Hans Meevis' Jewelry Blog

Making a Bezel.

2012-01-29T03:24:00.001-08:00

There has been this serious kerfuffle about making a bezel on Orchid, a jewellery forum I belong to.

There is always one or two posters on any forum who will argue an incorrect point until they are thoroughly proven wrong by the other members.

Then they always bounce onto the next subject and the cycle starts all over again.

I find this very tiring and I simply don’t join in anymore.

The same happened about making a bezel, which is one of the easiest and most fundamental things a beginner learns when starting to make jewellery.

It became so ridiculous that I eventually posted (against my better judgment ) and suggested that he and I use our Orchid blogs and show our individual methods of making bezels.

Needless to say, my suggestion was not taken up.

I would have let it lie there, but I received a number of private emails and responses on the list to please make a tutorial on this subject.

Normally, I make tutorials on more advanced and esoteric subjects, but OK, while it’s not rocket science to me, there are obviously others who are just starting out who want to know the technique.

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And I always start out on a HIDI ( how I do it ) by saying that this is not the only way to do it, and even not necessarily the best, but this is what works for me.

One of the posters asked our serial arguer how, using his method, would one make a bezel for a stone that is shaped like a piece of snot on the pavement.

I really laughed at that description, so for this tut I am going to make a bezel for three stones.

A laminated and carved Larimar and chalcedony stone I made which is indeed shaped like a gob on the pavement. I was never happy with this stone so it is a good test subject.

The other two, a piece of not so well shaped Pietersite I bought on the internet and an industrial machine cab of black chalcedony.

I will basically use these pliers for most of the shaping and bending. I will use others as well, but with these one can make pretty much any shaped bezel.

For standard cabs like the black one, which measures 12 x16mm one can use a oval triblet, but I want in this tut to use only hand tools.

Also, the tube bender, second from the left, will leave a mark on the metal so I use it only for harder metals like 14 gold.

The one BIG thing in goldsmithing is if you don’t want a mark on metal, don’t put it there in the first place. That is also the reason why all the tips of my pliers are polished.

A lot of jewellers buy premade stock, and if one does, the best way to make a strip of metal out of plate is to pierce it. Not to use snips, because it deforms the metal and makes accuracy more difficult. An example is in the bottom right of the picture, where I have pierced it halfway by way of illustration.

I melt and roll out all my stock, so I will be using the three strips of metal pictured.

The left side is 14ct gold and that I am going to use for the Larimar cab, it being the most difficult shape and the hardest material.

The other two will be made with silver.

The thickness of the strip is normally determined by the jeweller. Anything from .3mm to 1 mm can work.

I prefer .7mm as the mean average, but as I said, the particular design will determine the thickness of the metal.

The height is determined by the minimum needed to hold the stone firmly.

It stands to reason that the minimum amount of metal will show the stone off the best, but again, the design of the final piece will be the arbitrator.

I start with the black cab and I shape the metal with the half round flat piers. I bend and fit and bend some more. I use the cab as my guide, check to see that the metal follows the curve. This takes practice but is not actually difficult.

Eventually one get to this stage. This is where I then cut the bezel with my saw, as shown in the next picture.

Now, as in the picture with the triangular cab , I sometime will cut up to five times, incrementally making the bezel smaller. This effort to get a good fit always pays off, because there is no more worry about the stone fitting the bezel as the piece progresses.

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NOTE

The metal can sometimes be wrapped around the stone using the stone as a template. Care should be taken because some stones can be damaged that way.

Now another method used by jewellers is to work out the length of the metal via pencil calculations.

In this case it would be the length plus the breadth of an oval divided by two which gives the average diameter.

Then, multiplying the average by Pi, (3.14), gives the circumference and the adding one and a half times the thickness of the metal to the Pi figure, will give the overall length of metal needed.

It seldom works , because very few cabs are perfect and by the time all the calculations are worked out, the metal measured and cut, I have finished using my method and am out to lunch or getting laid. I joke, I joke…..

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Then I cut the excess off with a saw.

No side cutters on snips, because that causes the metal to deform and wastes time fixing the deformation up. Trust me on this one.

Now, were I gong to set this cab using the walls as a bearing surface, I would made it a smidgeon to small, like in this picture. But lets say you have just misjudged the size and it is a little to small. Then all is not lost, as long as its an oval .

Pop it on the round triblet and tap it up just a little bit. I normally make a mark with a sharpie, ( shown on the ‘E’ side ) so I can see how far I have tapped it up. Then, when you happy, anneal it and bent it oval again using the pliers shown above.

Bingo, she fits.

The next one I start from the base, but it can be really started anywhere. It’s just that bending the sharpest corners first is easier.

I bend the two side up, using any of the two pliers shown.

Then I cut the one side lower and bent the top side over, because I want to solder on the straight side. It is easier than matching the two sides at the top and it is also easier aligning to straight edges.

And as I mentioned before, I will saw small pieces off until the correct size is reached.

Done. The bezel is made far to high because in the many years I have been making jewellery, I have found it is much easier to file something smaller than bigger. So were I to use this stone for a piece of jewellery, I would file it lower until it was in proportion.

Now we come to the more difficult one.

14ct gold is much more hard and springy than silver.

Again, like in the previous stone, I start from the base and generally from the sharpest corner.

I work my way up to the top. This shape will require frequent bending back and forth. This will work harden the metal so I anneal the bezel from time to time.

Until I get to the top and then I anneal for the final time prior to soldering closed.

Now here is the thing.

Once the bezel is soldered closed, it is virtually impossible to adjust the shape. Simply because if you bend any part of the bezel, it will affect another part, normally the opposite side. And you can waste more time trying to fix it up that just starting over.

So I make pretty sure that all is accurate before I solder.

Here is the back part of the lamination cab after soldering. It stands to reason that the tighter the fit the better the job.

But , short of sloppy work, the tighter the fit also brings the possibility of the stone chipping when it is forced into the bezel. Common sense instead of a hammer should be used.

Also, if the bezel does not fit well, it is at this stage of making the final piece that the bezel should be discarded.

If it does not fit well, it also will not fit well as the piece progresses.

This will result in a sloppy job, and as I said, it always takes far longer to fix up than starting the bezel over.

And here are the three finished and ready for further working into jewellery.

The total time to make these bezels was hour and a half, with the lamination stone taking 45 minutes, it having a bezel of harder metal and a snotty shape.

Miniature Steam Wobbler.

2012-01-25T13:01:00.001-08:00

This is my latest steam engine. I used the EU 50 cents as a base and also as the flywheel.

Check the little piston.

The piston is just under 3mm wide and it has a stroke of 8mm.

Kind of handy that the coins are made out of brass.

It was quite tricky to get it to actually run

I had to make several flywheels until I got the ratio of size and weight correct.

So now I know I can get this size running. The next one I am going to make half this size again.

All this is leading up to my next gemstone machine.

This one is going to be ultra small and I am going to facet all the components out of cubic zirconia.

Making a brass machine is easy compared to one in stone.

So I want a clear handle of what to do before I start faceting.

Mini Steam Oscillator.

Cutsie pie. She runs on quite a high pressure.

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This is true Sandra.--- As Anne also pointed out to me, the larger one is actually hers. So it would be hers and his.

It is good to be a metro male!

The Boat Show.

2012-01-22T12:16:00.001-08:00

I don’t particularly like boats. And in St Maarten we saw enough boats and yachts to last a lifetime.

But some buddies of us from Saba were exhibiting at the show. They own a diving outfit, so they come every year to the boat show and Anne and I went to see them there.It’s big.

This is only one of some 13 halls, with every conceivable thing to do with sea, diving, boats you name it, its there.

Wolfgang and Barbara's stand. We had a nice chat with them, but Anne and I know not to stay to long, because time is money when you exhibit so after 15 minutes we said goodbye.

We will connect later this week again.Boys toysThey don’t even have any price tags on, the cheek of it.I quite like this idea, his and hers.Making the boats look ugly in comparison.Question: What’s the last thing that goes through your mind when you see this coming at you?

Answer: The keel.There was some nice nautical themed art on show as well.

I really liked this mirror, cheap at 2300 EU.Serious engine.

And then I saw a stand that sold a collection of weird reconditioned things like aircraft engines and giant chromed anchors and this bike.

A 1952 Vincent Black Shadow.Frack, I had never seen one up close before.

The stand was manned by snooty staff that looked at all the common weasels ogling outside as just that—vermin.

But I can grow rhino skin in nano second.

So I asked if the would mind If I entered their domain and after they managed to uncurl their lips, I cracked a nod.Ha, I took photo's too, and I could feel the heat of their eyes in my back, singeing my spine and cooking my bone marrow.Classic dude.

And then to compound my common heritage and low stature, I had the absolute bloody cheek to ask the price. You ready?--- Sitting down? ------ 114,000 EU.

For a British motorbike?

Yep, it is about the right price too.

Anyway, here is a motor of which there is only one in this fair world. Bottom left of the picture is a silver pipe that is the intake and the top pipe it the outlet. Even though I wanted to have everything made of stone, I decided on silver. Stone would just be too weak.

Here is another video on my you tube account of it running, without my hands this time.

The Gem Steam Machine Runs.

2012-01-19T06:16:00.001-08:00

It actually fracking worked.

Like in running from the word go.

I just tacked everything together before I take it all apart and bond it with Hxtal.

That takes five days to harden per join, and there is no ways to separate the parts without breaking them.

So I thought it prudent to see if the machine would actually work.

Base and cross support is made out of Nephrite jade from Canada, given to me by John and Shar Huumonen-- Thanks people, without that gift, this would not have been possible.

The cylinder is made out of Brazilian quartz. The top is closed with Australian chryoprase and Zimbabwean aquamarine.

The piston is made out of South African sugalite from the western Cape and the conrod and upright supports are made out of Red jasper from Pilgrims rest in the Eastern Transvaal, SA. ( that’s where I found it) The front upright is also made from Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. ( That is where the air runs through.)

The flywheel is made out of black Chalcedony, and the two shafts from Smoky quartz and Rose quartz from Namibia.

The crank is made out of a lamination of Sugalite and Chrysoprase.

The three washers are made out of clear quartz, blue lace agate and pink Botswana agate.

I’ll do some more pictures once I is completely finished, and a proper video--- with out my delicate ballerina like hands showing. ha ha.

Oh Me, Oh My

2012-01-18T07:34:00.001-08:00

It became apparent to me that Lapis lazuli might not be the best material to construct the uprights with. I was indeed going to add another piece of stone to them but that obviously is not necessary now.

No matter, I have nearly finished new ones made of jasper.

And, as I was trimming off the Rose Quartz pivot, it snapped off. This was because I was trimming it on a worn 1200 lap, and it set up a high pitched squeal for one nano second. The sound propagated up the quartz rod and shattered it at the end.

This is not the first time this has happened to me.

A couple of years ago, I carved a ring out of solid quartz. It was completely finished, except for the top which I wanted to be flat with facets on the side. I mounted the whole ring in my Imahashi gem cutting machine and cut all the facets. As I started polishing the top of the ring, is set up a squeal and BANG!, the whole ring exploded into millions of little pieces. They were scattered all over the workshop. Anne looked at me with wide eyes and said, “ Well, that’s fucked”

So I drilled out the remaining piece and re attached the rod again, which proves my theory that it is far easier to cut something smaller than bigger. I love being vindicated.

Anyway, the steam machine is still trundling to completion. I expect to have a few more things break before it is finished. The big thing is to drill the intake and outlet holes. Those two holes, if they drilled incorrectly, would cause a restart.

Old Arnold has a light coating of ice on him. Everybody says it is an utterly mild winter so far. Right, ask Arnold.

Puddles of ice.WinterSummer, same place. Taken earlier last year of course.

This is what it looks like

And this is what it feels like. I can understand why the Germans drink Schnapps and gluh wine .

An ice cold beer just does not cut it.

Futheration of the Gem Steam Machine.

2012-01-14T11:42:00.001-08:00

The biggest mission so far has been to make the flywheel of the gem steam machine.

First I tried larimar and that broke after sawing, and then I tried a layered sedimentary stone I know not the name of and that broke after shaping round.----Fuuuuuuu ----two days work gone….

Then I cut a slice of jet and so far it is behaving.

To get it true, I turned an aluminium shaft on my lathe that threads through the center, and then using my swage block as a support, I made it round.

Sort of primitive gem cutting style, but it worked surprisingly well.

Anyway, here is a pic of the overall progress.

I made another washer out of blue lace agate to space the flywheel from the beam support. But the big problem with this project so far is that everything that has been put together, has to be able to be taken apart. And since the flywheel will be sandwiched in between another yet to be made support on the top right side of the picture, there is no way that the flywheel can be affixed to the smoky quartz shaft permanently.

So I carved and ground a woodruff key out of stone, which then locks the flywheel on the quartz shaft and allows it to be removed as well afterwards.

I broached the quartz shaft with a diamond bur and then then I made the key out of nephrite, so that it fits snugly into the slot of the quartz shaft.

Here the piece of nephrite is slotted into the quartz , about 2mm deep. The blue lace agate washer is there to distance the flywheel from the beam support.

The three components.

Sliding in.

Meantime, my boss was watching me all the time.

Gemstone Steam Machine

2012-01-11T10:55:00.001-08:00

After making my glass steam machine and nearly falling over backwards when it actually ran, ( like, “Anne you saw it run, you my witness, you saw it right ?”), I started on the gem steam machine. Can it be done?Many years ago, when we were at the Tucson Gem show in America, I bought to ‘optically clear quartz’.

Apparently the USA military went and bought tons of the stuff for their machines and what not, and then some company invented synthetic quartz and so the government sold all the natural stuff off the the dealers.

Anyway, that’s the story the seller told me.

So I sliced off a piece and drilled a hole through it using a core drill and WD40 and a fracking lot of patience. There is no way you can lean on it like you can do in wood or metal. It shatters chop chop.

As you can see, my operation is not exactly high tech, but hey, it works. The white rim thingi is epoxy putty to hold the WD 40 in place. A core drill does not really drill accurately, so I reamed it out with a 10mm diamond burr and then polished the inside.

Then I made a chrysoprase top for the cylinder and resined it on with Uv resin. I decided to make the cylinder ( can I use cylinder and piston in this context?) out of quartz. I purposely used some that has a flaw or two, sort of to prove its pedigree. I also made a rose quartz pivot and drilled a hole and resined that in place. The hole in the front I am, if this thing works out, going to put a gold tube set with a sapphire I cut.This is the other side. I made a piston out of sugelite and just for fun, I faceted the top. The inside is polished.

