The Tinkers Bells

When, in the current of life, the undiluted flow in which real experiences become infused by those that appear fictional in content, realize, there is no need to worry or deny. These experiences are as real as any other.  And it is because of this that I relate to you this story which speaks of how this is. Not just because it is nonfiction but because it is hoped that it can effect the future. At the time of writing future appears bleak.  Not on an individualistic level but on all fronts although things have come a long way.

                                  On the 2 weeks preceding Christmas in 2014 a odd figure walks the streets of the City of Edinburgh bearing traditional gifts with magical qualities from an old Marmet carriage pram, in the imaginings of this strange persons mind the vision is of a horse drawn wagon or cart.  A tinker of sorts.  But of course these are dreams and therefor non existant.  Anyone can see that this person does not belong in this time or place.  Within the pram there is a worm hole.  This person hopes that people can escape this reality she percieves a wrong through this medium, and she does so herself every night. It is, for this thing, a cruel affliction to be forced upon this world.  A story for another time.  By climbing into the pram she disappears and it folds in on itself but once again that is a story for another time.  A return to the childlike nature of playfulness is all that this creature can fathom, why oh why would be grow up, is life not about laughter and fun.

                                   Unlike a conventional stall this one can go on the buses and it is here that the woman is photographed crest fallen and holding a ticket which displays the standard ticket words.  Adult....single.  It appears in the Evening News but that's not the story that its covering.  The story is about how now babies have been granted priority over the disabled.  The Forth Reich is alive and well an it breathes its stench across the cities and town of the once Untied Kingdom like a foul smog!
 Our story, of course,  means nothing to anybody except for this untidy thing because she knows that life is hard on your own and there's no mistake ever in thinking that loneliness can be solved without medication.  She knows this because of the other world from which she came. .  While outside Saint Giles or while circumnavigating Bristo square people approach attracted by the worm hole.  She sells them thimbles that she has made into bells, presenting them as wish makers.  She calls them Tinkers Bell's afterTinkerbell from Peter Pan.

One woman approaches and says" How brilliant my friend just gave me this little book of luck and in return I shall buy her one of these". She opens the book and it reads, "Its better to be born lucky than rich. "  And that's true you know...she walks off not realizing from that day on all her dreams and wishes will come true because that is the power of the thing she holds.

Next on George the Forth bridge a pair of Spanish tourists buy a bell....also attracted to the worm hole, she loves Tinkerbell...it is no coincidence...she is here because she believes in magic and that is all! A man on middle meadow walk asks to see a licence. He is interested, not angry.  It is the pedlars licence and that intrigues him.  He talks of the gypsies of Morningside and of the old Scottish travelling families, the Macphees and the Stewarts.  How they are different and how theres no sign of them now.  The creature says..."well I'm no gypsy, I'm just down on my luck. " To which the man responds. "You are wrong you know, the blood that runs in your veins is both!" He buys a bell for his good lady wife and they continue on their way.  Around the corner, by the foot of the old James Guilespies School, the creature walks before climbing into the pram. Here in the shadows of a broad beamed  yew tree the touseled one returns to the other domain in which it exists, but like I say that world  is another  complicated story reserved for another time.

While in the other "real" world a stranger staggers through the night, he has had a bad day, things are not going well for him...he has fallen through the cracks and he doesn't know where he is.  He is attracted to the space where the pram once stood and that isn't because of the darkness or anything like that , he is attracted because of the invisible threads, but he knows nothing of that. He's mental, with the drink...flying....and because of that he can see to where the pram has gone.  He sees the creature but he knows that its a she, in the other she doesn't wear her dirty disguise.  She has hidden herself again.  He has seen her before and he cannot take his eyes away from her.  As long as I am not describing "the other" till a later date I shall not talk of what happens there for too long.  Upon her realization that she has been spotted by another creature from "the other" she knows she has met her match in the world.  There is no story to tell apart from that.  There was a time for a while that nature tried to keep them apart using chains of distraction but they both knew too well otherwise.  They had been together before through time and infinity immemorial and there is something very primal about that.  From the very first reflection, which was the division of a cell and not the splitting of an atom.
Reflections...not divisions.  You just know when you know.  And when you do there is no way back.                       Just the road of togetherness ahead.  And that like I say that is all!

Scottish Glass Society Exhibition........Endeavour

This is my latest work which is on show at the Peter Potter Gallery in Haddington as of tomorrow until the 1st of November.  This is the piece of equipment invented by Netta Funrnairio which is described in my previous posting. Also there is water being made into wine.  Not as difficult a task as is made out!  Also some images of inspirations thanks to a book I found in a second hand bookshop in Thurso called Magnetic Storm by Roger Dean and a stone age friend I made at the Trinkey in Wick.

Rock Face

The Magnetic Storm

Sometimes, they say, a family retraces its steps,right back to its roots.  Our ancestors can, by use of a magnetic undercurrent bring back together those that have been separated through the short spaces of time that we perceive as linear.  This natural electricity bides in the air, the invisible strings of glue that hang like spider webs in the ether.

