Inspiration: Explosive

 All of my halloween hazards (so far!) are inspired by the international safety symbols but explosive required a slightly different approach.  It's not easy to just show those little exploding pieces in black and have the symbol be clear because it's actually quite a detailed symbol with irregular edges.  The lines radiating out though really gave me something to play with and I decided to make these look like flashes of light using silver lined beads.  I think this makes the piece look really dramatic!

And explosions really should be dramatic!

Well, maybe that isn't true.  There seem to have been a lot of explosions down here this winter.  Probably no more than normal but maybe the local news has been keener to report on them to shift focus from the dreaded C.  With our many miles of beaches, every year potentially unexploded ordnance is uncovered or washed up.  

My favourite story this year was about a local guy who runs Shiver me Timbers a local reclamation yard that has some really cool stuff online but somehow I have never been to visit....  It's on my to do list once the world goes back to normal...  Anyway, he had wanted a sea mine for some time and found one washed up on the beach and rolled it home, where he used it as footstool.  He had however gone through proper channels and it was known that the mine was a dummy mine used in practices, so it was completely safe.  The Royal Navy reclaimed the mine however, although it appears that wasn't exactly the end of the story....

There was a WWII bomb found and exploded in Exeter and a phosphorus flare was blown up at Polhawn Cove just in the last few days...  (Yes, this was posted retrospectively!)

But there is something about explosions.  One of my childhood memories was watching footage of old brick works chimneys being brought down at Stewartby.  If you want to skip to the best view of the explosions though, go to the last minute!  

I guess it isn't surprising that artists like to play with explosions too....  there is something so powerful about them.  One of my favourites is Cai Guo-Quiang with the Ninth Wave and Transient Rainbow being just a couple of his works....  There are many other artists that use explosions though.  Martin Klimas photographs flowers as they explode and the images are so beautiful.  Nick Knight photographs powdered paint explosions, as does Irby Pace, but the two could not be more different in their styles.

Of course, there is a tragic and sad side of explosions, but I just don't really want to go there right now...  Not really...  But, Hayat Nazer built a sculpture of a woman from rubble left from the Beirut port explosion last year.  It's a beautiful piece.

If you want to have a look at some pictures on pinterest then click here!

Inspiration: Radioactive

The radiation symbol was originally developed at the University of California in 1946 with a blue symbol on a magenta background.  The symbol is now internationally recognised as being black on a yellow background.  The symbol is actually specific to ionizing radiation and there is a different symbol for non-ionizing radiation.  This symbol has a red background with a skull and crossbones and a person running away both sat below a radiation symbol.

For something to radiate, it means it emits something, either waves or particles.  So things emitting light radiate.  Ionising radiation is the category that includes all high energy  waves and particles, such as X rays, gamma rays, some ultraviolet light as well as alpha and beta particles and any other sub-atomic particles.  Non-ionising radiation includes visible light, infra red, lasers, microwaves and radio waves.  So things that are radioactive radiate and are classed as ionising radiation.  

Radioactivity is something that happens at the atomic level.  Some atoms are just so big and ungainly, that they are unstable.  They fall apart.  Different substances have different numbers of protons, neutrons and electrons. When an atom is unstable, it loses bits until it become more stable.  It can lose pure energy, which is gamma rays; an alpha particle which is two protons and two neutrons or a beta particle which is a single electron (or if it has a positive charge, a positron).

I think radioactivity is a very scary thing and one of the things that makes it so scary is that it is invisible and the scale of the disasters caused by it.  One atom decaying is not to much of an issue but there are a lot of atoms in a tiny amount of material.  When a particularly unstable radioactive material is concentrated and allowed to be in contact, as each atom decays or falls apart, it causes the atoms next to it to also decay.  Imagine a bunch of jenga towers next to each other, one falls and it knocks two of the others, each of which knock two more and so on, until most of them fall.  This is what happens when there is a radioactive explosion.  The bombs used in Japan, the disasters of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima...  all runaway radioactive decay.  Uranium and Plutonium are the most dangerous of elements.

Uranium occurs naturally and is present in the granite where I live.  When I was at college we took a geiger counter out one time and found some very radioactive rocks.  A cave on a beach created when they used to mine and this mine produced Uranium amongst other metals.  A stone in a wall by a busy path, at the perfect height to sit on.  Down near St Just, children are told not to play with the black rocks.  The Uranium is spread out so it isn't going to cause a runaway event leading to an explosion.

