a much sharper edge.  

A portrait of Captain Woodget painted on a piece of the hull material which is rock elm. It is studded with brass nails which were used to hammer on the muntz metal which covered the hull and was one of the reasons the ship recorded such high speeds.
It is the first painting I have done in many years.
Captain Woodget was much loved by the crew, fearless and eccentric he roller skated on board, was a phographer, bred Collies and took them to Australia. He was born on November 21st 1845, one hundred years to the day before my own birth.  

Circumnavigating E14

The calm waters of Limehouse Basin

This is Cito, a Thames Waterman Cutter. A solid 300kgs of GRP, ten metres long; she has six oars in line; six rowers sit on fixed seats, there is a cox in the stern to navigate and steer and room for one passenger. I was invited to join the crew to row from Greenwich Yacht Club across the Thames to Bow Creek and Bow Lock and then down along the Limehouse Cut to Limehouse Basin and back out onto the Thames returning on the long loop of the river to Greenwich.
I found it easier to pull in time when I could hear the oars dipping and the regular rhythm of the oars in the rowlocks. It was extremely satisfying when the six of us became a single unit working in unison. It was much more difficult with the noise of the river and wind and the choppy water of the Thames to keep in time.
Rowing, they say exercises 85% of the bodies muscles. I asked Peter Waugh the cox which were the muscles that weren't involved and he indicated the ones between the ears!

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Royal Seal of Approval

A Craftsman at the top of his game

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh was presented with a seal made from Cutty Sark teak at a dinner to celebrate the many years of his association with the clipper.
I have had this note from the offices of Lord Sterling

..... the seal was very well received by His Royal Highness. He was clearly delighted with it and insisted on carrying it personally from the table to his waiting car at the end of the meal and was playfully shaking the seal by its head to watch the movement of the body.

Subsequently we have had a note from his Equerry in which he describes the Duke of Edinburgh’s thanks for “the wonderful seal” presented to him. He goes on to say “it was very skilfully made, clearly by a craftsman at the top of his game”.

Strange cloud formation

 On Tuesday evening 8th May the sun came out after many days of rain and I just had to photograph the strange ripple of high cloud. Also odd is the way the panoramic reduces the huge sky to a such a small circle!
There is a little black triangle where I missed in the overlaps.

Seastar tricks

Probably best seen in full screen to catch some of the more subtle movements

birds

I'm always gazing at and sometimes photographing birds on high. Here is a crow in a recently pruned tree in my neighbours garden. I've tweaked it in Picasa as I wanted an illustrative effect rather than a photographic one

Captain Woodget's Collie

The most renowned of the Cutty Sark's captains was a keen photographer and  loved collies some of whom made the voyage to Australia. This collie is made from oak from work done in the 60's but she has a collar with original hull planking