Rings and Crescents

This was the first coconut thing I made. It looks kind of clunky now. It used to sit on top of the television, in the days before televisions were too thin to have things sitting on them. I used to tell people it was the aerial. No one ever thought this was funny.

This is a more recent development of the same idea. It's probably my favourite of the things I've made so far.

Blue and Yellow

I like looking at these pictures at the moment, if only because they remind me of a time when the sky was blue and the sun cast sharp shadows. Today has been really cold and grey. My toes feel as if they may be a similar colour to this sky.

Segments

Here's another one from a while ago. This was the first time I tried sanding away the inside of the shell. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the patterns that were revealed.

The Original Cocopede

This is the big brother of the chap in the previous post. He must be around a year old now. The log he sits on lay around for ages while I wondered what to do with it. Something had to emerge from that hole, but what? Construction the same as the other one: coconut shell, flattened copper pipe, Araldite, patience and occasional swearing.

Cocopede

A couple of years ago, I had the idea of using coconut shell as a craft material. It turned out to be great to work with: virtually no grain, so it can be cut any which way, and it polishes to a lovely shine. This little fella is the most recent thing to have appeared. The body segments are coconut shell; the legs were cut from flattened copper pipe. I'll post some earlier ones over the next few days.

These 'in progress' pictures were requested at the time by @kaylawoi, who kept me company on Twitter while I sanded the ends off my fingers and stabbed my hands with pointy copper legs. Thanks also to @The_Holy_Log, and to @porridgebrain who came up with the name Cocopede.

Textures of Slate

One day last summer, visiting family in Cumbria, I had a wander around an old slate quarry nearby. The heaps of discarded slate offered a lovely range of colours and textures, none of which have been altered or enhanced with digital shenanigans. Honest.

Launchy Gill

One of my favourite places for waterfalls. A bit off the beaten track, on the west side of Thirlmere. I had the whole place to myself the day I took these pictures. If I'd been at Aira Force near Ullswater I'd have had to stand on a box to see over the crowd.