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.

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.

Dancing shoes

My own personal museum is becoming cramped and it is difficult to continue to categorise and study the artefacts that are the debris of my life, let alone live a life worthy of recording.

So I am embarking on a preliminary decluttering, loosing much of my ephemera and other items that can no longer justify their storage space.
Along the way I am photographing the few objects that are beautiful, (such as dusty, slowly decaying dried flowers) or still have some space in my heart, if not on my floor or shelfs.

Take a pair of Reebok basket ball shoes, spray them with gold paint, fly around the globe performing in sweaty night clubs for a few years till the soles are worn smooth and slidy and there you have these unique items that I recently consigned to the shoe recycling bin.

Hopefully they are having a second life somewhere in the third world as the prised possessions of some otherwise unshod human being, and not just leaching toxic chemicals in landfill.

Photos of Jon Martin from Press, PR and Modelling

I’ve finally got round to scanning and uploading some of my old press and PR photos from some of my Musical incarnations such as The King of Hackney, Norman Cook's Pizzaman and Boom from Mills and Boom as well as modelling for fashion house Burro.
Check them out here
Photos of Jon Martin (Press, PR, and Modelling)

Travel photography galleries added to Jonmartindesigns.com

I finally got round to adding some travel photography galleries to my website www.jonmartindesigns.com
They cover some of my trips, since I left film behind and went digital. The destinations covered are: Aruba and Curacao in the Dutch Caribbean, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Belgium, France, Israel and Kazakhstan.
I got the galleries online in a rush to showcase my travel photography and they are quite slow to load so please be patient.
As a mad photography gear-head I feel I must explain that Sri Lanka, Limoges, Aruba and Curacao were all shot with a compact camera (the Olympus C-8080) and not the digital SLR that I now have.
Please enjoy and tell me which ones you like!

Caught in the web of time; Sri Lanka and Brittany Travel experiences

Hey I just posted some travel photographs and experiences on the Telegraphs Ultra travel site. The experiences are two of my most memorable from trips to Sri Lanka and Côtes d'Armor in Brittany France.

Chasing the setting sun westward (Côtes d'Armor)

Gecko infested room (Sri Lanka)

Hooky Monkey the new look multi-hook for sale on Addject

Thursday, January 28, 2010
Hooky Monkey for sale on Addject website
This elegant, incredibly strong hanging hook has not one, but four hooks to solve storage problems around your home and garden.

Designed by Jon Martin, this fun new decorative hook is a contemporary storage solution to suit urban lifestyles, and a great gift. Hang versatile Hooky Monkeys from an existing kitchen bar to store pots and pans, utensils and mugs from its strong arms and legs. Use Hooky Monkey to organise your hat, bag and keys in your hall, or hang tools, birdfeeder, lantern and hanging plants in your garden.

Once you get one Hooky Monkey helping around your home or garden you will come back for more.

You can buy it now at addject
Buy Hooky Monkey from Addject

Hooky Monkey hangs out at Top Drawer

Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Hooky monkey time
Current mood: breezy
Category: Art and Photography
I’ve been giving my valuable time to Hooky Monkey my new look multi-hook recently.

I went along to dress and arrange the cascade of Hooky Monkeys hanging out on the Addject stand at Top Drawer homeware show in London’s Earls Court 17-19 Jan 2010. I’ve never seen so many Hooky Monkeys in one place before, a veritable jungle of them.

www.addject.com

They are so handy to have around the home to hang keys, hats pots and pans etc on. But it’s hard to show their versatility without making the display cluttered.

Like in all things, a delicate balance is required.

Hooky Monkey finally appears on my design website as the only product I want to show off. The other products are in hiding till they get a proper release!

www.jonmartindesigns.com



I do hate having to learn the tiny bit of HTML, Java or CSS that I have to, life is too short to program.

So now I should know what to do for Spring fair (7-11 Feb 2010)

www.springfair.com