Worm food wearing moth food.

Once upon a time I had a great collection of crazily bright and colorful jumpers but moths showed no style sense and devoured them, even though the jumpers were in very bad taste. I had to bin my prized collection.

I was recently given a Merino wool jumper, on washing, it revealed a multitude of moth holes. I decided to sew them open. Rather than attempting to hide its history of infestation and feasting, I would celebrate it.

Sew now I have a jumper that looks like it was once worn by 1930's gangster who was brought down in a light hail of machine gun bullets. It could be stylish, it could be the latest thing by a top designer. I like the way the fabric below can be seen, leaving the warmth and utility of the garment relatively unharmed.

My caveman sewing is in danger of becoming philosophical, maybe I can balance both aspects?
Time and decay, as ever will reveal the truth.

Neodymium Tea Bags

I found a great use for the magnets from magnetic name badges, that you may get from work, or at a conference.

They are very powerful rare earth magnets and can easily hold tea packets to the side of your refrigerator saving valuable kitchen worktop space. Open the lid of the tea packet, hold the magnet to the back of the packet and put it on the side of your ferrous metal fridge.

I enjoyed them so much that I ordered some more neodymium magnets from Amazon and use them to hold door keys to my metal front door, and Swiss army knifes, and tape measures to my steel office furniture.

These very powerful magnets are not for use by children and should be kept away from delicate electronics, watches, and magnetic data storage etc.

You will notice my British Yorkshire tea bags in pride of place, these are a vital drug for any Brit trying to survive on the wrong side of the pond.

Oh I think that it's time for a nice cup of tea!

My English grandad, Frank Martin was a street photographer after the Second World War. When my dad emailed a picture of Frank to me with his 'made in Liverpool' camera, I decided to put up a web page describing the start of his photographic career based partly on my recollections of his stories, but mainly on the information provided by my father.

My next step is to scan some images of his photographic and darkroom supplies shop that served the people of Dalston, Hackney and, via mail order, the world so I can make a page to keep the memory of this little shop alive.

I will gild my wounds and bejewel my scars.

I have had my second or third hand sheepskin coat for more than ten years, as I was recently reminded when I saw pictures of me wearing it on a trip to Rome in around 2000. It and I are looking quite good for our age, though we all suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous time.

My sheepskin developed a hole in the elbow which I had been wearing with pride for at least a year before I finally got round to adding some gold colored leather behind the wound. I wish to be proud of my caveman sewing skills, my bucking of the trend for over consumption and the beautiful aging of my reliable coat.

After breaking a few needles on another leather repairing task I took a trip to New York's garment district where shops still ply the hundreds of thousands of weird, wonderful and prosaic necessities for making clothes. I asked for needles for sewing leather and got a small paper packet of 'glovers' (for glove making) needles, made in England,

like myself.

The packaging looked like something out of the 19th century and bore the mark of Schul-Sons made in England since 1754, with more gold print on green on the inside of the pack informing me that “Schul-sons is your guarantee” and “made of the finest English steel”. On doing a quick Google I found a US trademark that expired in 1986 so, at the very least, these needles have been waiting 26 years for me to buy them. But the packaging leads me to think that they are earlier still.