In fact, everything is polished.The main beam, ( my name) I make out of nephrite jade from Canada. I love carving this stuff, so I am going to take a bit of time to add some bells and whistles to the beam.
All these various components have been joined not using Hxtal resin, ( I'm to old to wait so long), but rather a UV curable clear resin. I have been experimenting with this product for a month or so and it certainly has its uses. I have also dopped with it and it has not let me down.
I doubt it can be used for all clear stones, certainly if they are susceptible to UV damage. But its nice stuff. You coat the two surfaces, position everything, switch on the UV light, wait a minute so that it is semi hard, wipe off the excess and put it under the light for another five or so minutes and it's cured.
I was going to use tourmaline as the main shaft, but I decided its just to finicky.
The pieces caught one millionth of a second just after they exploded.

I made the con rod out of red jasper and attached it to the piston with UV resin.
The bottom end is made out of rose quartz and the pear shaped crank is made out of a laminate of chrysoprase and sugelite that I had made last year for a pendant. I never used it as a pendant, so with some serendipity, it became part of a crank. The main shaft is made out of smoky quartz.

I have just temporally glued the beam to the lapis supports and the nephrite base, so I can get a handle on where the further supports will go.

The pink washer in between the crank is a spacer made out of Botswana agate. I think I will make all the spacer washers out of agate. Nice and smooth and hard.
All the quartz shafts are made long, because I have found that it is much easier to cut stones smaller than bigger.
The next thing is to make the flywheel. After that is to drill the inlet and outlet holes .
Then push will come to shove, and we will see if this thing can turn.Check out this mean Syncro.

Even better than the one I owned in Botswana, before it was removed from me through affirmative shopping and involuntary transferred to Mozambique, where it now resides as a chicken coop.

Don’t think that just because you own a fancy doo da car you can park anywhere.

Or that it will be there when you pitch.

Actually, the dude on the left is the owner. He pitched just in time, and he was really cool to the traffic cops.

No agro, no hanna hanna. Just very easy, smiles all around and he even gave the tow truck guy some ching for his troubles.

Pity. I was hoping for at least some fire and flames and at least a gun battle.

Sometimes you just don’t get lucky.

But, while this car was being lifted up, all the people walking past either burst into laughter , smiled, or spoke to the ~~planted foreskin~~ traffic cop.

Like the degree of schadenfreude was amazing.

EVERYBODY is envious of that car---even myself……….

Post New Year.

2012-01-06T12:38:00.001-08:00

New year in Dusseldorf was something I never experienced before. In fact, I had never done a European new year before. Our good friends Steven and Lisette came down from the Hague and had a chow at our place.

Anne and I figured out how to make that fire wine stuff that I call Shangri-La. Feuerzangenbowle is the real name but frack, try saying that quickly three times.

Anyway, the stuff we cooked up tasted just like it should and three bottles of red wine went in there with plenty of rum too.

Civilized people would could call it a fondue, with red wine, rum and sugar as the main course.

Oh deary, deary me, that was fun.

And then, while we were eating and partying, we watched Pink Floyd ‘Live at Pompeii’ which is our very favorite kind of music. Then our good friends Barry and Nadine phoned us on Skype video from Switzerland, and we all spoke a whole lot of shit and it was just like the old days in SA.----Albeit electronically spoken via the laptop.

Dang, but Skype can be cool sometimes.

As twelve approached we put on our clobber and mellowed out to check the fireworks and people out.

That’s not mist you seeing.

That’s smoke from the fireworks.

The whooshes and bangs and sparkles were something one has to see to believe.

The tone of the ‘hood was lowered collectively and there was a whole lot of liver damage going on.

Which made everybody very happy. Me too, looking after these two lovely babes.

The place looked like a festive war zone. What I really like was that there was absolutely no agro.

Like in SA or St Maarten, there would be fights, fuckups and blood. Here, everybody was just intent on getting into a fall over fun mode.

So cool.

And trust me, some were really falling out of the trees.

Like I said, the Dusseldorfers really know how to make big bangs.

One after the other. And there is no count down to twelve ‘o clock.

There is just this almighty din from nine to dawn with everybody shooting off fireworks in the streets, alleys parks and any place big enough to fit something in. It was nirvana for me.

But it took us two days two recover.

Dude, EVERYTHING has a price.

Glass Wobbler.

2011-12-31T02:21:00.001-08:00

Even though I want everything on this motor to be glass, I did have a chipped smoky quartz that I trimmed to the right circumference of the tube. I just thought that it would be cool to try.

I mean, how many time have you seen a motor with a faceted quartz piston?

But alas, it proved to be a bad idea.

Quartz does not seem to slide easily on glass, but that could also be to a lack of precision because even the glass tube inside is not utterly round, and where I suspect metal will be more forgiving, glass and quartz are not even a little bit.

Chip factories galore.

Worlds classiest piston. I had to carve the conrod on my hanging motor.

Does look cool though………

Here is the raw glass piston being attached using the UV resin as a glue. I am still going to do many more tests as to the application of this glue for gem cutting.

With this one I was deliberately slack. I did not clean the dop, nor the glass and I just dumped it on without much care. I didn’t worry me if it broke off, unlike gemstone would. Anyway it stayed on just fine. Now with UV light, some natural gemstones will be opaque to uv and/or sensitive to it, so it is going to be a whole new tutorial coming.

So I recut the piston out of 6mm thick glass and after polishing it slid smoothly in the cylinder. This is the Imahashi, just, just being able to handle an eight inch lap.

Making this motor was more finicky than the one on the previous post. Glass on glass can judder easy so then I carve the bearing surfaces convex. This leaves a smaller point of contact and they run easier.

I am very chuffed that this one ran. The big problem is that most wobblers have somewhere a spring or some screws as part of their construction . This is not within my capabilities to make out of glass, so before parts are joined, one has to very careful that is is all perfectly fitted. Or it goes back to the beginning. And I made quite a few parts two or three time for this machine.

Glass Wobbler

This will be my last glass motor.

The next project is to make one out of gem material. I want to use jade, garnet, quartz and aquamarine. And I want to facet all the parts, so it will be quite a lot of work.

While I was working on this project,I had quite a weird thing happen.

I use a 200 watt incandescent bulb above my machine. The next thing BANG, and the bulb exploded. I nearly wet my pants. And I was so lucky that my face was not close to the bulb, like I normally work.

A glass bulb exploding two inches from your eyes can really fuck your ~~weekend~~ life up.

So I took a brand new one and not an hour later…BANG, the second one exploded.

Dude.--- This.was.not.cool. Chinese crap bought in St Maarten. I threw all my spare bulb of this make away.

So now I use Osram.

They don’t try to kill their owners.

Glass Steam Engine.

2011-12-27T04:27:00.001-08:00

Working with glass has always been one of my favorite pastimes.

And I recently acquired a bottle of UV glue that opened up a whole realm of possibilities in glass work. This is a clear resin that hardens (cures) in minutes when exposed to ultra violet light. Much better than the Hxtal two component glue that I use for composite gemstones. Not stronger or more clear, but radically a faster cure and simplicity itself.

You simply put a thin layer of resin on one clean surface, press the other together, align and pop under the uv light. Ten minutes later the resin is hard, coming to full strength in 24 hours. Amazing stuff, but I doubt that it will be good for composite stones, because it does not have that freaky hardness that Hxtal has.

Still, if Swarovski uses it, it should be good for ‘ol bright eyes Meevis.…..

First thing is to close up a tube. I had some glass tubing in stock from earlier experiments, but when the Xmas market came to Dusseldorf, there was a stall that had a glass blower.

I bugged him until he sold me a few lengths of glass tubing and between the American sizes that I had and the metric sizes he sold me , the perfect sliding fit was found.

After is was cured, I ground down the excess and polished it.

I found that using 1200 diamond grit on a felt buff works well.I mix my diamond powder with Vaseline as a binder. I put the bottle of resin in the picture just for reference.

I don’t have a dedicated uv light, but one of those black light bulbs works well enough, if somewhat slower.

The cylinder finished. I bent the feed pipe with heat.

The stand and the outer valve tube.The stands for the flywheel. Unlike metal work, these will be glued in their respective positions. This means you better be sure before you harden the resin. There is no way to change your mind afterwards.

I absolutely wanted to have a glass flywheel. So I cut some 6mm glass and drilled a center hole through both.

I just drilled a small block of wood as a support and trimmed the glass round.Polished the edges.

Then I glued the two sides together. The copper cap is there to stop the uv light from gluing the center screw onto the glass. When the two sides are cured, the ‘axel’ will be glued in place.

I had to remake the flywheel supports. The fist ones were not accurate enough. In fact, I had to do everything about three times over. Sort of bungling forward stuff.Drilling holes in the valve. A diamond ball burr with water.

Then the input and output tubes. I set them up with a wax rod, that holds then in place while the resin cures.

Making the ‘piston. Out of two 6mm pieced of offcut glass.

At first I was going to use a 6mm rod of frit as the conrod, but that was a bad idea. It is too weak and brittle and it broke chop chop. Besides, the colour sucks.

So I made another out of clear glass and that worked better. Here the piston is being glued to the conrod

And then typically of all model builders, I rushed things. Here she was ready to run but actually I just needed to add one part more. But with the wisdom of a four year old I decided to ‘see what would happen.’

What happened is the whole thing popped apart and the conrod and piston landed on the floor. This would be no problem were it made out of metal, but glass? Shattered. I was seriously pissed off with myself, trust me on this one. I absolutely hate it when there was no problem, and now there is a huge one, simply because I was stupid.

So I made it over. The next day.

The part that was missing ( the bird like looking piece at the left of the picture) held everything nicely in place and it ran very easily.

Slow running.

First Pendants and General stuff

2011-12-23T06:34:00.001-08:00

I’m kind of ticked off with Blogger. For some reason I don’t get any notification of comments anymore, so apologies for only publishing them now.

Mike, the glue/resin I used for the Dino War Machine case I bought in Germany. Your best bet is http://www.dymax.com/ in the USA. They make various different grades and they are an approachable bunch.

I use Live Writer as my publishing platform, and a lot of folk have said that they have trouble to see the pictures properly, so I am, in this post, keeping them small, but clickable for those who want to see ~~up my dress~~ bigger ones…. Just kidding……I don’t own any dresses, except for my Barbie doll collection.

Anyway, the shop is open and we have had some interest but as with any new business it will take time. The race is now to see how high on the graph the remaining capital intersects the incoming money.

This is my first of a ‘Dusseldorf’ series. This is the skyline as seen from the river. Titanium background and 18ct white and yellow gold,about 50mm high. I’m keeping them relatively simple for now, just to test the populace, so to speak.

Here is one of Dusseldorf in yellow gold and the river in white.

And a dove pendant that was ordered from folk in New York.

Three beautiful babes in my shop. Stephanie (left) is a friend from Botswana who lives in Australia and she came round for a couple of days a- visiting. It was great to see her again after some eight years. Then Lisette and then Anne. (Just so you know)

Cold white shit.

Our first snow. Nothing like rain though. It sneaks up on you silently, and when you look outside—Bang! –it’s caught you. First time in my life I have had to do with snow near Xmas. Always been in the southern hemisphere. And speaking of hemispheres, yesterday was winter solstice, but I am not holding my breath for anything getting warmer soon………………..

Today is the last day of the Xmas market so Anne and I are going to get ~~pissed~~ imbibe some of that red wine Feuerzan what ever stuff.l that I posted about a couple of post ago. I just call it Shangri-La and be done with it. Puts you in La- la land anyway.

German has got some convoluted words. Like the longest one, Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän which means--- Danube steamship company captain, at 41 letters.

I’m sure all the kids walk out of language class dazed and confused everyday. I really must try find out how the kids use twitter here.----It’s like “ I’ll see you in an hour Fritz. I just got to finish typing this last word”

I might rib Germans about their language, but when it comes to getting a job done, there are no better. They needed to fix this corner, because, as one of the dudes told me, this road in old times was a water channel and so the sand still moves over time and after a while the cobble stones get removed and bitumen is put on top. This was in the morning.

By mid morning they are ready to lay the final layer on. A whole fracking corner nearly done.

Germans like their coffee so they bring a spare jug or two.

Daylight? Who needs that?

Job finished at five that day. Neat.

Anyway, all of you are ordered to have a cool Xmas.

With the appropriate outgoing salute.

Frankenfurter gets replaced by Arnold The Second.

2011-12-15T00:56:00.001-08:00

Well, Frankenfurter has hit the end of the road for us.

He has served his purpose and he served us well.

We took him in for a major service and the techies there said that he was still in good nick, but that a few parts were coming up for replacement.*

We have done 15000 kilo’s in him in seven months and with winter here the poor dude was standing in our hired space freezing his butt off.

This parking space costs us 100 EU per month and our garage that we use to store things here also costs us one hundred smakeroo’s. Problem was that Frankenfurter was to big for the shop garage. So we needed a car that fits into the garage and cancel the hired parking space.

To high, too wide, too macho. ( OK, maybe I exaggerate with the macho bit), but he is fracking difficult to drive in town traffic. His turning circle is such that you do a three hundred point U turn, making you look like you just bought your license from the local internet shop and making a complete ass of yourself in front of the locals……..

I do not like seeing people laugh every time I make a U turn.

So I disassembled the bed box and and all the other camping paraphernalia I had built into him last Sunday.

Then Anne and I got up at 5 am on Monday and climbed in Frankenfurter and did a trip to first Antwerp, where we organized further financing for the shop, and then we went on to Eindhoven, where we originally bought the dude.

It is dark until frikkin 8:30 and it was pissing cats and dogs and it was 4 degrees with wind. I kept on thinking that my ancestors that wandered out of Africa must have been fucking insane.

I mean dude, you walking from a warm sunny continent to a ice cold one where it pisses all the time---what’s with you?

Don’t you realize that at first snow is cute, fluffy white stuff and after a week it is only cold white shit??---- Sheeez.

Anyway, we wanted another ‘bedryfs auto’ which is a commercial vehicle in Dutch. Reason is that the taxes are lower and generally they also come in at a lower price.

I settled on a straight trade for a Renault Mezane 2008 model. Really neat condition, it is a station wagon and because it is deep blue ( businesses want white—easier to paint logo’s and brand names on) and has only two seats, ( rules out Fred and the family) so no one really wants a car like this.

For an extra 700 EU it came with a full service, road worthy and a new cam belt and water pump. A new cam belt is important, because if it breaks, your motor is completely trashed. ( been there, done that)

And a three month warranty as well.---- Schweet baby, schweet.

