Upcycling Japanese style

This is a fantastic idea.

Kintsugi (or kintsukuroi) is a Japanese method for repairing broken ceramics with a special lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. The philosophy behind the technique is to recognize the history of the object and to visibly incorporate the repair into the new piece instead of disguising it. The process usually results in something more beautiful than the original.

If you’d like to try the technique yourself, Humade offers gold and silver DIY kintsugi kits. There's also a Kintsugi supplies shop on Etsy here. And there's a how to video guide here:



(Spotted at This is Collosal)

Lies and Bloody Statistics

They do say that you can make statistics prove anything. And thanks to a chap called Tyler Vigen, you can now see evidence of that. His Spurious Correlations site is a joy to behold, happily suggesting that the number of people who have drowned in swimming pools is suspiciously parallel to the number of films Nicholas Cage appears in. Or that the divorce rate in Maine correlates very closely with a rise in eating margarine. It's brilliant. Look'ee:

 

And my favourite ...

 

Lots more to see at his website here.

QED Squeeeeee!

Well, QEDCon was as amazing as ever this year. And the pressure was off for me as I wasn't speaking. In fact, the sum total of my involvement - apart from lots of drinking and meeting and greeting old friends etc. - was appearing on the InKredulous podcast panel show with Robert Llewellyn, Andy Zaltzman and Michael 'Marsh' Marshall.

Tremendous fun and hosted brilliantly, as ever, by Andy Wilson and his saxophone. You can listen to the episode by clicking here.

 

The event was hosted excellently by magician Paul Zenon and boasted a gaggle of amazing speakers including Professor Richard Wiseman and the aforementioned Mr Llewellyn. There were also a number of speakers I was less familiar with but they were all universally interesting.

The intro video to QEDCon is always a treat every year and, for 2014, the bar was set very high indeed. But judge for yourself ...



Roll on QEDCon2015!

Photos (c) by Dave Hughes and Rob McDermott. Lots more on the QEDCon2014 Flickr stream here.

RCA Secret 2014

This year I was delighted to be asked once again to donate three original postcard-sized pieces for the Royal College of Art's Secret Auction. As the website says ...

The Royal College of Art’s annual ‘secret’ postcard exhibition and fundraising sale is celebrating its twentieth birthday in style this year. 2,900 postcard-sized artworks by over 1,000 artists have been donated to help support young art students. Contributors including Grayson Perry, Paula Rego, Yinka Shonibare, David Bailey, musician Jarvis Cocker, architect Zaha Hadid, fashion designers Sir Paul Smith and head of Burberry Christopher Bailey have all produced mini masterpieces that will be up for sale at just £50 each.

What’s the secret? Each year, the Royal College of Art asks professional artists and designers, plus up-and- coming art students and graduates to make and donate a piece of work. Artists may choose to paint, draw, sketch or even produce a 3D sculpture as long as it’s postcard-sized. Each postcard is signed on the back, so collectors don’t know the identity of the artist until they’ve handed over their cash.'

Last year I did a series of terrible insect-based puns. This year I've done some Warhol spoofery. Behold:

You can see all of the postcards here. Roll on next year!