Walter’s Way, Lewisham

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London - January 2026.

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The Bus Pass Diaries. 

 I’ve been preparing for 2026 in a few gentle ways. Reconnecting with old friends and family members who I haven’t been in touch with for years. Testing the waters really. Nothing to lose. We will see if there are any responses. So now I have this sense of a little gently pulsating beat, an extra pattern in the background, like a new life forming. It’s really quite exciting. The wise old owl - does that represent me?

                                                                                                

Yes. I see kindness and wisdom there and patience, independence and the ability to survive and thrive. The gifts of age perhaps. I’m going with the flow. In December I also finally got around to applying for a bus pass and apparently I can travel all round London with it for absolutely nothing, so, my plan is to discover London by bus - by travelling on the top deck at the front if possible and taking photos, making videos and sketching, writing down ideas etc. I’m already writing every day and sorting out the stories and thoughts that accompany me wherever I go,  but now I’m giving myself more time to focus. To get into the flow. I’ve decided to create something along the lines of My Bus Pass Adventures or Diaries though diary implies everyday which I doubt they will be as ideas spill over into lives of their own and take over. As usual I’m doing this entirely for myself and for anyone who might find them of interest. I hardly ever travel by bus as I have a very reliable and comfortable car but I do remember the excitement of looking down as I took the No. 6 bus to Warrington Art School and the way the seasons and the weather changed every journey into an adventure. And going to school on the bus way before that too. Yes I do have a love for public transport that needs reviving. And people talk to one another on buses. Or do they? Certainly not on the Tube which I am really fed up with. Almost everyone is on their phone in the underground. I’m hoping being able to look out of the windows changed that somehow for people. 

My first destination will be The British Museum on Monday 5th January. It’s going to be a pretty cold day.  Tomorrow I return to London with my daughter and will stay with her for a week. Hopefully I will do one journey at least every day. I want to get the feel of the place and meet people. And learn and see what is happening. Of course the journey is actually inside ourselves. Step by step. 

April 2025. A New Garden in Devon.

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Yes another garden! My 49th house move. Not all those places had gardens. I’m really enjoying getting up before dawn and sitting in this new garden and getting to know it. Thankfully there is a great deal to do, so I’m in a kind of personal heaven. 

Once upon a time the garden, which I understand goes back to around 1893-1920 when the first area of a new residential suburb for the wealthier and the more upwardly mobile residents and newcomers to Kingsbridge was built. It also needed to accommodate the railway workers at the new Kingsbridge Railway Station. 

This house is a small terraced and by today’s standards it  seems to me to be very upmarket but maybe not in its time. There used to be an iron foundry nearby and I would love to find out who decided to add very decorative and beautiful railings and gates to all the properties in Westville at the time. I will take photos of some of the remaining ones and delve deeper. 

The area has undergone many changes and I’m interested to know who lived here in the intervening years. 

At some stage the garden was redesigned and four garden rooms were built plus there is an old workshop at the far end, so five distinct areas to work in. 

This area has been divided with railway sleepers to make raised beds, all of which are overgrown and neglected. I’m trying to use whatever I can and to compost as much as possible. I have a few photos and videos I have taken to introduce you to the garden. This is the first part which is paved with moulded pinky grey concrete slabs that are made to resemble square stone blocks. 

The warm terracotta brick wall has been covered by a once pretty turquoise blue wooden shed no more than four foot high and five foot wide but now completely rotten and ivy by the ton. This little corner catches the morning sunlight and is ideal for breakfast, reading or snoozing. 

The Bay tree had gone wild and I’m cutting back the lower branches to give a sense of architectural depth. Then I can shape the crown which is way out of reach. The shredder has been earning its keep and the results are building up next to the compost heap.

In fact a lot of twiggy branches can be put on one side for support sticks. 

Sunday and Monday are  technically my days when the shop is closed. All I can think about is the garden of course but I know I do need to curb my enthusiasm or else I’m completely exhausted. Sleep restores me and by 5.30am I’m ready to go again. The gardening is making me stronger every day after the lull of activity in winter. 