Antwerp had made us later than we wanted to be, so the garage could not complete all the work that day, so we drove back. In the fracking dark, because it gets dark at 5 here now.

We decided Wednesday would be better to pick up the car and so we drove back to Eindhoven and arrived at ten in the morning. Need I say that it was dark, cold and piss wet? No? OK. I won’t…….

But, as with typical European efficiency, all was ready wet and waiting. In NL buying a new car is simple. You sign the papers and pays your money and that’s it. You go.

No schlepping to a roadworthy center and no paying of bribes. No official telling you he is hungry and wants lunch.

Wonderful, this efficiency mixed with empathy and honesty.

Also, the back has place to doss, if you say on a hard core birding trip to Spain. Not the best, but workable. So that option remains open, which is an avenue that no birder wants to be without.

His name is Arnold, because he sort of got this Arnold look. Sort of strong, but not really, just like the real Arnold in California is these days.

And since this post is about cars, such a sweet middle aged Merc parked outside the shop. In pristine condition.

I once had a friend who, without thinking, put two stray cats that he had caught into a cardboard box and closed the lid----for a few seconds.

The warfare inside was instantaneous, loud and potentially lethal.

This would probably happen again if the owner of this van got hold of the dumb fuckwit ‘artist’ that did this, me thinks.

Look, I believe in doing neat work, but this is over the top. Chasing the cement between bricks? Ever heard of a wireless switch?.

Skiing, a New Machine and Trouble with the Dino War Machine

2011-12-05T02:14:00.001-08:00

They do weird things here. Dusseldorf imports a pile of snow and then lay out a track to ski on.

They take it serious too.

Kind of cold and wet weather. That don’t stop no-one round these parts.

Personally, I prefer my warm workshop on a Saturday afternoon.

Not that I actually had much choice. I had to be in my workshop most of the week fixing this gigantic fuckup.

I made three brass shelving brackets and glued them on the window. Note the picture has only 2 left on.

Then the next day I put my Dino War Machine out on the shelf. I was going to test the shelf first by putting a heavy weight on it first, but I got impatient to see what it would look like.

That proved to be a rather large mistake.

The glass box was completely destroyed.

Luckily my Dino War Machine suffered no damage. Quite amazing actually. The piece has about 230 hours of work in it so I was really not wanting to put more hours in. But the entire box had to be remade.

Trust me, retrofitting a case like this is a lot of schlepp work. For a long time I have been unhappy with the glues available to glue glass with. So after a bit of research I came across a glue/resin that hardens with ultraviolet light in a few minutes.

It work like a charm. Here I am hardening a side with a cheepo black light bulb. Not the best light, but adequate for the purpose. It is the same stuff that Swarovski use to glue their together glass with.

I had to make a completely new brass frame for the box, and that took to most of last week. Work like this is just that—a fracking lot of work.

After everything had been sanded down and brush finished in needs a protective anti tarnish coat of urethane.

But fear not, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Dino War Machine walks the world again.

Fighting corruption, traffic cops, nasty dentists and putting politicians in jail.

Just watch out.--- He will find you.

Anyway, while I was working the Dino brass, I also made a little steam machine as a test model for one I want to make out of glass this month.

You see, all of this started with a glass blower that has a stall here in the Xmas market.

For a while now, I have wanted to make a machine similar to this out of glass.

But my glass blowing abilities are not as good as my other blowing capabilities.

So I made this one out of brass so I could show him physically how it works and I went and showed him last Friday.

So come Wednesday, he will bring me (to sell) all the necessary tubing to attempt this project. ( I hope )

Turns out he is Dutch, so the lingo went much easier. I was a bit worried, because technical terms are still difficult for me in German. That’s why I built the model in the first place.

Check it clacking along slowly on You Tube. Just running on compressed air.

The Marktplatz.

2011-11-30T00:50:00.001-08:00

The other morning we had to go and buy a Christmas tree. Or more precisely, Anne wanted to go and buy a Xmas tree and I was there to carry it back.

Precision Anne. It had to be just THAT high. ha ha

The Christmas tree, 500.635 millimeters high.

I haven’t had a Xmas tree in 43 years. That could possibly be because I think that Xmas is a piece of shit, really. Except if you under ten years of age, of course.

The market round the corner does not think so and there are indeed some nice displays out.

Click on the pictures to see the full size.

Even a colour for the terminally depressed.

Quiz—which colour eggs are the most popular?

Now as I have said before, there is always a stand that make the most money.

And this is it.

These dudes sell out all their goods every single day. Dang, I wish I could sell all my jewellery I own every day. Imagine making things that are guaranteed to sell.

It’s very easy to confuse me.

So to save face and obey the sign, I pulled up the handbrake and then I went around the corner.

That way only two tires were turning.

Weihnachtsmarkt

2011-11-25T09:45:00.001-08:00

There is a Xmas market that starts up in many cities in Germany. Like about 2000 of them, I read.

Here in Dusseldorf it is no exception. It is kind of weird, because at 5 p.m. it is already dark. So when you trap out, you think it is night time and everyone is standing around eating and drinking from all the stalls.

This is what they look like when daylight briefly comes to Europe.

And this is what it looks like at night. This runs the whole of December. As always, the stands that sell alcohol have the most customers, then the food stands, of which there are very many.

Lots of them like this. Very well made, relatively mobile, and staffed mostly with sharp, friendly people.

This became our instant favorite plonk stand.

They sell stuff called Feuerzangenbowle

Feuerzangenbowle is prepared in a bowl, similar to a fondue set, which usually is suspended over a small burner. The bowl is filled with heated dry red wine spiced with cinnamon sticks, cloves and orange peels. Then a sugar cone is soaked with rum and set alight above it, melting and caramelizing the sugar. More rum is poured with a ladle until all the sugar has melted and mixed with the wine.

Never mind, it is fracking delicious. It’s got an orangie and cinnamon flavor with the hot steam….dangerously lekker stuff.

This stand is like on an industrial scale.

Beautiful copper pots filled with hot hooch.

Check out the sugar cones at the top. You pay a 2 EU deposit for a mug and then 3 bucks for the swill.

I asked them if I can’t just bring a five litre jug and be done with it….. They shook their heads and looked at me funny….

They also don’t have any hooch during the year, only during this time.

Dudes, franchise this, make a deal and become the new Red Bull.

I pulled this picture off the ‘net. For sure we going to buy one of these thingi’s and partake.

Serendipity sometimes makes for a nice picture.

There is just one thing in Germany that takes some getting used to.

Germans stand around and eat and drink their stuff. They also walk and eat their lunch and drink their coffee whilst walking. They don’t sit down.

So no chairs around.

So after a nights plonking you go home drunk and with tired feet to boot.

Which is probably a good thing, because if there were chairs, many more mugs of plonk would have been drunk, resulting in retarded performance the next day.

Some people make their stand really nice.

This is a shop just a bit up the road. Very effective and really well done display.

You pick out shoes online and then this dude brings you your selection to choose from. Very innovative. Also, when you look down from your flat, you can easily see he has arrived.Ol’ Schpeckles, discovering that chewing Styrofoam is cool.

He also likes greenery, which is great, because sometimes it is difficult to get these birds to eat anything other than dry food. Vitamins and all that stuff.

I got him finger tame already and every morning he sings up a storm. He is a really nice little dude.

But you can see he is still a young bird.

He is lomp like anything, and he bliksems over everything.

Making a Sign and a Light.

2011-11-21T23:58:00.001-08:00

I had to make a Open sign. We angsted about it for a while and then we decided on Offenung. Every shop has got one on account the doors are always closed.

So Anne printed the letters out according the size I wanted. Then I cut them out of thin copper sheeting. I used the paper as a template.

After I have cut them out with a pair of scissors I fuse the edges with my little torch and while the letter is hot, I quench it to get the colours.

Sometimes I heat and quench several times until I get a colour I like.

Then I glue them to a piece of clear glass that I have copper foiled and drilled holes into and hang it on my door frame. Bingo, done.

The center of the shop was found wanting of light. What we discovered was that even though the jewellery was lit up well, there was a dark area in the center of the shop.

So when the jewellery was shown at the desk, it needed more light.

I cut two pieces of scrap wood.

And then I filed them and drilled holes in them and then I lay them out on thin copper sheeting

After I cut it out and heated it with my big torch, I started to fold it over the wood.

And then after it is folded over and nailed down, I used my Little Torch on very hot flame to cut the copper close to the edge.

Then I paint the white part and some of the black burnt stuff with gold paint. I like the texture one gets even though the workshop did smell for a while.

I like the wrinkle effect. I accent that with the two hammers shown. Still work on the floor. Residual hippyness, I think.

Like this. Then I melted through the center of the hole.

I made the light holders and I sprayed them black. I used quartz halogen lights and the holders are made of a ceramic material . Still, they are only little bright burning heaters, but the light quality when there is sufficient wattage is the best there is. 50 watts per gives 200 watts total.

Then I bent some brass over the light fittings and attached the electrical wires on the top so it can’t be seen from the bottom..

From there the wires needed to go to the top of where the light would be hung.

So I used brass tubing to hang and conduit the electrical wire up. The first tube shows the top and bottom holes where the electrical wire is threaded through.

I love making lights.----- And the best time is just before light up time….

Done.

We went walkies yesterday.

It was weird.

The sunlight quality suggests that it is about seven in the morning on a fresh autumn day in S.A.

There is this cool quality about the air that suggests a warm day to come.

But it’s not.

It is two in the arvie and people are having lunch and drinking wine and stuff.

Crisp clear morning/arvie.

Check out the angle of the shadows at two ‘o clock.

Trick stuff.

An electrically powered mountain bike thingi… The cables in the front look like they could get caught on shit though….

Schpeckles, The New Dude.

2011-11-15T22:56:00.001-08:00

Slowly, push comes to shove, as they say.

Soon, there will come a time that all the systems are in place and all the lights lighted and I have no more excuse not to make jewellery-----

There come a time when the shop opens.

This is just around the corner, but still with the most intensive work ahead.

Namely, checking the jewellery to see that it is one hundred percent..

But the big thingi of opening a new shop in a new city and in a new country is as to whether the jewellery will sell.

And also as to whether you will attract work.

It's a clean slate, as it were.

Not one local customer and the sum total of known Dusseldorfers standing at about . 00001%.

From a goldsmiths point of view, and that includes Anne, all you doing is you putting your stuff out in a shop , making the shop cool as you can, and see what happens.

Then, if nothing does happen ( as in selling ), you shift your design to what you perceive will sell. ( like as in local imagery). Preferably before you go bankrupt.

And then from a design point, when something does sell, I always then replicate it and make two or three derivatives, similar but not the same.

Then I see how they sell. And this is then repeated.

But the first jewellery design that is going to be made will be in the shape of Dusseldorf and all that map stuff.

The art of hiding things. I made this brass fused ‘stem’ to hide the electrical cable and it kinda goes with the lamp design.

I now own two Imahashi’s. ( thanks Mehoose, you just great all over:)----My old hand piece that has cut thousands of stones is the bottom one. And even though the ‘new’ one is the same model, it was only a hobbyist’s and I estimate it might have cut only 100 or so stones. So even though the design is more than thirty five years old, it’s actually brand new to me. I can’t wait to start cutting and carving again.

Just as soon as this little irritation of opening the shop is over—ha ha……..

Moments after arriving.

Our latest edition to the workshop. All of four months old.

He’s all dazed and confused from the ignominy of being put in a box and then a somewhat sparse bird mansion.

He has a nice bright look and also is a very calm bird. This is not always the case with Nymphensittich, as cockatiels are called in Germany. .

Try say that five times quick,--- Nymphensittich.

The best way to pronounce it in English is Nymfen zitish---.

His name is Schpeckles.

That is the German version of Speckles.

He is after all, a German bird.

Buying him was serious mission stuff.

Germany does not really have pet shops like in America.

When we finally found one, and before we actually handed over cash for lil’ ol’ Schpeckles, we were first asked all our particulars, like our street address, ID, telephone, DNA sample, family history, fathers ashes, grandmother's fingerprints, and the route our ancestors took out of Africa.

The bird is ringed and this was carefully entered into the database.

I fully expect to be visited by an inspector from the department of internal confusion soon.

Then we were given all kinds of stern lectures of the dangers of this and how careful we must be of that, and so on and so on. Actually, I got sort of guilty.--- Like,--- AM I GOOD ENOUGH?

Eye rolling stuff, I tell you.

Even though it all means well, and I am happy with that.

Anyway, he is installed and happy and I’ll have him tame in a week or so.

Calm birds tame up easy. This is a big plus.

The Internet Saga Continues.

You didn’t really think that our internet troubles were over did you?

I mean just because I had to drill holes and stuff does not give me any street cred whatsoever.

So first the IDSL machine came. Did not work.

Then the analog machine came. Did not work.

Then the DSN machine came. Still did not work.

Here we have a picture of a herd of feeding credit card machines. Each a little more useless than the next. We have had three technicians out totaling about eight hours of checking.

Fuck all works.

The bank dude, who is an IT kind of guy, has never seen this happen.

And all the while, the frikkin service provider wants to charge us a fee for every time the technicians come out.

Like they sign you for a service that does not work and then they want to charge you for fixing it. ----Sigh.

Anyway, tomorrow another technician is coming out and then we will see. In the meantime we can’t really open because when the tech is here we can’t work, so we sort of a bit behind.

They got these giant horses that pull this booze type cart for tourists.

Me, I stay well away from things like this.

Check those big hooves. A kick from one of those and trust me, your IQ goes up twenty points.—like lesson no 1 ,-- don’t stand behind them.

Check the beer cask inside.

And the number plate and tail lights.

Ha ha, love it…….

If you pull the reigns, do the brake lights come on?

Just Shop Finishing.

2011-11-12T00:48:00.001-08:00

There is some cool tech that has come through in lighting. LED’s ( light emitting diodes) are the very best for me here and so I bought ten bulbs. At 16 EU each, they not cheap, but I am told that they last for 35 years. I thought that was quite a claim.

Thirty five years, that is if you use it 2.7 hours per day.

So that is seventy years if you use then only 1.35 hours per day. So if you use them for .135 hours per day they will last 700 years.

Gamiet..djy sprook met my…

It actually translates to about four years of 24/7 use.

Man, I am happy with two years.

Once in two years to replace a light bulb?

No problem…

Then I glued the last shelf into place. Then I started making the light fitting for the shelves.