It isn't actually the Uranium that is the most dangerous though, one of the things it decays into is a radioactive gas called Radon.  Radon is able to travel upwards, out of the ground and into peoples homes.  Some homes in Cornwall have very high levels of Radon and have to have alterations made to ventilate the gas away.  Basements are also particularly susceptible.  People breathe the gas in and it is one of the biggest causes of Lung Cancer along with Asbestos following Smoking.  One particular issue is that people that smoke and also live with high levels of Radon are at even higher risk because the Radon atoms tend to be attracted to the smoke particles which remain in the lungs.

Radioactivity is not all bad.  When managed extremely carefully it is very useful.  It is the cleanest source of electricity after renewable sources.  It is also used in medicine to treat people with Cancer and for sterilizing things to ensure they are completely clean and not contaminated with any microbes.  That's not to say it's nice, even when used in these ways....  It's a harsh treatment.

When I was growing up, they wanted to bury radioactive waste nearby at Elstow.  I remember seeing protests on the local news and I remember a family friend being amongst those protesting.  It was such an important story locally that a monument was built, although it had to be relocated and repaired a few years back.  The site that would have been used for nuclear waste has been redeveloped for housing and what was a quiet backwater in the 80s is now a vital part of the local road network and part of huge redevelopment.  I don't think any of that would have been possible if they had used it for nuclear waste.

Nuclear has laid waste to land, made it unsafe to inhabit...  Fukushima and Chernobyl have both resulted in ghost towns with haunting photos of what happens when people just leave.  The fear of this happening haunted us all during the Cold War.  Nowhere would have been safe.  I don't think people realise the scale of nuclear preparations.  I know of several basement nuclear bunkers now used as storage and often full of files.  The irony is now the ventilation has been turned off, in Cornwall at least, these rooms are sometimes more radioactive than those above ground, full of Radon gas.

You can see my pinterest board for Radiation here!

Inspiration: Skull and Crossbones

In the UK, the skull and crossbones is also known as the Jolly Roger and was used as a flag to show when a pirate ship was about to attack.  The ships would fly false flags as they pursued their prey and then hoist the jolly roger as they were about to attack.  It was an offense to even own a jolly roger flag, so only lawless pirates would dare.

It seems though that Jolly Roger may have originally been a generic term for pirate flags and may have originally been Joli Rouge and actually referred to the blood flag, a plain red flag used by French privateers.

Some sources say that quarter would be given when a flag with a black background was used, but no quarter when a red flag was flown.  Those that surrendered under a black flag would be spared and allowed to live.

While the skull and crossbones go back to the 1700s, the variety of designs of pirate flags was much wider.  Hourglasses symbolising death and cutlasses were common, along with the long bones and skulls we are used to.

Pirates are strongly associated with Cornwall, where I live.  Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, 'the Pirates of Penzance' means that in the public mind, Penzance is especially pirate like.  Penzance is a town situated along the coast of Mounts Bay, along with Mousehole (home of the infamous Mousehole Cat, star of a children's book); Newlyn (still a thriving fishing port) and Marazion (a beautiful ancient town connected to St Michael's Mount by a causeway at low tide).  We even have a rugby team called the Cornish Pirates.

There is a world record for the largest number of people dressed as pirates in one place and Penzance has tried to get the record twice now and come nail bitingly close both times.  I was there the second time with some family members.  It was great fun to go and dress up as pirates and see everyone's costumes.  Some of my pirate things have become permanent home decor.  I have a wolf's head sculpture which wears my tricorn hat and a jolly roger sits on the table with our TV on.  There is something so romantic and exciting about pirates, even if the truth was very different!

Pirate John 'Eyebrow' Thomas was believed to be a pirate who lived in Marazion and his grave is now a minor tourist attraction in it's own right, featured on tripadvisor.  After his death, Marazion church refused to bury him and so he is buried in the churchyard of the nearby village of Gulval instead.  Cornish Bird Blog explores the story further and it ends up being more of a mystery...  It's not clear if he was a pirate, or maybe a privateer.  Certainly his gravestone features the skull and crossbones.

Cornwall was generally well known for it's pirates and smugglers.  With 400 miles of coast riddled with rocky little coves, there were numerous spots to land illicit goods or treacherous rocks to lure unsuspecting ships on to.  It was such an issue that coastguards created a path along the entire coast so that they could move quickly to intercept illicit goings on.  This path has seen many uses since and is now the South West Coastal Path and draws many tourists to the area and gives access to the entirety of the Cornish coastline.

This is a link to my Pirate Pinterest Board!