Because it’s only the beginning of the second week in April, I feel a sense of urgency which I’m trying to ignore. I would rather just relax and take my time. It will be what it is bit by bit. The decking is obviously calling out to be removed as it’s really had its time now. There is a layer of what looks like roofing felt acting as a waterproof membrane on the ground which must be the weed suppressant. 

Having discovered that my favourite nearby walk was once a pathway along a medieval strip farming system, I am imagining the garden may also have been cultivated in this manner. It doesn’t take much to get my imagination going. Immediately considering all the different people who have cared for this land since medieval times. A story or stories in the making. 

So, as I bring pots of plants in, I am also taking old and rotting wooden palettes out. I think they might once have been part of the compost bins but for now I’m making a heap. And I have managed to make a first rough cutting of the lawn which is mainly dandelions and moss but has to be done and helps the compost heap.

There are trees in the garden on the left that effectively block out all the afternoon sunshine. A problem.

I can see signs of herbaceous borders and fixings for wires for roses. This is always what I have in mind when bringing a garden back to life. I’m very English and traditional when it comes to gardening. It might be a kind of security blanket. It definitely reminds me of my childhood home which was very stable and where my family lived for 70 years.

This is a quick look inside the workshop/potting shed. It gets hardly any light and is cold. However the roof has really started to sag as some of the timbers are rotten, thankfully only the ones that run horizontally across the windows and door frame so can easily be replaced. This makes me think of replacing the roof or part of it with corrugated clear plastic sheeting and effectively creating a sort of greenhouse. 

At this stage I have cleared out a lot of stuff and removed all the cobwebs which resembled a horror movie. My hammock waits for the right moment. The potting shed has electric light and a couple of power sockets. I have given the rusty garden tables and chairs a preliminary coat of masonry paint - not that it will stop the rust but lends a little charm at least. 

Preparing seed trays though they will all have to come indoors for warmth.

And this is the view a few weeks ago from the paved area in front of the workshop. I have removed masses of ivy. I really do not like ivy. It has all started life in the neighbours garden. That is a rented place and they are planning to cut back all the trees that prevent them from having the sunlight in the mornings! Solution.

P.S - I have had a long break from updating my blog and have always found the operating on it a bit tricky. With a new iPad  and time passed I had thought it would all be easier but no, the same inexplicable quirks remain. I think this is one reason why I suddenly stop. I tend to use this as a sort of diary not as a finished piece. For example accessing photos suddenly becomes impossible and a few minutes later it’s not a problem. 

4th March 2025

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I have been very busy even though I have been silent on my blog. Briefly, I spent most of last year travelling around the South West of England and the Home Counties looking for shops for my son to sell his beautiful jewellery. I had a wonderful time and discovered hundreds of new places, people and shops. So the first photo shows the shop as it looks this morning. It changes often and is soon to be showing a complete range of resin jewellery. 

This year marks another change as I am looking after our shop in Kingsbridge in South Devon.

Kingsbridge is an old town at the head of the estuary that leads eventually to Salcombe and the sea. I have known this area from family holidays since my childhood so feel quite comfortable here. 

Whilst I am in the shop I have set up a studio at the front in the light where I can paint and write.

I have brought my own jewellery making years to a close now and it definitely feels the right thing to do. I have been writing a series of novels behind the scenes and sketching out ideas for paintings and now is my time to focus. I am also in the first stages of possibly living here in Kingsbridge, at least thinking about it. I am house sitting for a while here and now Spring is here I am beginning to create a cottage garden in a somewhat neglected garden that was once magnificent, then decked out as in covered in wooden decking and now overgrown. A blank canvas. The idea is that I will move here to live, garden the abandoned garden and transform it into an cottage garden - it could look rather like this.