I drilled holes into a piece of wood and glued the bottom fittings in.

Then I cut out shapes in copper and brass and melted the edges . I dropped the hot pieces in a solution of Sparex, ( sodium Bi-sulphate ) and hydrogen peroxide, except that I didn’t actually have any peroxide, but Anne had some hair solution stuff. So I poured it in and it worked just fine.

The solution makes everything base metal colour. Kinda cute.

Then I lay them out and spray them with clear lacquer.

I wire up the lights and add all the copper and brass pieces.

These light probably were depressed because they had just been sentenced to four years hard labor.

I am using a ‘warm white’.

The other colour is ‘daylight’, but it is too blue shifted so the jewellery looks cold.

Power time.

Surprisingly without any bangs and smoke.

Installed and they work very well. Everything a jeweller would want. A long life time. We run anything from 40 lights upwards to 60, so bulb replacement was always a hassle. Especially incandescent or Quartz Halogen. They run very hot and last maybe a few months.

The heat is bad for jewellery ( tarnishing and all that.)

I have had that many quartz Halogens on my jewellery before and it was HOT. These are actually cold to the touch.

I also resurrected my Protea wood that I have had in storage for the last six years. I can light up the inside with LED’s with no chance of burning.

Anne and I used to live on a small holding in Swavelpoort outside of Pretoria. There was a massive veld fire one afternoon and afterward we went to inspect the damage. We came across this still burning piece of wood. The next day we fetched it and man did we struggle to carry this thing down the mountain. It is HEAVY and we arrived home looking like two coal miners.

The copper part was made out of an old geyser. It will be a coat and umbrella stand.

This shop is very brightly lit. Yet so far our electricity cost are about a third of what we used to pay in St. Maarten. $300 per month instead of $900-1200/ month.

The next and last display being prettied up.

This stained glass/wood light has finally found a home.

Anne's light on her desk.

This light has a history.

I made it for my sister, but she didn’t like it and it was relegated to the spare room in her house. Hmmmm…

Then she moved to Australia and it was shunted to my father, who also didn’t like it so he gave it to my mother, who promply tried to sell it.

And then she broke the glass and there it lay in her garage in the corner until I went visiting.

Anyway, I ended up buying my own light back from her, ( Dutch, remember?) and after some careful restoration work she is perfect again.

Now she belongs to Anne who looks after her with ferocious dedication……………. And I am happy.

We will open next week, as soon a we get the banking machine working.

This has been a saga of epic proportion, even more difficult that Zimbabwe was. Maybe the techie will figure it out today, if he pitches…

We will see.

Shelves and Marches.

2011-11-06T23:59:00.001-08:00

I have made several different designs for the front window displays. And every time I was not happy. This one is a shape cut out of 4mm glass and lead foiled. The supports are also cut out of glass and here I am gluing them on. The transformer is just being used as a support. I rejected this one. Too icky.

Eventually I bought some shelving brackets and modified them and sprayed them gold.

I thought that using the nanny warnings for the methanol I bought was most appropriate a a overspray guard.

The original bracket before mods. This attempt has lead came ( lead profile) on the edges which I will blacken once the shelf is installed.

I have made many displays in this fashion from Zim and Botswana but even so, it still is a bit tricky to get everything aligned and straight. But once the silicone glue is set, they are very strong.

I use a piece of double sided tape to which a small offcut of glass is stuck to stop the display from sinking. And then a scalpel blade to cut away the excess once it is dry.

Cleaned up. The next window gets three of them but I have run out of lead came. So I will see if I can make some more.

You know you in NL when everything is flat and tidy…….

Look, let me step on some toes. The Dutch could be described as thrifty by a kind person, or be described as tight fisted by some one unkind. But their whole mindset is about saving. As soon as you cross into NL the radio adverts change to saving bank adds.

Then the announcer will say something like, “ Enter this competition and you will win FIVE EURO!!!”

Not 50,000EU.

Five.----- For crying in a bucket.

I don’t even return the trolleys for five euro.

A five euro prize?--- Only in NL

Another thing in Dutch land. You pay to park at a shopping center. To go shop. To spend your hard won money, the shops make you pay. Not even covered. So you rain wet . And it pisses a lot there.

And give you a fine if you late.

I get this distinct shafted feeling there.

Last Saturday Steve and Lisette came to visit. And then we got up to our usual bag of tricks. And impromptu lunch, compliments of the local market around the corner. It’s like having a hotel kitchen at your disposal.

While we were having lunch another larger crowd of Lost in the World Occupiers tramped past on their aimless journey to nowhere.

Followed by enough cops to stop the Somali pirates in their tracks.

There is something dark about a blond with a sidearm and handcuffs.

Sort of like Flint Stinkwood saying “Make my day”

Respectfully, the Saffa’s are found wanting………………………..Like RUN !!

The Drill Job.

2011-11-03T00:58:00.001-07:00

After the housmeister had opened up the basement, I took my trusty ol’ hammer drill and started drilling into the concrete below us .

But ol’ trusty did not prove up to the job, and started smelling of burnt electrical things. He has been ailing of late, and rather than kill him with overwork, we decided to go to Bauhaus and rent a drill that can do the job easily.

And anyway, my longest drill is only 300mm long and I saw the plumber use a 450mm one, so I strongly suspected a lack of inches was going to give penetration problems…….as a lack of length is wont to do………

At Bauhaus, the dude wanted our passports before we were allowed to hire this drill. That would mean another trip back to fetch them, but luckily the other dudes there recognized us and said we were OK. Whew, that saved a few hours.

We got back an hour later----Ha, the right tool for the job or what . It took just 3 minutes to go through the floor, bang on target.

Hardware stores? Anne and I go on romantic dates there…..and everybody greets us…it’s so nice to be popular………..ha ha

We went straight back to buy the other stuff and get working.

All was finished by five hours and now the techie’s company says he will pitch on Monday between 11 am and 4pm.

It’s cool dude, the hole is there, drilled, ready wet and waiting for your, aah, cable.

-----------------------------------------------

Tomorrow we go to Antwerp for business.

We leave here at nine and we should be back by four.

We also swing into NL because she wants to go to a Dutch supermarket where one can obtain stuff called unobtainium that is not available here in German supermarkets.

It’s a woman thing, that.

I am reusing some of the wood that was used in the St. Maarten cabinets and just to show what 6 years of UV exposure can do to wood. It is amazing how damaging UV is. Any white plastic also goes yellow.

South African, American and German regulators. These are the founding members of the International Society of Gas Regulators. The society's aim is to fit them into politicians and traffic cops…

( Hans, shut up ---Ed)

Fourteen pages. Complete with highlighted sections.

This is when one buys Methanol here.

As in Methyl alcohol—as in methylated spirits that we used to buy to have Fondues and such things.

The stuff I have used all my life to clean gemstones.

Frack, what happened?

“SON, THE NANNY STATE WAS BORN WHEN YOU WERE NOT LOOKING”

Aha, I see.-- I can’t wait to buy Nitric acid.

Watch this space…..

Anyway, I put up the St. Maarten maps cabinet and my spider stained glass light. Now I got to make some Dusseldorf/Germany/ Skyline pendants.

Looking forward to that, and it can’t come to soon.

I am a bit burnt out drilling and lifting and tiling and stuff.

Anne hung the curtains. It softens the entrance nicely.

Arty farty finials.

I still need to put on caps.

These are the windows of our favorite coffee shop. ( As in real coffee)

I don’t think this is vandalism. Looks rather like someone stepped on some ones toes or an disgruntled employee perhaps.

Four windows with a hammer equals expensive shit.

Maybe I can sell him my window covers?

Bad karma man.

One of those hits you and it gives a new meaning to terminal velocity.

Walkies.

2011-10-30T01:30:00.001-07:00

Another cabinet being repaired. The lights I use for my cabinets are Quartz Halide lights. They produce a lot of light without heat, but they come with a stiff price. Problem with these is that they were bought in America, so they are 110 volts. So I ordered some transformers from Amazon.

It is very cool to be able to order from Amazon in Deutschland. In St. Maarten, it would cost about $50 per parcel to get it there. And American Amazon had the delightful habit of splitting your order into five parcels, so sometimes the transport costs were much more than the actual goods.

Here, they get delivered free, or the costs are 5 bucks. What a pleasure.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ongoing Internet Saga.

It’s like this. In Europe everything works, because , well, it’s run by sharp people, right?

Not always.

We have been trying for eight weeks to get internet connection and to date we still have none.

Other than the above mentioned Amazon deliveries, Germany is very, very behind when it comes to service delivery .

In fact both NL and Germany suck when it comes to ordering anything.

I am used to the American way of doing things.

America.

“ Hi I am wanting a USB cable. Do you have one in stock?”

“No sir , but I can have one delivered to your business in under a day.”

Next day it’s there.

Germany.

Hi, I am wanting to buy a USB cable . Do you have one in stock ?”

“Nein”

“Can you get me one, please ?”

“ You vill have to conzult my colleague over at ze uzzer counter”.

Trudge down.------ Wait in new queue.

“Hi I am wanting to buy a USB cable and your colleague over there said you could help me.”

“Vat do you vant it for?”

Clench teeth and speak slowly and clearly.

“Hi I am wanting to buy a USB cable and your colleague over there said you could help me.”

“You vill haff to go to der ordering department.”

“Where is that?”

“Round der corner two blocks down---and it vill take two veeks.”

--------------

So the only internet we have is via a USB Dongle, at 5 EU per day. That’s kinda pricey…and we are nowhere nearer to getting a connection installed…………… unbelievable.

The Telkom technician said he came twice. The first time he said we were not there.--------- He lies, we were there the whole fracking day working, trust me.

The second time he said the doorbell didn’t work.

Fuck off dude, it works.

Then and now too.

In fact, the fracking thing was used on the main door to the baby giraffe section on Noah's Ark and it still is working perfectly.

Next thing, the said company wants to charge us 50EU for missed appointment fees because we weren’t there.

I have heard about this type of practice. A company charges for what they perceive to be your fault ( for not being there, for instance) and then sends you an ambush invoice. They have not actually DONE anything.

Anne and I howled like stuck pigs and the invoice was cancelled promptly. Born yesterday and all that.

So after many unanswered emails and more that twenty messages left on an answering service, we are now climbing into Frankenfurter and we going to pitch up at their ‘headquarters’.

We will see what happens.

LATER THAT DAY

So we pitched up at the company offices and the guy nearly poeped himself. This obviously had never happened to him before. Anyway, we got him to send the right instructions to his principles after it became apparent he has done sweet frackall to date. And we made him print out the email and give it to us.

Saffa and all that.

Four Days Later

And then yesterday the techie pitches to do the installation.

Nope, no go, because now he needs written permission to drill a hole in the building for the cable.

A 10mm hole,---- fracking written permission.

I just said “Dude, don’t worry,don’t worry, I’ll drill the hole on Monday”

ANYTHING TO GET THE JOB DONE!

So tomorrow I will phone up the housemeister and tell him to expect some noise.

I know how to drill holes in buildings.

Occupy Wall street. The mind boggles. Imagine this motley crowd of geniuses in charge…….

These heaters work off gas and it is very weird to see them outside just heating up everything.

We went for walkies around Altstadt yesterday, drank lots of Portuguese wine , ate a fat Argentinian fillet and generally got ~~slightly~~ very wasted.

One 300 gram steak with baked potatoes and a pepper sauce for me and Anne had a paella dish and we washed it all down with a liter of wine.

All for 61EU which is A LOT cheaper than in St.Maarten.

The nice part is that it is all within walking distance, so no sweat driving back. New one for us, that.

But the smoke does get into the craw somewhat.

Like I have said before, Germans smoke a lot and everywhere. We were surrounded by smokers and it does interfere slightly with the flavor of the pepper sauce on your steak. Still, we had a great graze.

Autumn, and a gas street light. You can see the little pilot glow in the center to light the light later.

There are indeed some nice colours around at the moment.

I love photographing wacked bikes.

Wacked you say?

Yep, wacked. One real vinyl stitched tank cover. Sort of the modern equivalent of fur on the dashboard.

Radical man, radical……..

Shutters

2011-10-25T22:47:00.001-07:00

Rolling Shutters.

In St Maarten we had rolling shutters, which we could control from the inside. This worked well because when the shutters were down, the jewellery in the window could stay there overnight.

If one has to take the jewellery out of the display and put it into the safe every night, it does ultimately get scratches or gets fingerprints on it. Then it has to go for cleaning and one can only clean and re-polish jewellery so many times before it starts looking second hand.

I do not sell second hand jewellery, because then my customers get unhappy and I go bankrupt and then I will have to live under a bridge for the rest of my life.

This is something I think Anne would not like.

I know this without consulting her.

Here we have no option like that, because of space constraints. A rolling shutter takes up too much space at the top of the window.

So I had to design something .

There is another consideration here as well.

Not just satisfied to paint graffiti on walls and things, the kids also take to scratching their gang names into the glass.

This sign, when deciphered, means “ I am a piece of shit who has become bored with wanking”.

This happened to a vacant shop that we were interested in at one time. It is just around the corner.

Trust me on this one.

Graffiti like this fucks your window up. (and)

Scratches into the window like this are very expensive.

Since my window front displays are about to be built and also that they will be and integrated part of the window, making some form of protection at night had to come first.

I made some boards out of MDS and then edged them with aluminium U channeling.

Ok, it’s not a bullet proof design, but it is relatively light weight and also easy to put up every night.

Painted them a graphite grey.

So this is what the shop will look like from the outside during the night. What I am going to do eventually is use them for pictures of jewellery that I make.

I kind of like the idea of three or four big picture of my favorite rings stuck up there.

Passive advertising, sort of.

It they get graffiti-ed, no train accident really. Just paint them over.

They fit into a U channel in the bottom and get locked at the top, so they can’t be removed.

----------------------------------------

The local council has got a nice little extortion racket going outside. Here they about to tow this dudes Merc.

Check out the spunky blond traffic cop. Sort of like a state employed Taylor Momsen.

Ha, this time her looks didn’t get her far.

The dude had some fancy papers and they had to let the guy go. Probably a doctor or a jeweller or a gem cutter or something important like that.

He had a extremely smug and self-satisfied grin on his face as he drove off.--- Sort of the facial equivalent of the middle finger.

Made my day, that look……….

Don’t be fooled. All it is, is state sponsored car theft. This guy in the clown costume gets out a long rod and then busts a car open by first forcing the door open at the top with a crowbar. Then he sticks the long rod inside and opens the door from the inside with the door handle. Must fuck the paintwork up pretty good. But hey, the government pays, so what does he care.

