Still a bit of finishing to do – and I think I wanna make them a little bigger…
AN email came in last night form one of the stars of the Golden Spurtle film that premiered in Copenhagen a few months ago..she was given one of the spurtle pins I was commissioned to make and she’d like some earrings to match.
After breakfast I get busy and by the time my new Romanian guitar student is online at midday I’ve got some prototype castings done.
After the guitar session I do some work out eh castings to tidy them up a bit. This is the laborious and often difficult part. I think they’re maybe a little on the small side. But send the customer some photos to see if we’re on the right track.
Margaret and Nixie have gone across to the island and aren’t back when I get the bus to the village for a doctor’s appointment. I’ve a painful left elbow and it feels very similar to bursitis I had in the elbow ten years ago. There’s so swelling it ‘heat’ tho’.
The doc reckons it’s not a bursitis and I just need to take it easy and see if it sorts itself out.
I have a nice walk home from the village and we sit int he garden and blether for a while.
Margaret’s made up some pinchos skewers for dinner which I cook outside on the grill….suddenly it’s 1.30am and we all head off to bed.
Just chillin’ – when it gets choppy but the wind’s in your favor why fight it…just go with the flow and take a break!
NOT long finished breakfast and got the day’s routine tasks out the way when Fiona arrives…we’ve planned a paddle for this morning.
It’s a lovely day but we’re not long out the bay when the wind’s starts to pick up a little. When we stop on the beach at Port Bawn on the far end of Inchailloch we notice the wind getting stronger and white horses start to appear.
We decide to head for home and come down the other side of the island. The wind’s is kinda in our favor so after battling a while to stay upright we decided to sit down – or in my case, lie down – and let the wind take us homeward.
The sun’s still shining when we get back tot he house so we sit in the garden and have a coffee before Fiona heads off.
After lunch I get busy with some promo for Friday’s release of Walk the Walk then start the video edit for the next single – Still Friends –which drops 8 August.
FREYA has us awake at 6.30am – which means I get my sourdough in the oven at a decent time!
I’ve managed to get through a fair bit of work before my mid-morning Zoom guitar student.
Joel and Maggi stop by and drop off Rosie for Freya – she’s crazy about dogs – to look after for a few hours.
Margaret takes Freya and Rosie for a walk and a picnic while I get busy int eh studio.There a couple of videos I wanna get edited up which also gives me some extra content for tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook.
There’s an order in for another leather bookmarks which I get busy with then Joel and Maggi come to collect Rosie and we have a coffee and a chat. Around the same time Will comes to get Freya.
I have time for a quick wander up the hill before the livestream…then dinner and some telly.
AFTER a lazy morning drinking coffee and dealing with emails and social media we have breakfast then I get busywith stuff.
First job is cleaning the grate from the smoker and some general tidying up outside.
With the release of Walk the Walk coming up on Friday (11 July) there’s another phase of work – website landing pages and a Spotify pre-save, prep for a preview release on Bandcamp, special media banners with links to the pre-save and a vertical edit of the video.
Then I create a teaser reel for all my socials.
Catriona arrives with Freya and we have a coffee then I finish off in the studio.
When the rain stops I take Freya or a walk then drop her at the house and wander a little more on my own.
ONCE the routine stuff’s done I get into the office and finishthe paperweight stands for Will. I bend the acrylic into shape with a heat gun – knowing when they’re reached optimum flexibility before melting is key.
There’s some other stuff I wanna do and need to try and get my head round 3D design tools – specifically Nomad Sculpture on the iPad. It’s complicated and daunting and I don’t; really know where to start.
I try and follow some ‘crash course’ tutorials but, as usual, there are some initial hurdles that go unexplained and make things difficult. Or maybe it’s just me!
The Stirling Observer has run the story and photo I sent from the community hydro society. I use the clipping to create graphic and share it on the hydro’s socials. At the same time I’m reminded that none of my fellow board members ever share or like the posts so I send a reminder round the group email and bump my gums about how the hydro socials need traction and if they can’t like and. Share how can they expect anyone else to do so.
A courier drops off some locking tuners and power pins from music supplier Thomann so I set about fitting out the ‘Frankencaster’ acoustasonic that I put together as a ‘house guitar’.
It’s been a miserable day outside and I’ve not managed to get out for a walk or anything before I light a chimney full of charcoal and prepare the grill for Vietnamese beef.
The leather bookmarks are now on general sale here
THERE’S a bunch of the Conic Hill bookmarks to be finished for various pick ups and online orders that need to go out today. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the interest in them.
In between finishing stages I finish off some other orders and make progress on others.
I’m only just finished when a customer drops by to pick up a couple of the bookmarks and then I get a call to meet another customer in the village with a whole batch of them.
We need some shopping and I’d planned to go into Glasgow but by the time I have gig posters, album promo packs and various merch orders all packed up with postage labels I’m short of time so take them to Balloch and pick up the essentials.
Back home I finish off the promo work for next week’s release of Walk the Walk then Betty arrives to join us for dinner.
Packaging stickers and paper weight stands for Manson Glass…
A BIT of a rush to get over to the studio and set up for my first online session of the day.
We’re trying out an app called JackTrip to get around the audio latency using Zoom, A test at the weekend has both myself and my student optimistic that it’ll work.
It does, and we’re able to work much more closely.
As we finish the session my in-person guitar student rocks up. Right after she leaves I have another online session…then the lessons are done for the day.
I have a load of the bookmarks to get done and the positive has delivered some leather supplies so I get busy with that.
I also have an order in for a couple of sets of slate coasters and there’s a big batch of packaging stickers and paperweight stands to be done for son-in-law Will (Manson Glass). And, of course, everything’s urgent.
In between setting up machines and running jobs I get the smoker fired up and a bacon-wrapped pork loin on the go for tonight’s dinner…Barbara and Thorsten are coming along.
I make good progress on everything and even manage to get some radio promo done for next Friday’s release of Walk the Walk before our dinner guests arrive.
I’VE just finished a load of online stuff when a courier drops off an order of materials, including some clear acrylic.
Will needs a load of paperweight stands made up and I ran out of acrylic. After cutting the big sheets to size I set about making the stands.
In the studio I prepare a news release for next Friday’s (11 July) release of Walk the Walk. That also includes private streaming links and access to an assets folder with tagged .wav and .mp3 versions of the track, a lo-res preview version of the video, cover art and the news release. Phew.
My afternoon guitar student has brought this electric guitar so I take him to the studio for the lesson…tight for space, but I manage to squeeze him and his mum into the control room with me.
An email comes in from another Kickstarter backer in Germany…another package hasn’t shown up and sent it on 2 June. I check the tracking and – like the other one that has ‘gone missing’ – seems it hasn’t made it past our sorting office. I’ll send another package off tomorrow.
Finally I get ready for a paddle. Fiona rocks up and we spend a good hour or two on the loch.