Then, I can run the shop/studio whilst adding the extra dimension of my own gallery space in town too. This is exactly what I love to do. All of it. Every year, along with many I dream of spending my winters in the South of France. This year it is looking like a real possibility. A place where I can write and paint, walk and keep this blog going. A time for some new adventures.

So for the next few months will be sharing some of my life from the past few years, this year and preparing for next year.

Paper-Mache 'Flowers' - 2

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Air dried Paper-Mache 'Flowers' almost finished. Ready to have findings added. You can scorch and gild paper mache quite easily. I am playing with the colours of winter when the colour has gone and we are left with dried stems and seed heads - burnt in sooty carbon with a Pyrography tool or with a light touch to give various shades of Burnt Ochre and Umber. Then gilded with Imitation Gold Leaf or the real thing if you prefer. It will echo the glimmer of sunlight breaking through on a cold January morning - perhaps. They resemble seed heads and sea shells in some ways. Memories and hope for the coming of spring again. Apologies for the sound level - listening through headphones seems to fix it. These are quite old videos now though I think that they are still well worth watching. Either way you are all invited to Subscribe - if you wish - I wish you would - it helps me enormously.

How to Make Papier-Mâché 'Flowers' - Drying in a Microwave Oven

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How to make papier-mâché 'flowers' by drying them out for 20 seconds at a time in a microwave oven. This method really speeds up the process. Do work out for yourself exactly how long the paper mache actually needs to dry out. Start with 5 seconds and see how your microwave and your paper mache responds. My suggestion of 20 seconds is only meant to be a guide. These components can be made into jewellery and as additions to bowls etc. Plenty of room for experimentation.

0.00 Intro 0.15 Porzella papier-mache clay by Rayher - other ingredients 3.50 In to the microwave for about 20 seconds or less - try less first to gauge your microwave 4.35 Out of the microwave 5.20 Using the pyrography tool to scorch marks on to the surface of the 'flowers' 6.40 Applying Acrylic Gold Size 7.30 Applying Gold Leaf or Artificial Gold - Silver or Copper Leaf 8.00 The central disc or flower whorl 8.30 Adding epoxy resin - describing how to briefly

Papier-Mache Bowls (etc) Tutorials - 2023.

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Making a Modroc Bowl.

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Modroc also known as Paris Bandage is so good for building form and structure. I am re-structuring my YouTube Channel one video at a time and  as I have a few working with Modroc I will bring them here on one Blog Post.

A very simple way to either make a bowl or to begin making on. 

I often use this method to make the form and a surface to work on to with more delicate layers of white tissue paper - I use the best quality tissue paper I can fine rather than the thin grey/white variety as it holds together for the time I need it to do so whilst working. I buy mine by the ream from Amazon nowadays.

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Making a Modroc Bowl. 2

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Spring - Autumn 2022

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 This is a catch up post. I have been so busy that life has taken over. I love creating this little sort of diary. More of a point of interest for family and friends but open to everyone - what I'm doing, perhaps my thoughts and photos of inspiring places. Saying this I have not yet uploaded any images onto my new laptop so I've looked to the past for the photos here. I love my past - most of it.

I count myself very fortunate as I'm usually pretty inspired by the world around me and by my imagination. In short I'm never bored. Though I do find that after covid was more tired than previously in the afternoons for a while. I surrendered to Hypnos and Morpheus and learnt to enjoy the journey and simply stopped resisting. In return I was able to conjure images and ideas that were/are quite literally as food from the gods. 

As some of you may already know, I have another studio to work in that also comes with storage space - incredibly useful. Also the use of a polytunnel although I prefer to think of it as a greenhouse. Make no mistake - it is a polytunnel and I'm rapidly learning the difference. But my mind keeps saying greenhouse so I'm going to say the same - it's far more atmospheric and old fashioned after all and comforting as I can transform it in my mind into a long Victorian greenhouse in a walled garden. It's a place where I can listen to the birds and the wind in the trees, the rain on the roof and look out across a valley to the sea beyond. I am blessed yet again. It's now beginning to provide green leaves and herbs plus a few strawberries and a place to safely keep my pots of transplanted garden plants - members of my family - gardeners will understand.