Like I said before, relentless work . Here Anne is laying down the background for sponging the wall. She is pretty good with this technique.

Nearly finished. Just to neaten up the edges.

And the repairs go on. This cabinet had every piece of glass in it broken.

The reason was that when the genius local driver came to fetch the container in St. Maarten, the hitch would not work properly. So after he and his buddies used larger and larger objects to hit it in position, ( no kidding) and they got it hooked up after about an hour. Then he made sure that all was good by driving forward and hitting and emergency stop at about 10k’s.

Shit man, the noise that came out of the container on the back was virtually visible. Certainly in the minds eye.

Fixed and ready to be decorated. I made the top into 3 pieces, because those were the off cuts I had. I have been doing quite a lot of glass cutting as of late, and what really made my eyebrows go up, was that before I could find my ‘main’ glass cutters, I bought a cheepo 10 buck thingi with 6 blades on a nut.

And I swear the cheepo cuts far better and smoother than the expensive one. Like seventy bucks to ten and at ten you get five more wheels. So it’s like it might be blunt so lets align another one. Who cares how much they cost?.

This picture was taken at the height of summer in a parking lot near camp Quattro. Sensitive dude, sensitive…………

Shop Stuff

2011-10-23T23:27:00.001-07:00

SHOP STUFF.

Relentless dude, relentless. Work, eat , sleep, shave, shower and shop building---The shop is all consuming.

But the bottom baseline has been set. Any project like this starts with your bottom line,—like finding and getting a place and all that.

Then as the shop is built, the basic bottom structure has to be put in place. Normally, this would be simple shop fitting. But is our case, we did some basic building infrastructure, and that was quite tricky sometimes.

And then there came the time when the basics were nearly done and the finer finishing could begin.

Finally.

A shower curtain sucks. Literally, onto your body. I HATE that. Shower door fitted. Works lekker.Now all we got to do it make the place a little less utilitarian. In time.

The workshop is slowly organized. I have the format fixed and now I install all the tools and machines.

In the bottom of the picture are two two stage oxygen regulators pictured. The blue one is a SA Afrox one and the other is a St Maarten/ American number. Neither are compatible with the local oxygen bottles as they were neither compatible with each other. So I ordered my third one.----- Sigh……….

I phoned the company and spoke German to them.

Ha ha, that’s always funny, cause my German is not so good over the phone.

Face to face, not too bad, because hand gestures count for a lot of unknown words.

There was a sharp lady at the other end and in no time I had the part number.

And then she giggled as I put the phone down and I also burst out laughing. Because if anyone had spoken to me the way I spoke to her, I would have started laughing long before.

I really can mix up languages trying to get the point across.

I thought this very good. Diamond-filtrated---very cool. And the dude, the very last to wear diamonds.

The dart board had me fooled the first time, until I saw how high it was.

The smell there is unbelievable.

I stand inside Frankenfurter and throw the bags out.

Then I don’t even have to touch the floor of that place with my shoes.

Japanese Day

2011-10-17T09:50:00.001-07:00

15/10/2011

Yesterday was Saturday, and normally there is quite a lot of foot traffic past the shop.

But this Saturday it was way over the top. I was working in the center of the showroom and there was this cloppity-clop of shoes and just this stream of people walking past the semi closed windows.----- I mean like a mass of streaming people. I took a minute here and there during the day to time how many people were walking past our place. Extrapolated to about 4000 per hour on average.

After an internet search, it turns out it was Japanese day in Dusseldorf. Dusseldorf has got a lot of Japanese, like the third largest population in Europe, after London and Paris. It is the weirdest thing to see some obviously Japanese chicks speaking German to each other.--- You speak where you born…..right?

So after we finished our work we mellowed into the crowd to see what it was all about.

I don’t actually know what these people were doing there but from the outside it seemed to be like a Caucasian migration on the Serengeti plains of Dusseldorf. They were sort of just there just doing there things.

It being Japanese day, there was a strong Cos play theme amongst the youngsters.

I am visual on this one, since a lot of Steampunk goes along the same lines. ( everybody dresses up as Steampunk costumes and do steampunk stuff )--- Like everybody goes to a themed fancy dress sort of thing. They do this stuff big time in Nippon land.

Some Cos players were most pleasing to the eye.

I used to have a cage of lovebirds and in the winter they used to perch on their stick, all next to each other. Then they all used to chirp and bump and push each other.

This is the human equivalent……..

I actually took this picture for the chick with the Caribbean blue hair in the background. But the fore ground squint proved to be far more interesting and pretty.

This bicycle, decked out with angel wings-- and it had shiny crystal stones stuck over everywhere. Check the boots on the stand. Love the water bottle…. Seriously cute.

All out and about, and it was a beautiful coldish Saturday afternoon.

Lisette was cutting a little onion and she checked this heart shape….neat.

Women, they notice stuff like this.

Men, they don’t notice stuff like this

They notice shit like this.

Roller and Repairs.

2011-10-15T09:20:00.001-07:00

I broke out the roller for installation. Is that the right way to say it? Like ‘we broke out the guitars?’ Anyway, even the roller was broken. The plastic cover is cracked in half. –glue time…. But I wired and bolted the thing down on a dedicated piece of wood and it came through OK.

Roller stand affixed to the floor. This is a big advance because now I got a vice and I can modify things with the roller.

Onward with the repairs. They going to be a LOT of work. Especially because this cabinet was the first one I built and it was ( at the time), all experimental. It is always after the first one that that which is a kak design becomes apparent. And this cabinet’s doors were a kak design, trust me. Anyway, so rather that haul out the sketch pad, I decided to follow my original footsteps and do it as I did it then. As in restore it.

The lead cane is all buckled and bent. So it has to be straightened out at first.

I use a 4mm rod and tap the side parallel first.

Then a gentle pull in the vice and bingo, she is good to go.

Part of my lousy design with the first display cabinet was that I drilled holes in the glass to hang the doors. This can turn pear-shaped quite quick, and the a large piece of glass becomes scrap. The next cabinet that I made used a frame for the glass door.

Tomorrow I solder this together, after the whole length of cane has been epoxied to the frame.

Then I set up a mini spray can station and redid the hinge system in gold lacquer. I have always had a hassle with gold spray paints, in that they aren’t gold coloured.I found a great colour spray here but it needed twelve million coats to get colour. So I pricked a hole in the can and then after a day or so after the gas is all gone, I cut the tin open and poured off the clear liquid and just painted with the gold powder residue. As I was painting, I kept on adding clear liquid, so it didn’t dry out. Worked a treat. Serious one coat coverage.

All the twirly bits are painted with a small brush. The picture doesn’t really show it but it is an intense gold colour.

Getting There Slowly.

2011-10-09T22:48:00.001-07:00

The original electrician never pitched, so we got another one. The new dude did the job in two hours. But he did burst out laughing when he saw the DB. It is, I must admit, somewhat old. Our supply is the one tucked in the top right corner.

Anyway, so when he pitches, he says that there needs to be a hole drilled in the wall to access the bathroom and he gives me these two drills and tells me to get on with it and he will be back the next day. Right.

I was so gatvol of this hanna hanna for a simple little job, I just drilled the hole and shut up. Anything to get this fracking geyser connected, man.

So, finally the shower works, and mighty fine it is too. Now we don’t have to go to Camp Quattro anymore and we can get some serious work finished, with the daily commute gone. Like finishing the shower, still lots of work.

One of the thing I have never bought is a workbench. I have always made them, but here my welding abilities are somewhat curtailed.

It comes in a giant box, a bit like a coffin, all packed with German efficiency. ( only two pieces were missing )

The thing costs 400EU and as is usual with these things, it also comes with an instruction manual. A tiny five page thingi that tells you squat. The photos are so small it is actually better to play ‘solve the puzzle’ than look at the booklet.

Anyway, I kinda know how this shit works so I assembled it halfway and press ganged it into work. I always had one workbench too little in St. Maarten, so now I got a general steel work workbench, a jewellery workbench and a gem cutting one. This addition will be where I will do non precious work, like steam punk, stained glass, and display work.

So now all I need is another workshop for wood work, welding work and reconditioning old motorbikes. Then I need a machine to duplicate me, so I can finish building all the shit that is in my head. Oh yeah, and a bucket full of time would also go down…..

We needed a room divider and the one’s that one can buy are freaking expensive. So I bought some white melamine board and some hinges and for under 80EU I made two in an hour.

I hate Ikea, but frack, how can one compete? This is a workshop cupboard the sells for 56EU. I mean, I cannot even buy half the wood for that price, never mind the hinges and catches and all. A science degree is helpful in assembly, though.

I look at all the people in Ikea buying all this kit stuff, and I wonder how much matrimonial strife is cause by the assembly process.

The spatial ability of the man versus the intuitive ability of the wife in the living room. A tremendous battle then ensued, and it was only when the local handyman was called that a truce was reached…….

This is a box of normal fisher plugs. They go by the name ‘Barracuda” and the manufacturers go to great pains to explain how that name is derived.

So there you have it, all you fishermen. Don’t throw any small barracuda back into the water---they can also be used as wall plugs……………..

The Long Weekend.

2011-10-04T00:48:00.001-07:00

So last Friday (30th), as we busy paying the plumbing guy, he sort of casually mentions that Monday is a public holiday in Germany.

AHA, so the electrician will definitely not come before Tuesday.

So we had to go to NL anyway to pick up our jewellery at the bank and we decided to get on with it there and then. Thing is that Mondays is not a good time to do business in Germany or NL, because most shops only open late or not at all. Something weird to do with working on Saturdays, I think.

Anyway so we went to the Hague on Sunday and visited our very good friends Steve and Lisette then on Monday we drove to Antwerp in Belgium from Holland. We had ten or so kilo’s of silver and we sold it to the bullion dealer there . Reason is that silver is quite high now and I don’t think it will stay there. So we became part of the speculative capitalist pig society and sold when high.

Then from Antwerp we drove back to Dusseldorf and spent the night in Camp Quattro. With a bit of luck this should be our last night here, and another chapter starts in our lives. The last six months have been interesting, to say the least. Lots of experiences and interesting times.

I finished the back tiling on Saturday.

Round the back too. Saturday we worked from early morning to 9pm.

I also finished all the grouting in the shower and laid out the tiles in the shower floor. The reason there is an irregular pattern is because the walls are all very skew and this pattern tends to hide that. Today I clean up the grouting and hopefully our electrician will show up to connect the geyser up.

The sad state of my cabinet doors. We found a glass supplier who was willing to sell me an entire sheet. Apparently this is not usual, because no-one cuts their own glass, so he was sort of reluctant at first. Anyway, now that we have all our jewellery here in Dusseldorf I can fix all the cabinets and start showing some wares. I think we will be ready to open in about two weeks. It’s about time too. We have not earned a red cent in six months and Bill is not my uncle..

Really nice bike in the ‘street fighting’ style, parked next to Frankenfurter at our parking spot. Me also want.

Somewhat pretentious, what with GP1 written on it. But hey, good thing start with a small step, right?---- Me not want.

I strongly suspect that this Coke can committed suicide.

Don’t kid yourself, the tow parasites live here as well. This guy actually broke into the car to open it and release the hand brake. The green dude is the local jungle bunny---sorry cop.

Here is an idea. All drivers, leave your telephone number displayed in your car. That way the green robbing hood can phone you and tell you to get your car away NOW. Any chance of that happening?

Never---they would not make any easy cash then, would they? Anyway, that what I do.

They really take this ECO bullshit far here in Europe. Words like ‘green,eco,fair use, sustainable, earth are bandied around , and it makes all of us feel as if we do any good using this new green product. Much better to have less kids.

And speaking of green, there are these plots where the locals can grow veggies and stuff. This guy really does not want anyone on his plot.

He is also what could be described as a ‘creative’ electrician. Packing tape works well, right?

Needless to say, I did not touch it. He probably wired it up to the overhead power cables….

The Dusseldorfers can blow them horns and pound them drums, people. The music/noise was something to behold and the vibe was very cool. Sort of local Saturday entertainment.

More Shop Stuff .

2011-09-28T21:38:00.001-07:00

26/09/2011

The plumbers came in in the afternoon and installed the basin.

And some of the shower stuff. (they still got to come back and finish the rest.)

And the toilet, which is now working. That makes it much easier, trust me. It was a real drag not having a toilet.

This is the geyser. Quite a fancy thing that works off 400v and has got all kinds of coloured lights to tell you how much hot water there is left. ( like you going to run outside the shower to check)… It still needs to be connected by the electrician and he is somewhat scarce .

27/09/2011

I put some of my casting equipment out, more to get it out of the way than anything else. I was going to farm all my casting out, but I think, after having seen how Europe works that I will do it in house. Reason is that there is never much urgency here, like there is always the next day. This goes contrary to my character and would cause heart problems for me…………

Like I pitch up at a glass place and I tell the dude I want a sheet of 4mm glass. He has just got to cut it in half because otherwise it don’t fit into Frankenfurter. Nein you must come back tomorrow. Frack it man, cutting a sheet of glass in half is kids play, but no, I got to come back tomorrow. That’s how things work here.

The bed base is finished and is being checked out by the boss.

I am using my gem cutting bench as a glass working one temporally. I had an OK workshop in St. Maarten, so I am going by that design, more or less.

The reason I need a class cutting top is that the St. Maarten movers effectively destroyed all my jewellery cabinets. They such a useless bunch of locals. I have to fix a toilet full of glass and lights and bend things straight and repaint everything that was scratched—sigh. Major work.

Anne does the tiling in the shower and a mighty fine job she is doing. This building is skew. Very skew. So it makes for some difficult tiling. Hence the staggered pattern. Today she does the floor.

It is sometimes a little overwhelming, all the amount of work that has been done and still has to be done. If I look at the big picture, what with shutters, workshop and living quarters still to be finished, and all the cabinets and broken fixtures to be repaired, it looks like a mountain. The way we tackle this is to do it in bite sized chunks , and digest them individually. “One day, it will all be finished.” The Hansel and Meevis mantra…….We mutter this the whole day long. ha ha

We get up at 5:30am in the morning and we come back to Camp Quatro at about 8:30pm. Then we shower, eat some bread or junk food and crash. Then the next day we do it again. Soon it will end. And our food quality will become better. After six months of living like this, I can’t wait. I’m kinda tired of camping.