Ralph Gemmell having spent several months in a dark prison is put aboard a ship bound for the plantations of the Far Island.  The ship left the docks of Old Liverpool picking up a consort of prized female sex slaves of native decent as they left.  They were to be passed on by a slave trader who often used girls then sent them away when they had become in his mind too old or ugly.

Although they had left in dead calm a tumultuous storm had ensued from which the brutal and sadistic captain of the ship refused to release his cargo of captives.  lt appeared that all would be vanquished were it not for Gemmell having eons of experience as a fisher man.  He not only manage to secure himself to raft made of drift wood but also to the tousled body of a heavily draped and hooded character of whom he had not met before.  As the raft broke shore after a full night of irregular and violent seafaring it was, hear, on an isolated rock that the invisible threads were to break down and waves of relief wash over this most unlikely happening.  They person of whom he had the fortitude to rescue he fell instantly in love with and although she was damaged they had the fortitude to land in an accepting community where all people were accepted as individuals.  The woman Netta Fornairio had never been used as a sex slave but had been used for her magical powers and she used them here.  Netta practiced her brand of herbalism in the village in exchange for an education for her children at the local school.  Gemme11 worked the coast with other traders and fishermen.                                    Unfortunately like all things this was not to be forever.

The elderly minister of the church who had always loved the diversity of all religions and spiritual practices had faded and died, a new minister was to come along in his place.  Alongside the old minister the community faded and began to die.  The new man had a distaste for the simple things and wished for a castle in the sky, he had no peace on this earth and he created and angry and vengeful god, unlike the benevolent accepting one the villagers were used to.  He took it upon himself to separate good and bad with a scythe of his own self righteousness.  His word was law and if you didn't agree there was no turning back.  He demanded all the men to work for free on building his castle in the sky.  The minister knew there was no other way he could reach heaven deep in his heart. Gemmel being an outspoken man was soon to be discovered to be living in sin with a woman of tribal ancestry.  The minister called what she did the work of the devil at the same time denying the practices of similarity he was to be found using within his church.
                                                   And he was afraid of her.
 "She is a witch!" the minister declared in the village to all,  "No she is an angel!" Claimed the people.  Time went on and the minister concocted more and more terrifying stories until he told them of a place beyond the sand of times that they would go if the continued to believe this.  "Satan is in your heart persuading you of this blasphemy!" He would declare every week in his dark but captivating masses.  Different from anything these people had seen before, they became lost in the darkness.  The villagers became afraid of the angry God as the minister put more and more fuel onto the fire of fear.  They become scared of the God that has been created and they stopped standing up for their friends who they have lived with in peace and happiness for many years.

Out of nothing Ralph builds a boat, out of nothing, for his family with which to sail to the other side of the island where the sun rises up over the sea and sets in the soft bracken covered land.  Apon discovering a rocky inlet with clear water and a spring they scale the cliffs together just as the horizon is set alight by the green ray, although of course the don't even notice it after always having been seeking it.  Many years passed by, travelers and fishermen use the rocky inlet and they become accustomed to the warm welcome they are offered by the people who live there.
                                    The Gemmels built their house on the coast where the wind and rain blew them indoors to the warmth of the fire in the winter and outdoors in the summer when the sun and the sea bronzed and cleansed them.  Upon learning that his Grandmother is buried in a small graveyard here he is informed by the villagers that his descendants are to be found in the far north, as this is where they came from generations ago.  Having been born into Slavery Ralph has had no family and as they have a fondness for the ocean and imaginings for good things beyond the horizon they set out with their brood on a summer predicted as being a good one.  While preparing a meal of hot food on the third day, using equipment of Netta's invention, several schooners appear off to the north west.  They bear insignia similar to that of Netta's culture so no fear is brought upon the family although an initial amount of uncertainty.  It is not long before Netta realises that these people are her people, being from the north they are Gemmels people too. A celebration ensues on the open ocean and at the sunset,  a green flash, they all observe together.  After  23 days of sailing so far north it became south again they land upon forests of unimaginable proportions.  It is here that Ralph realizes we are all part of the same family.                                            This is not the end.  It is the end of a beginning!

There would be another ending to this story if it weren't for the fortitude of Gemmell and Furnairios great great great great great............great grand mother being a lone traveller to the area who, for no good reason at all, conducted a ritual almost 4000 years before the event just described.  The area became charged with the webs of invention and synchronicity that only the deep archane knowledge of the subconscious always has access too.  It has just lain dormant for too long.

Who said Alice doesnt live here anymore?

Alice is materialising slowly at the grove....as is an enormous courgette....check out the really cute bumbler on that sunflower.

There's something fishy going on here!

I have been asked to produce some glass for a couple who are getting married.They live next to the tay with a view over to Dundee. The Tay is renowned for very strong currents, it's trout and salmon. In 1922 a Miss Ballantine of Perth caught a 64 pound salmon. This record is never likely to be broken. We don't want our fish to get caught however it would totally ruin the romantic gesture.

An anenome, bowl, web, basket case!

The bowl needs to be handled to be appreciated really so it doesn't really suit a gallery setting. Here the patterns immortalised in it can be recognised more easily and the suggestion of  forms other than its original can be seen.

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