Inspiration: Halloween Hazards - Poison

 

My interest in poison began at an early age, in a perfectly innocent way.  The house I grew up in had secondary glazing creating a space between the windows and the secondary glazing.  My parents collected old bits and pieces including bottles and jars.  One of their collections was of poison bottles.  These bottles were beautiful, brightly coloured blue or green glass, ridges on the side and often the words NOT TO BR TAKEN.  At the time, few could read, so the colours were used specifically for containers of poisonous substances.  They were an early suncatcher I guess, glistening prettily in the sunlight.

The colours of the bottles inspired the background of this piece, although I went for lighter colours, to give a contrast to the lettering.  The original bottle green and cobalt blue of the poison bottles are colours I will return to, I am sure...

What makes something poisonous is largely a matter of the quantity required to produce a negative reaction.  The black stuff on burnt toast is toxic in large quantities, even water could be toxic, if we were physically capable of drinking enough.  Other substances are far more poisonous and it requires only a tiny amount to make us ill.

Growing up, my parents made sure I knew what poison plants I might encounter looked like.  So I knew deadly nightshade, because some would occasionally sprout in our garden.  My mum was a herbalist and a nurse so had a great interest in the medicinal use of plants.  She valued them as much as she knew which ones to treat with caution.

She taught me how Digitalis, a medicine produced from Foxgloves, was the one medicine a herbalist could never prescribe.  The problem with is, if you don't have the precise heart condition it is used to treat, it would instead be likely to kill you.  Also, ensuring the exact dose that was required was received was so very difficult with a plant based medicine which had to be used so carefully....  It's much better to see a cardiologist and receive full tests followed by the medicine Digoxin which was developed from Foxgloves.

I definitely find poisons interesting, with their often complicated nature and I know I am not alone.  At the Alnwick Castle, they have a special Poison Garden.  It contains around 100 different poisonous and toxic plants and can only be accessed on a guided tour.  Visitors can not touch or smell any of the plants but even with these precautions, some visitors still faint from the fumes when they visit.

The garden was inspired by a visit to Italy where the Medici family cultivated poisonous plants in the gardens at their properties and used them to kill their enemies.  Catherine de Medici had a particularly bad reputation when it came to using poisons and it's not clear if this was deserved or not.

The modern symbol for toxic substances is the skull and crossbones which has long been a symbol that something is deadly, dating back to the late Middle Ages.  The skull and crossbones was first used as a symbol for poison in New York in 1829.  By the 1870s, it was in use to denote toxicity everywhere.  It's connection to pirates meant that in the United States, it was replaced by Mr Yuk because it was felt the skull and crossbones might attract some children who liked pirates.  The skull and crossbones is a public domain symbol but Mr Yuk is not.

If you want to see images of some of the things that inspired me, here is my pinterest board.

The pattern for this peyote bracelet is available at Etsy and GJ Beads.

Inspiration: Halloween Hazards - Biohazard

Sometimes inspiration hits quickly and it comes with a fully formed idea.  Biohazard was like that.

Someone in a bead group I belong asked if anyone knew of a pattern for a biohazard symbol for a keyring.  The next morning, I woke up with a fully formed idea in my head.

With a scientific background, I am used to these symbols, mostly.  There are a lot of them!  The craze for zombies means that any sci fi fantasy fan is probably familiar with the biohazard symbol.  This year too, has been all about biohazards as Covid has had an impact on everyone's lives.  One way or another, biohazards are a real halloween horror this year....

A biohazard is a substance that is hazardous to human health that is biological in origin, so it includes viruses.  The symbol is used as a warning marker and this includes human waste, used needles, toxins and microorganisms.  It was developed by Charles Baldwin and the Dow Chemical Company.  They wanted to make an entirely new symbol that was different to anything else so that they could then educate people as to it's meaning and it would not be confused with anything else.  Before this symbol, there was no standard and the symbols used by many organisations were not distinctive.

Charles Baldwin however did not approve of it being used for other purposes.  At a seminar on biohazards, participants were given a tie with little biohazard symbols all over it.  In his own words, he sent the organiser a nasty letter.  He certainly would not approve of it's connection to zombies and common use in such horror films and images.  He would not like this bracelet either....

The background of the bracelet is lime green with various neon greens to represent biological matter, plants particularly...  but it's not supposed to be entirely pretty, it's lurid...  but contained in a black frame.  Blood also features round the symbol itself.  This is not a new idea to me as many people have modified the symbol in this way.  It's striking and in my view, really suitable for Halloween this year.

Want to look at the images which inspired me on pinterest?