I am giving this a ten out of ten for doosness. This, ladies and gentlemen, is an extension cord with a radio in. It would be OK if the radio stations played some decent music, but frack it, they play crap. Some songs have been on the playlists for SIX MONTHS. Do they have any idea how mad one becomes after hearing a bad song every day over and over?

I am completely amazed how many Germans smoke. Everywhere there are clusters of people standing outside buildings, smoking up a storm. You cannot walk into a building without first having to walk through a wall of smoke. And all the stompies just get thrown in the road. Eeeeeuww.

Here is a goldsmith down the road who has found a really creative use for a bench peg—ha ha . And a log, for that matter.

Wet Work

2011-09-24T23:23:00.001-07:00

Here I have started to fill the bottom hole up. This is because the plumber said that he quoted only to the point where the fittings are in place, and not to actually finish or do any wet work.

AHA, dude, you could have told me that from the beginning, right? And I just know that I will install the shower and toilet, because he says he will only have time in the next next week.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

He also says that he has to increase the quote, because the concrete is harder than he thought.

Fuck, dude you can increase the quote no problem. Getting more money out of me might prove the more difficult part.

That’s starting in the basement and stopping up the gaps there first---tough work, trust me.

A touch removed from goldsmithing.

Here is the shower being filled up. We left the heater in the shower, just to see what it will be like in winter, because both Anne and I have not actually experienced a winter in Europe ever. Nothing like new experiences right?

Look, you got to get creative. This was the only way we could get a water point to the workshop, so we, after angsting about it for a few days decided to not use this door again. We will build a bookcase there instead. We could have put the sink to one side, but that would have seriously interfered with the workshop flow, and that is the prime consideration in any workshop. Walking three meters extra over say five years, amounts to an immense amount of wasted time.

Basic wet work about to get smoothed out. The tap is temporary, because we did not have a toilet nor water in the shop for four days. This seriously interferes with drinking beers.

Here Anne has done the tiling up to where the toilet can be installed. This building is so fracking skew that it makes for difficult tiling. Check on the left side.

This is the ah, recreation room being built. I’ll finish it today ( Sunday)

Melting bench, polishing machine and sink installed and running. It is great to have running water again. This project gives new meaning to ‘building a shop’. We start from Genesis.

All this work has made me immensely strong.

Able to hold up the most amazing weights.

Sometimes we eat a little rough, like straight off the workbench. We still have to find our crockery and stuff.

You know, really.

This dude visited the Caribbean, for sure.

Shop and the Street Fair

2011-09-20T22:33:00.001-07:00

My Painter-in-chief giving the staircase a coat. The Mukwa looks nice when it is varnished.

But the main work this week is the rebuilding the shower and toilet. These fittings are for the shower. The chasing makes for some serious noise and there is a tenant who came to moan at us. So we just let the plumber do the talking to her and he was very diplomatic and calmed the old grouch down to a low growl.

Then the toilet gets shifted to here. We are using the designated plumbers that do the work on this building, and they are amazingly good, compared to the ones from the third world countries I have live in. What I really like is that I can go to the hardware store, leave all my tools open, computers lying around and it is all there when I get back.------ I LOVE honest people.

And they real craftsman too, do a super neat job, even though it does not look like it now, trust me , it’s good work.

In the meantime, I have been building partitions in my workshop and laying new cables for the lights. I like fitting lights, especially when the time comes to switch them on and suddenly there is bright light every where. ( Europe can be quite dark and dingy in some places, as if there is an aversion to high wattage lights. ) My workshop generally looks like the midday sun is overhead.

This is the work the plumbers are doing in the basement. Tough work in tough conditions, but hey, at 4000EU to do the job, you got to earn your money……..

There is a new restaurant that opened up the road. They put this out as an advert---very cool.

Last Sunday there was a street fair. This is a yearly affair which apparently happens around our shop.

Very relaxed and lots of music and laughter.

This is a very common sight. A Metro-male pushing a pram. I’m told these kind of people also know how to change a nappies and do the dishes. This is known as evolutionary convergence, where one species looks and acts the same as the other, but in fact are completely different. It could well be that his wife is doing plumbing work somewhere else, as we speak……

There also was a heavy duty rock band belting out all the classic ACDC songs. Later on the started dancing naked and showing their tattoos.

They rolled out the red carpet for me but I sent some fashion models instead.

Hot air ballooning European style. Or should that be cold air ballooning? Can’ go to high or else you see dipshit.

The dreaded tow corner outside the shop. The reason they so sticky here is because if a car is parked there in that position, the busses can’t make the corner. This causes them to be late and is a capital offence in Germany. The bus being late, I mean. The guy in the green is the cop.

Weird colour for cops. I always think they look like landscape artists or maybe tree huggers or something.

This guy and I think along the same lines---plastic trees. Never need to be watered or pruned, and come pre grown for the garden---. Oh yes, and they also fit into space-saving pots.

More Shop Stuff

2011-09-14T23:31:00.001-07:00

11/09/2011

Because the shop has such an unusual configuration, in that the actual shop is below ground level the window display is also a bit different. This type of layout is quite common in Europe in older buildings. So I had to construct a ‘board walk’, above the radiators for Anne to walk on so she can work on the window displays . This is because they are to high when one stands inside the shop.

I made three ‘pillars’ of cheap wood which I am going to clad with fake brick paneling.

12/09/2011

This is as far as I got. So now the walkway can be accessed fro the top of the staircase. I was going to make a banister on the right hand side of the banister, but that would have impeded the access so I will make the banister on the left hand side, against the green wall.

Slowly the rest of the shop will come together. We have to install a new toilet and a new shower. The shower is proving to be a bit problematic, because the electrical connection has to be especially laid. In St Maarten we used a gas heater and that is very efficient and easy, but in Germany they are not allowed, so electrical it is. All this is going to cost more than 4000 EU and it will only be finished at the end of the month.

13/09/2011

The posts have the ‘brick’ on and the whole thing is ready for urethane.

14/09/2011

It took me an entire day to install the central lights. We bought them at Bauhaus. There is a large selection and none of them are cheap. The problem is that the ceiling is quite low so none of my chandeliers would work. Anyway, I don’t like chandeliers, so it suits me.

while I was making the boardwalk I noticed this belt sander for sale. 19 Eu ?? Frack, at that price I bought it.

I mean, how is it possible to make and sell a machine like this for 20 bucks? Even if it lasted only for the boardwalk, it would still be worth is. I became part of the Chinese onslaught of cheap goods.

And speaking of throw away, this is the other side of the coin of cheap goods. I throw away two perfectly good fluorescent fittings because the replacement tubes are to expensive. Some thing does not quite fit with me on this.

Here is another gripe. We went to Ikea. Now I regard Ikea as a good place to fit out workshops. All the shit they sell there is absolutely not what I want in my house, but a workshop it is OK. So these LED lights are for sale for 40EU. I buy them. When I get to the workshop, the cord on the right in the picture is missing. Turns out that it is sold separately---for 5EU. So I got to schlepp back to buy it. This is a major mission, because they only open up at ten in the morning.

How can one sell a unit like this and then not say POWER CORD SOLD SEPERATELY!!!!!

There was some nice autumn light here the other day.

Ha, ha, they got these riding around on Saturdays. The people peddle and get very pissed and loud with lots of music. Very cool. Nice to see these cute backsides come peddling past.

She’s just walking the dog. Or is that riding the dog ?

Closer and Closer

2011-09-11T00:48:00.001-07:00

My Painter-in-Chief, with the workshop towel as a kopdoek.

We use a green in our shops called Emu green. From the Kasane shops to now, we sort of standardized our look which works for us.

I also started installing my workbenches and I hung two fluorescents over them. So now I don’t have to work on the floor.

This is the other wall just finished being painted.

And Anne is now positioning the ( very broken ) cabinets. Lots of fixing to do. We still have to find a shop that sells glass.

This will be the entrance, with the stairs ready for Urethane. The coat stand is a piece of Protea wood that Anne and I carried off a mountain in Swavelpoort. There had just been a massive veld fire and we were walking on the burnt koppie when we spotted this still smoldering log. Next day we came to claim it and we have it now since 1991. Good value…

The copper part I made out of an old geezer.

The camp we staying at I call Camp Quattro, after the notorious ANC prison camp in Angola during the war. That is because the camp closes at 7pm and now in low season will close at 6 pm. This fucks us a round something terrible, because we have to stop working so early. So we phone up ahead and tell the commandant that we will be late and then we camp out side.

Real fun stuff, in the rain.

One more month and we will be free.

Grocery shopping ala Anne and I. We go to the hardware store every morning to buy the necessary things for the day.

Food ? There are so many food stalls around our shop that it is terrible---for the waistline, that is. Yesterday I had a lasagna to die for. Enough for the whole day and costing 7EU and coming in at 5000000000 calories.

Whooo boy, I can see my future and it is called DIET AND EXERCISE…………………….

Here is the thing. These fluorescent fittings come complete at 3.75 EU and they work pretty good.

The cheapest replacement light is 6.49 EU------------go figure……

Much to Anne's delight ( joke) the wet weather has brought out some slugs. This one is about 100mm long. I think they pretty.One of the more delightful things we had to figure out, was getting rid of the rubbish. Finally we discovered the place. You take your stuff there and they weigh your car with the shit inside.Then when you leave, they weigh your car again. For 100 kg’s of rubbish it’s 11 EU.

Then Hans throws it on the pile after the dude there has told you which pile. In this case Anne takes the pictures. Ha ha ha . The blue bags are our rubbish.

The smell was delightful, full of subtle bouquets of the most fruity of scents. The ooze on the floor smelt of some of the most classy restaurants I have visited in my life.

All in all a wonderful experience.

Need I say more, other that she was as cute as the car?

Making the Staircase.

2011-09-08T00:37:00.001-07:00

The stairs are the next thing to finish. The basic thing will be made out of Mukwa or Kiaat wood, as it is also known as. I bought from the original suppliers on this day ten years ago. I have used it for building four shops.

Laying out the basic plan.

Next day.

Until today. Now I attach all the brass beading and give it a couple of coats of clear Urethane .The piece of wood to the right of the picture will come in the corner where the hole in the wall still is.

There are quite a few art and street fairs in and around from the 18th of September so we would like ot at least be visual then.

You have to figure. This shop puts this display out on the pavement.

Check out the small brass statues. They are there at the end of the day too!--- Nobody diefs them….. amazing.

I know, I know. All men have fragile egos and cars are the extension of that ego.

But fuck it man, this has got to be the most dipshit car to have on the road.

What do you actually do with it? It can’t be loaded with anything substantial, does not attract women like say, a Lamborghini ( they attract women don’t they?), and the worst is you can’t even have a decent bit of nooki in it either. Some dudes need a reality check.

Black-headed gulls waiting for the next ferry.

All the Goosies having a music festival in the farmers field.

Geese are very musically inclined, in case you didn’t know.

Futheration of the Shop.

2011-09-04T00:32:00.001-07:00

31/08/2011

Doing the grouting.

Tiling is a lot of work, but once they are finished I think they are much nicer than say a carpet in a shop. Less cleaning and maintenance.

We also managed to hire a small garage in the building that the shop is in. Unfortunately, it is to small for Frankenfurter. So in the next two or so months I am going to sell the car and buy a smaller on that will fit. We had planned this from the outset. Frankenfurter would only be suitable for the camping and building of shop.

Otherwise it is just to impractical to have in a big city.

Notwithstanding that it is only a ity bity garage, we still had to sign a lease for it,----all of nine pages long--- for a fricken garage, I ask you.

I had to cement up the broken wall. Then I am going to build the staircase.

One can buy a premade one for 500EU in Bauhaus. I would have bought it but the steps are far to small so I build my own. The steps are very important to be comfortable.

02/09/2011

Ta daaaa! All the tiling is finished in the showroom side of the shop. As with anything , it always seems less work at the start than the actual work when is is done. This was a real mission and very boring indeed. Were I a tile layer I definitely would not lay anything.

I assembled my trusty circular saw in anticipation of building the stairs. The saw was in all different pieces and finding them all was a treasure hunt of note. Now all I miss are my blades, and I don’t have the faintest idea where they are packed. Ah well a new one costs 40 bucks, so it’s not to bad.

Piling excess stuff in the garage in the building which is really great, because it make for more space to build the shop. ( trust me it is fracking crowded.)

“Look at what was parked outside our shop mommy!”

Schweeet, an AMG 6.3 liter Merc.

Gull wing doors, nogal ook.

There are some REALLY nice cars in this city, subject of an upcoming post.

Like this one . Serious, serious class. Much better than the Merc, I think.

Speaking of class, or the lack of it in this case.

Fricking buck feet as coat hangers.

Somewhere there is a hornless buck hopping along on two hooves. Shame.

This is the days pre-prepared chips in an obviously successful eating establishment. And chips are very popular here. There are many chip shops here.

This is the right way to close your jewellery shop. I am also going that route with the new shop.

Check out the Swazi grass balcony above.

Ha ha, there is a bit of Africa in everyone.

More Moving and Shop Stuff

2011-08-29T23:13:00.001-07:00

28/08/2011

Today was a necessary mission in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Just because the truck driver decided to leave this out, we had to drive back to the Hague. The weather was heavy rain most of the way.

On Sunday is a good time because less trucks and people.

More cops though.

This camp only lets you out at nine-ish. Ha- and you got to be back at seven, so it kind of limits your working day.

But first to sort out the frightening mess.

And to fix all the broken glass doors and tops and some sides. The St Maarten movers broke most of our glass cabinets.---sigh…

This week we will start to seriously upgrade the toilet and allied things.

29/08

Today we had a ten a.m appointment to notarize the rental agreement. Here in Germany everything gets notarized. Very formal and all that.

Setting up a sister company took all of twenty minutes. Un believable, considering that St Maarten it takes anything from three to six months.--- Three if you lucky.

This is the thing in Germany. The government is really awake when it comes to cutting red tape. So micro businesses like us can get started easy, with minimal fuss. The current thinking is that small businesses employ on average six other people, so make it easy for them to start and get more people employed.

ALL MY LIFE government has worked against me so it is a bit surreal to fine the path of least resistance here.

The bean counter that did the mumbling and muttering over all the documents looked like Michael Schumacher. There are a lot of German men that look like him. A national look, if you will.

I finished the floor tiles and Anne went to sort out the internet. We can get a optical high speed connection for about 25 EU per month. Not bad, considering we paid $93 per month for an abysmal connection in St Maarten.

This is the weird thing. Even though we live in one of the most expensive cities in Germany, and in one of the most expensive areas in that city, and we have high taxes, our overall costs are far lower than in St Maarten.