It's quite a jungle or will be. I've strung up a hammock so that I can slip occasionally into that alternative reality of feeling completely weightless - the perfect departure point for the imagination in fact. I've started to paint and draw in there too - lovely when it's raining. 

The studio space or rather spaces are exactly what I was hoping for when I was looking for my next studio last year - the perfect place to make all my YouTube and future Patreon tutorials (hopefully in January 2023) - spaces that are Set Decorated to look like home though in fact I don't actually 'live' here as I'm still technically homeless and stay with friends on a sort of rota basis when not working - for the time being anyway. 

What I like about this arrangement for now is that I do get to meet up with friends regularly - those who can put me up anyway. As a maker and an 80% introvert I can easily be completely preoccupied with my own inner world.

However I am constantly on the lookout for a new home but these are extremely hard to find right now. Prices have rocketed and so many people moved out of London and other cities in favour of a less stressful and expensive life. Well, less expensive for them but the result is that it's far more expensive for the people who live here. The ups and downs of life. Adaption is called for yet again. At least I have a place to work and I quickly decided that that was the priority.

So as my working space used to be initially a dormitory, then a hospital, then university offices, then a kitchen was added, then workshops and studios, it does naturally lend itself perfectly to my way of working. I have a series of dedicated spaces - one for jewellery making and video tutorials, one for painting most sizes of canvases and panels, one for my 'Sofa Chats' videos that I began in lockdown, the old kitchen is my papier mache studio as there is water and I have a portable induction hob for mixing up gesso, gelatin and also beeswax polish, a dedicated area for for drying by fan - it works - and my microwave for the quick drying of beads and small bowls etc. It's also ideal for video tutorial making as there is so much natural light. I even have an 'office space' and a place to edit and upload vlogs at the end of the corridor - fairly small but big enough.

 The room with the least light and a loo are piled with boxes of things I have yet to organise and for which I need to put shelving up but as yet I haven't found the time. I did manage to put up my daughter's big Victorian brass bed that I store for her, as I can store more boxes underneath it as well as create a huge 'table' with with my old market trestle tops on top where I now have a dedicated photography and packing area. One has to be creative with space. I still have lots to sort out and in theory I try to sort a bit out every day - I set my timer and give it half an hour. It adds up.

I sometimes house-sit a large rambling old house on the edge of Dartmoor when the owners who are friends go away with the possibility for long let in the future. In the meantime it's head down and work undisturbed and thank God for my friends and their spare rooms. 

Fortunately or not I'm one of those people who needs very little sleep and I've always been a very early riser - I love to welcome in the dawn and especially at this time of the year it is perfect as I can quietly leave wherever I happen to be and drive to work without waking anyone and start my day. My circadian rhythms give me a sharp mind from about 3.30am so I can be at work at usually 4.30. I know this may sound crazy to many people  and yet it is the way I am wired - I have had the same circadian rhythm all my life. I love it.

At present I am working on 18 new A4 boards that have been laser cut to make a new collection of paper mache jewellery. I'm constructing some paper mache bowls - rough textured and appearing to be weighty and resembling ceramic - think old Japanese masters of ceramics. 

I found a torn off strip of some kind of black waterproof paper that seemed to have acquired a richly textured layer of mud and green algae that had weathered and dried to an incredibly beautiful appearance. Naturally I brought it to my kitchen studio where it's been waiting to be transformed. The start of a new series. I'm currently filming that process and will then show how to create that effect without old mud and algae. So video to follow in the next post.

When working on any craft based project it'a all about processes and organisation. I have had to re-organize my studio so many times. This is effectively my 48th move. It's not as stressful as people think - though not without stress.

Autumn is now here and it's a great year for sweet chestnuts.

I'm continuing to gather the old dried out stems of foxgloves and bracken etc when I'm mooching about on Dartmoor. They provide me with endless references for paintings. C'est la vie. Toodle-loo.