But I think what I really like here is that the people are intelligent. They GET IT quick.

No endless explaining with a cow-like look at the end.

The other day we went to the MC Escher museum in the Hague. Very, very cool.Very inspiring too.

I have always admired the dude.

Anyway, they got this optical illusion room and this is the result.

We did the tourist thing ( I insisted )

I wonder if one stood naked in this room, if the various human appendages would also suffer from an apparent increase in size---ahem….

There has been an explosion of tap breeding here in Germany.

Can you believe it?

In the Dutch campsite they take nannification to new heights.

I purposely went above the ‘ speed limit ‘ and I survived.

Lucky me.

Moving the Workshop from the Hague to Dusseldorf

2011-08-27T00:25:00.001-07:00

We had to move our workshop from storage in the Hague to Dusseldorf. We kind of wanted to do it as soon as possible, because it was costing us 256 euro per month storage fees.

It was going to be a long day.

Packing it all in the truck in the Hague and then driving to Dusseldorf, some 250 kilo’s away, and the unloading it all into the shop.

We got up at five in the morning. Now it is already dark then.

So we hired a local Dusseldorf company to send out a truck. One of the reasons was that they can get the offload permit easy and they know the city. All for 1500 euro, so they were the best price. One Dutch company wanted to charge us 3000 EU .

Ha ha, that’s more than it cost us from St Maarten to the Hague.

Eventually it was all finished except for this that we had to leave behind. The frikken truck driver refused to load more because he decided that that was as much as his truck was allowed to take. So now we have to do a special trip back to the Hague to fetch this stuff next week. A REAL drag.

En route we hit a serious rain storm.

Knocked over trees and caused a major disruption on the free way.

And we were hit by hail too. Luckily not big enough to make dents.

Eventually the truck arrived at 2:15 pm as we did in Frankenfurter. Then the offloading began.

We have a small safe. This is how these dude pick it up, with straps around their bodies that go under the pallet. So watch out if you think your little dinky safe is secure !

Loaded into the back of the shop. Some serious work ahead, sorting and fixing.

The St Maarten movers broke most of the glass work of the cabinets. The tops, the doors, you name it-- all bust.

My mobile workbench in the foreground. Today we will finish the tiling, then we can move some stuff from the back to the front.

Done this stuff before. Can do it again. At least I got all my tools again.

Campsite and Gold Refining

2011-08-24T23:40:00.001-07:00

22/8/2011

Just arrived in the Hague, and like typical Hague weather, it is pissing. Our favorite campsite is flooded we were told so we went to the one in Wassenar.

It is a well run one, but it comes with some parameters that have to be met. For one you got to fill out some serious admin, where upon you get issued a entry card.

It opens up the boom. Then there are a shit house of signs warning you to drive at 10k’s children playing signs and people walking signs.

All at 10k’s. Speed humps galore---- one couldn’t drive faster than 5 k’s even if you drove one of those roof of Africa cars.

Nanny sign

But it is the bathrooms that really do it for me. They clean and neat----------- and multi sex.

Like, men and woman together. Showering, using the toilets, doing their things in the morning.

You know, I am no prude, but woman things are woman things and man things are man things.

And people do not look good in the morning.

Myself included.

So there you are shaving and in the mirror behind you the shower door opens and a strange woman walks out, a plastic bag over her hair.

In the flash before I can avert my eyes, I see pink and orange curlers vaguely through the plastic shower cap. The after image of giant breasts and a bright green bath towel burn into me. One cannot un see something like that--- She then pulls out an industrial hair dryer machine and I get blasted with hot air and burnt perfume---delightful.---------- Before breakfast.

But it is the coin system that took a while to work out.

First, you got to take 50 cents and put it into this machine. It then gets you the ‘camp coin’.

Then you chose the shower stall you like.

Then you put the ‘camp coin’ into this machine and press the appropriate number, which lights up, telling you it has sent the command to the selected shower.

Inside the shower you first press the button and then there is a LED display that tells you how long the hot water runs. You get six minutes for 50c . There's no way you can start the shower without getting a dose of cold water first. Lovely, at least it gets you awake. Six minutes is generous. Most showers one only needs four minutes tops.

Oh boy, multi sex bathrooms might float some peoples boat, but I can just imagine a hot romance ending when the dude hears this sexy young chick that he met last night, gargling next to him first thing in the morning.

Talk about a passion killing bathroom.

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23/8

Today we went to Antwerp, to go and have our bench sweeps and carpet refined. A goldsmith buddy of mine James from Belgium, gave us an address of a reputable firm.

So we climbed in Frankenfurter and drove about a hundred kilos from the Hague.

Very nice operation in a seedy area. Serious, serious security.

Then they take you to a little cage on the third floor. Like double doors and thick glass and all that. I sneaked this picture with out asking, because there a million security cameras. I always prefer to ask for forgiveness instead of permission.

So what happens then is the dude takes the gold that is brought in and melts it in an induction machine and then once it it melted, he pours it into an ingot.

Also, whilst the gold is melted he puts a thin quarts tube into the melt and draws the molten gold into the tube. Then he breaks away the quarts with a small hammer and Viola, a thin rod of gold.

This rod is then used to analyze the fineness at the pay out office.

Then you go to the downstairs office and they put you into another mini jail. Then they tell you how fine your gold is and then they pay you out in cash accordingly.

A-fracking-mazing.

So all those buying old gold places bring their gold to a place like this and then they get instant cash, ( with the right papers and numbers ). Then that company or another refine it to fine and then it all gets fed back into the world markets. I can’t think of a single commodity that is recycled more than gold.

We also handed in the carpet and that will take about a month.

The melting dude has a gas torch on a soft flame and he puts the ingot molds in it. Kept warm and sooty at the same time. Smart.

Taken in the Japanese garden in the Hague.

Ditto.

Somewhat obsolete windscreen wipers.

The First Few Days

2011-08-22T00:18:00.001-07:00

We have set up shops before, Anne and I.

This is how St Maarten started.

And this is the shop up and running

This place was a book shop- and we assume was run by an old man. He was obviously not high on the maintenance thingi.

Day 1. So the first thing is to get rid of the old carpet and that awful staircase.

I am going to build a new staircase out of the Mukwa wood that I brought from Botswana eight years ago and that by now should be nice and cured. I need my circular saw though.

We have been going to Bauhaus and buying the minimum tools needed to get the job done. With long teeth, I might add. Because I already have them in the Hague. I hate buying double tools.

Cleaned and gone.

Then day 2 was to paint the walls and ceiling with white. This allows for any other colour to be applied later.

Day 3 was to finish painting the rear part of the shop and also finishing off the corners with white paint.

In the mean time Anne lay the basic base line for the tiles. Normally, one would start in the middle but this shop in not so straight and square, so we start from the side.

Day 4. Sunday.

After I had finished the walls of the shop, Anne and I were able to finish seven rows of tiles. It goes much faster with two working at it.

We have to be back at the campsite by seven because it closes then. A real drag, since we could work to 10 or eleven easily.

--------------------------------------------------------------

We also get a fine for parking outside.

That sucks, man.

On fucking Sunday.

This is the reason I am completely against circumcision. You see when a boy gets circumcised, the foreskin gets planted in a disused parking lot and then it grows into a traffic cop.

This is an appalling thought. The fact that there is a 55 year old traffic cop walking around who has my genes, so to speak.

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Today, we go to the Hague. Then we have to service the car, and load up our workshop and truck it down to Dusseldorf.

We waiting for a quote from the movers. If it is not to expensive, we go that route. It is a MAJOR mission to load everything.

We got to be back next week Monday to notarize the lease agreement. In Germany, everything get notarized.

Nice, the old and the new. Somehow it works. Nice house too, even though it is somewhat vertical.

This is the leader of the Naff Angels.

They are a real tough bike crowd here in Dusseldorf, always giving the police trouble and always helping little old ladies across the street.

It’s the bobby socks that strikes fear into law abiding citizens hearts.------------- I too have bad dreams about them………..

And to add insult to injury, he drives a Honda.

The same make that Casey Stoner rides.

The world is a cruel place…………….

Shop is Signed, Sealed and Delivered.

2011-08-18T00:37:00.001-07:00

Today we sealed the deal, paid the money and got the keys.

It works like this.

To get the keys.

We paid the deposit , which is three times the rent. Then the commission was about the same . Then the actual rent. Then you get keys--- We got the keys.

And this advice to my South African friends. It is fracking expensive to move. First from Southern Africa to St Maarten, about $80,000, then once we recovered there financially, another $50,000 to get to this point.

We have spent nearly 4 months living in Frankenfurter.

Frack, that was six weeks walking these streets until our feet hurt. We just walk into shops and ask if anyone knows of anything to rent. It is amazing what one can ferret out doing that. And the people are by and large very friendly here. So they quite willing to tell you the who’s who of the zoo. But you got to have a skin like a rhino, trust me.

And always there is this super high anxiety level, caused by not having a base, no focal point and no potential income.

But we learnt the ebb and flow of people in this area. We pierced and prodded and then on the internet we found this one.

Old, slightly wonky picture when Google drove past. Taken from Google earth. Google is handy, because it sometimes gives a snap shot of what things were like a year or two ago. Like this---it used to be an old bookshop.

From the back. Bucket full of work to make it up to standard. The front carpet we rip out first and tile the place out. At the back of the picture, which is the actual entrance of the shop, is a stair case that has to be remade.

As a normal shop it would fail all standards.

But Anne and I like this kind of placing.

We fix up the bathroom at our own expense and next week we start the major mission of moving the workshop from the Hague to Dusseldorf.

After Anne and I got the keys we went and toasted our new shop inside. We were both bubbly and slightly delirious with excitement.

From the other side. It is going to need a lot of work.

And then we planned and plotted and schemed….ha ha ----actually, all we went from there to the local hardware store called the Bauhaus, which is a giant hardware store that sells everything from roll of barbed wire to slightly used toilet paper. OK, not the last part, but anyway, we bought paint and tiles and stuff.

And a new vacuum cleaner. A wet or dry one. There were quite a few make and models. Anne chose the one that has the umlaut in the name. That way we know it was made in Germany—ha ha . I am FINALLY in a place where I don’t have to but Chinese made products. The quality of the products here is amazing compared to ST Maarten, which is a haven of grey and forged goods.

Tomorrow, we start ripping up the carpet in the front and check out how the colour of the tiles we think we want. We bought a single pack of them to give a square meter of colour. We like a sort of Terracotta colour tile. But now the immediate thing is that we paint everything white. I like having a white background before final colours come in. Once it is painted and carpet removed then we go to the Hague to fetch the rest of our life.

So now the blog gets a bit more focused on jewellery related things.

Except of course when I find interesting things ( to me, at least.) Check out this old building.

Check out the hand print on the bricks.

Lots of them. When the bricks were wet, before being put into the oven for firing.

Look, when one starts a business, it is always smart to have a good business model.

In this case the business model is hot.

These gentlemen are discussing the price of a ride. Note the disk brakes on the trike. That means she can stop in time……….

I am thinking of starting a separate blog of beautiful buildings. This one was built in 1854.

Note the rubbish modern building on either side.

Shops and Stuff

2011-08-16T22:52:00.001-07:00

You know, I think we have done it.

I actually think we are going to sign the lease tomorrow for a shop at Benrather Strasse 2 Carlstadt.

Anne found it over the internet and after a week or so of’ yes you got it’ to ‘no ways the owner says no’ to ‘yes it’s on again’ we finally were asked the right of questions , like where do you live and when you born and stuff that goes into a lease

This means the contract is being prepared.

I can’t wait.

We can actually rent many shops in Dusseldorf. There is in downtown plenty of stock, some in not so nice areas, some in very nice areas and of course, some in prime estate area.

The prime estate ones are out of my price range .They go for anything up to 235 EU per square meter.

The miff ones I don’t want.

I want to be excited. I want something left of center.

This one is precisely what we want. It is in a very cool area, in a street that has a high quality person walking by. It is a blank canvas, so we can apply our shop look to.

Like we had in Serolwana and Elephant Hills Jewellers.

This is what it looks like now. It used to be a old book shop. The downward striped doors on the left are the entrance to the building. Above are apartments.

This gives our the potential to live what we call the ‘100 meter lifestyle.’ Like every thing is within walking distance. Everything. Baker greengrocer, bank, cops etc. etc.

The place itself is messed up though. It is in need of some serious kissing and cuddling and it needs to have the insides made pretty.

So if the contract thing happens tomorrow, this blog will turn into a how-we-make-a shop type thing for a few months.

Hold thumbs for all goes well.

I spoke about lousy number plates the other day. This is the cling wrap version. Check the ultra care that was taken to affixing the said plate to the mudguard. Four bolts dude. Like the manual says and the mud guard dictates. Precisely my way.

This sign is cancelled. There are no more cars, soccer players and fans walking home and stuff. Check out how neat the building behind is painted.

We were in this very German restaurant, and this frame was hanging up on the wall.

It is the German and French chief chickens meeting.

Underneath, written in code that only I can understand, is written “ Dear Hans, sorry we missed you , we will see you when your new shop opens. Cant wait to buy your jewellery”

Cheers, Merksi and Kosi.

PS: We love your blog!!!!

Shops and Stands.

2011-08-10T23:06:00.001-07:00

Ok, so Anne and I knew that we would not have an easy time getting a shop. For one, the local economy is strong and the only place there are shop available is in the middle income areas. These are not bad, but very unexciting. And I want to be exciting. Having a unexciting shop is like kissing your sister—no fun in that.

Also, we have to get on with it. Winter is coming and next month has been described euphemistically by the locals as ‘ fresh’. Right, fresh. You mean freezing, not fresh.

We found a shop that is exciting. In fact there are two that are exciting.

This one was one. Not is the perfect place but in the right area.

EU 2435 per month with a three month deposit. What floored me was that the estate parasite, sorry, agent wanted 5 % commission over the entire length of the contract, which would have worked out to about EU 7300 That is not only excessive, but rather greedy too.

It was one of those shops that an architect was allowed far to much free reign. With three levels and twelve million corners making it a boost for his ego, but completely impractical.

Plenty of wasted space. I think architects should all be neutered in first year of university. That way they won’t breed more idiots that produce designs like this.

Anyway, the shop also was to difficult to secure. It had a skylight and no second exit, something I really do not like. I want to have a second door in the back in case of fire. So along with the commission and kak design we nixed it.

I will write about the shop we currently working on next time, once I have something more concrete to report.

Some nice iron work. This forms part of a security gate and is handmade out of iron.

Nice, the wood effect is impressive, especially in iron. Don’t find this stuff for sale these days.

This dude is taking a picture of the jewellery in the shop window. I used to have that quite often in St Maarten as well. I used to give them my web address. Much easier and better pictures too.

Still, sneaky, dude, sneaky.

Look, I know all about self expression and all that stuff. But what does a prospective employer think when this lady appears in front of her with that colour hair? Pos. or Neg.?

There are a few things I will not hire.

Some one that smokes.

The Germans smoke like each of them have a few spare lungs waiting for them in the garage.

A LOT of German people smoke. Women walking with a cigarette between their fingers is not uncommon.

I know I will get into trouble for saying this, but I dislike women walking down the pavement and smoking.----It just seems wrong.

Smokers are always huddled in little groups in a corner outside in the rain, wasting the bosses time, 15 minutes per smoke, times five times per day equals to easy over an hour per day.

Like----- I don’t care what you smoke, just not in my space.

Tattoos and piercings.

I will not have someone working in my shop with skank stamps running down their arms or chest or a forest of shiny things stuck in their faces and appendages. It looks gross and what really freaks me out is when they lisp because of the pins in the tongue. Eeeeuw.

There was a wine/food market in the center square over the weekend. This mobile stand that was selling wine struck me as the most professional I have ever seen, really well made and designed.

All the awning vanes fold down for transport.

In the center, the supply of hooch.

And at the back, the refrigerator to keep the moonshine cool. Check out the cool bar counter on the left.

Picture of a puddle.

Just for fun. Picture of the same puddle modified in Photo shop.—I got to do this stuff, otherwise I forget the program.

Like I said Autumn is on it’s way, coming to a doorway near you.

Trucks, Chick Cars and Berries.

2011-08-04T00:41:00.001-07:00

A slight problem. I thought this shit only happened in SXM or SA!

I had a good look and I am of the opinion that the approach design is wrong. Has to be, since that is a standard sized truck. There is a built indentation in the roof to accommodate the truck roof, but here the truck caught some temporary repair of damage that another truck had caused..

The new temporary repair. Shades of Africa.

Now if there is an ass design then it has got to be the bike number plates here. OK, it looks normal on the naf scooter in the background but on the Harley? I can just see some bureaucrat in Brussels designing it. I bet you it clips on and off when the cops aren’t around.

Never mind the rather small flickers and rear light..ahem.

And check out the helmet just left hanging from the front brake lever of the bike in the front of the Harley. That would be stupid in any equatorial country, trust me.

This is the St Maarten equal number plate size, by way of comparison.

We park Frankenfurter in the parking garage every time we come into town. It’s a special high roofed one. And super clean with a million video cameras.

Security? Naah! It’s just the African paranoia etched into our souls.

---------------------------------------------

We dipped out on the shop that was in the building owned by some evangelical church. We had a interview with the main dude and I could see he wasn’t to crazy speaking to the unconverted.

We called it the god shop and it went to one of their cult members. We sort of expected it. was the nicest shop though.

And so far that is it.

There are plenty of shops around, but they all are marginal. I don’t know how long have we been here so far, but by now, having walked all the streets where we want to be several times, we got a reasonable handle on where we DON’T want to be.

Using estate agent is useless, mostly because they don’t really deal with the shops we looking for and also, those type of shops are fucking scarce. So it’s a matter of time, really.

‘Tis summer, although hearing the locals speak, one would think this is the lousiest summer for years and years. Something to do with sunshine, I think.

Hey, I got no reference so it’s all good for me.

Yesterday we went to check out a living space and there was this 84 year old dude who was conducting the interview. He is married to a 50 year old for 33 years, and he said he does not have any old friends because all they talk about is death, the weather and hospitals. He was seriously on the ball. Must be something to do with a younger wife.

Hmmm. That means I would have a 22 year old girlfriend.

Anne would approve, I’m sure………………. Rad, man, rad.

Juvenile Black headed gull. The ultimate amphibious aircraft.

Black berries.They grow wild here. I remember them at my fathers place in Clervaux . Check out the different type of ladybird on them. They nice to eat when they ripe. The berries, that is.

I Photo shopped some distracting elements out of this picture. Still, in its own way, very pretty.

There is a parking space where we like to go look for birds ( Tree Creeper, I will see you soon ).

Anyway, this lady and her daughter pitched in the most righteous female car in the known Universe. Check the utterly absoloot cool number plate.

No dodo, it isn’t short for Mercedes, it’s Me, Radio Control.

I don’t know what is under the car in the back, probably a LPG tank conversion.

This is the female equivalent of a guy driving a Fiat 500. ( I saw one being driven by a guy today and man, that makes a Vespa scooter look drag bike, it’s so naf.)

I mean,I’ve seen plenty of chicks drive a Hummer and they just plain doos.

But this one is small, which is perfect for a real lady, and has such attitude that when she closed the door, it made the same BANG as a army Landrover sounds like.

Perfect.

More Dusseldorf Stuff.

2011-07-27T01:28:00.001-07:00

How to make a successful eating place in the city.

1. Make it so small that there is ALWAYS a queue.

2. Sell something that is very cheap or very expensive, nothing in between.

3. Make the name stupid, like in this case, Fritz and Friends.

4. No more than 10 or 12 things for sale.

5. Laugh when someone asks for a custom order

This guy has two shops nearby--- identical—including the permanent queues outside—always.

Here is another successful one. There is also always a crowd around this one. His neighbors?---------- Suffer, dogs, suffer.

This is just an normal ‘house’ in an outlying suburb of Dusseldorf.But then check out the detail in the middle. I’n it cute?

This is one of the really imposing high tech buildings in downtown Dusseldorf. Over the previous weekend a section of glass popped out and moered to the ground. Oh my oh my, what trouble.

In the next two days they sent the in window netting Swat team, the only real macho job in Germany, and they clad the entire fraking building in netting. The whole building, about 25 stories.— done. by. Tuesday.

I had a good look at the way the windows are mounted and for the life of me I cannot see how a window like that can fall out. I wonder if there is not a more sinister reason—just saying.

‘n droll in die drink water. Sorry a dove in the shop window. The dude had to throw all the bread away.

We had to go to the Trade center for handmade stuff to find out about licenses and things. There were a whole lot of students that were doing exams or tests or something. And in the tradition of youngsters, this is what the lift doors look like, after they have been given the ‘modern art student’ look. Love it.Yet another pretty female busker, playing all on her ownsome without one single interested male around her. What is it with these male youngsters in Dusseldorf ? Are they all shy or sly? She looked pretty stoned, though, and the ‘music’ she was making could be vaguely described as ‘ whimsical’.

I know I shouldn’t laugh, but these two spent about two hours trying to pitch the tent. At first it seemed there were to many tent poles, then it appeared there were to few. Then the entrance was on the wrong side of the tent, but after turning the tent around, this was found not to be the case after all. Then there were problems with the hammer used to hammer the tent pegs into the ground. The danged thing kept missing the pegs. It was eventually sorted out though.

This is the Marktplatz in town and if you click on the link below your view will be transported to one of the top windows by the flag. It give a new picture every 10 seconds. So you can see the what the weather is like.

http://www.duesseldorf.de/eng/cam/index.shtml

Dusseldorf Things

2011-07-23T03:40:00.001-07:00

The old days.

And modern days. I wonder if this building was shown to the architects of the first picture, what they would say.

Don’t be fooled, these are BIG buildings…….

Of course, with modern glass buildings, one can’t send in Sadie, the Cleaning Lady to do the windows. Industrial oomph is needed.

I have posted of this shop before. But for crying in a bucket, why is it so successful ? OK, the bread and stuff is excellent, but it’s not that good, compared to the myriad other backers in Dusseldorf. And believe me, here in Dusseldorf there are fracking millions of Backerei.

There are 12 visible staff members and when I took this picture, there were over 30 customers, waiting to be served. Talk about busy, talk about making money.

Position. It is ALL about position. This dude has another branch down the drag and it is not near as busy.

Position can be literally 50 meters from divine to desolation.

Bicycles are big in Europe. What I like from some folk is that just because they are on the wrong side of sixty does not mean life has become a drag. There are quite a few like this dude. On his own some and quite happy to be so.

Took him about half an hour to set up, and then he was off to the local for a couple of cold ones. Now, is that cool or what? I seen a couple of ladies do this on their own some too. Ernst kühle, meine Freunde.

And speaking of seriously cool. I have very seldom seen a female busker. Mimes, yes, but never a girl that plays guitar, sings and is good looking to boot. And what was even more weird, there were no young men gathered around her. For frack sakes, here is an obviously spunky chick, got guts, got discipline ( to learn) and panache and no adoring males around. Are all the males wimps here? Sheeeez, please give me back my youth…….

This picture could be used in promotional material for the lock. It obviously works very well.

Right in the middle of Dusseldorf a gaggle of Canadian geese decided to look for a take away café that was still open.

Munching on the grass.

Munching on bread. Nothing as mundane as eating grass for our own badelynge of ducks. I don’t know where the drakes have gone but at the moment there are only ladies present. Every morning, bang on time. So cute.

Shops and Licenses.

2011-07-22T01:12:00.001-07:00

There comes a time when all this “moving to a new country” bit becomes a drag. I am now gatvol of not having a workshop and looking at jewellery only in shop windows or on the net.

I want to start making it again, and more importantly, I want to start selling it again. There are shops available, but they just not in the exact position we want.

Now I know that the chances of getting a prime position is unrealistic and improbable, but I also know that opening up is a kak location is a good way to lose money.

Like this one we checked out. The foot shop. No go. It is around the corner from the main drag, so little passing traffic. No wonder it’s closing.

In fact, two things that are able to lose money the fastest is opening up a restaurant or a jewellery shop. But not opening on also uses money, slowly but surely.

And anyway, we cannot carry on with this lifestyle for more than maybe two more months because then the summer ends and we have to have proper shelter. It gets a touch chillies round these parts.

If nothing comes up then there are two options.

Wait.

Or look for a job. I have no problem finding a job, since I am sure that in some workshop or another I have the skills to justify my wages. It’s just that I have only worked for a boss about 3 years out of the 35 years I have been working. Even that does not worry me, I can get along with people well enough, or keep my big mouth shut when I have to. Mostly.

It’s just that getting a job puts my shop acquisition on solid hold. There is no way I could start a new job and leave a few months later because some shop has come up. That would piss me off if it was done to me and I am sure it would do the same for my boss. So I think that I will leave the job thing until the last possible moment.

Last week we were in NL, to sort out our drivers licenses. It rained something fierce and then the next day it was clear again. The gulls took the opportunity to bath in the new fresh morning on a farmers field.

Also brought out some pretty flowers.

The license department queried the fact that my motorbike license from St Maarten was only three months old. They thought I went to ST Maarten purposely to do my license there and then have it transferred to a EU one in NL. This gets done so that Netherlanders avoid the major mission of obtaining a license in NL. and the costs, EU1800 as apposed to $300 in St Maarten.

Not so—here.

So Lisette, in her usual competent way, found a document in a file we had left at her place and sent it off to them. I proved that I had been stuck there for eight years. They accepted it. And bingo, a few days later it was there for pic-up.

Note, ST Maarteners and South Africans, a FEW days , not months and months.

So now I finally don’t have to walk around with a passport. Got credit card license that doubles up as ID as well.

Dude, I am getting so local, soon I will be wearing wooden shoes and wearing ‘Lederhosen’ as well.

Taken while we were scouting for shops.

OK, there are NO bumper stickers here, but some humor can be found. Teeth covering the tow hitch.

Shop and Carving stuff

2011-07-20T23:45:00.001-07:00

This blog is a jewellery blog, namely the jewellery I make. Over the last two months it then changed to a ‘travel blog’ because I can’t make jewellery now.

Now the immediate travel bit is over, it will focus on a “ Dusseldorf observation” blog. Or a “ How to get a frikken’ shop going before your money runs out “ blog. So we have been doing the rounds, getting our feet wet, ( literally) so to speak.

However, and this make blogging a bit of a drag, is when I get told what I can or cannot write and what I should write. So I am not allowed to write about all the shops yet by executive spousal order…sigh.

This is the first one that is available. On the corner. It has three floors, that is, a ground level floor and two basement floors. All in all some 200 square meters, very nicely finished off. But it is in the wrong place. So we not taking it.

The floor plan in very corner-ish. I like a shop to be square-ish. Makes it easier to fit out, and my existing displays fit easily. This one also has four doors, which I really don’t like.

It’s one of those “ architect gone wild with design” type shops. It used to be a antique shop.

This is the bottom floor. Never mind the blue. The two doors are a very nice bath room and toilets.

This view from the street. It is on the corner, and there in lies the problem. Place,place,place. It is not very well situated. Not the best foot traffic one could want. But a very nice place. We can put gold smithing, gem cutting/carving, wood and metal workshops in there with space to spare. With the potential of living there as well. Very comfortable.

This one is in the right location. Lots of foot traffic. We heard about it from a shop owner . That’s all I’ll say now.

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You know, I really, really got some dick head friends.

The other day we speak on Skype video.

Now, those that know me, know I call a spade a spade. I am brash, blunt and my language was not taught at school. So here I am talking my usual bullshit when suddenly everybody starts blushing and looking embarrassed.

Then they turn the laptop around and there sits some innocent 20 something chick who’s sensibilities I have now trampled on. She’s blushing and all hurt or something…..

My unpaid advice:-- If you want to speak with me and not be embarrassed, tell me your sensitive child is in the room and I shall speak appropriately. ( I am very good at baby talk )

But if you phone me up and you don’t tell me Sister Theresa is in the room hiding out of lap top view, then expect un cut Hans talk.

Or don’t phone………That’s the way it is.

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And while I am on the subject of pissed off, here is another fat gripe of mine. This piece of shaped soapstone I immediately recognized as coming out of Zimbabwe. It was for sale in some fancy hotel lobby downtown Dusseldorf.

It was carved by Nicholas Mukomberanwa, now deceased. Shame, the poor fucker.

If you go to the site shown in the bottom right hand of the picture and click on ‘galleries’ you see the actual price of similar pieces on offer.

Like $1000 –2000 on average.

EU 13,800.---I would not mind if the money went to his family but somehow I doubt they even know how much the price is. I will bet my life he did not get more that $200 for this piece. If that. And not to put to a fine point on it , it not very good at all. Now before any squeal comes, just consider this. It this soapstone shape was stolen, how much would it be worth to a buyer of stolen goods?

You would not even be able to give it away as a doorstop……