The Last Week Or So....

Quite a mixture of photos in here, from a delivery of wood, to my samples being made, to a trip to the beach. 

Unloading wood from the lorry

And carrying it to the warehouse

Pradeep 

My Sudoku design (1st version) a few changes to be made here and there...

Noughts and Crosses pieces made from Albezia wood and screen printed on

My Clip/Peg design (developing on Jamie's previous design)

The warmth of Albezia wood is lovely

Evening shot outside the office

Sandamali painting my design for a bouncy bird

Red telephone boxes in Sri Lanka??? Design for a bookend.

A 'bouncy bee' being painted

Green bouncy bird

Spraying sealant on puzzles

Design for a hole & stick game, palmyra and coconut wood

Bookends and Bouncy Animals partially finished

Bouncy Birds

Elephant heads for pull-along toy

The workshop boys

Planing wood

The workshop boys

Puzzles in the sunlight

Gayan spraying sealant in the evening sun

Sun behind clouds

Track between the paddi fields

Fishermen's bikes

Sunset over the paddi fields

Sunset

Fishermen pushing the boat out to sea

Pradeep with his family

Toddy Tapping

Yesterday morning I went to see the old traditional method of collecting coconut juice from the flower of the tree, and fermenting it to produce a strong and fairly pleasant alcoholic drink similar in taste to cider. The later in the day the Toddy is collected, the stronger it gets. It is collected by climbing up the trees with no harness, just some agility and energy which is especially impressive when the 'Toddy Tapper' is 57 years old.

Pradeep's father, Gamini, who is 57 years old, climbing between the trees

Pradeep's son Chathum, quite a shy little fellow

A broken old clay pot which was originally used to collect the Todi has now been replaced by a far lighter plastic equivalent

Coconut shells are tied to the trees with coconut fibre rope to provide foot holdings for climbing

Beautiful use of materials

Finishing off the first of two rounds for the day

This very sharp knife is used to slice the end of the flower to release the juice

A rather useful box attached to the waist to hold tools

Not a bad return for half a days' work

Gamini - Master Todi Tapper

A Few Photos From the Past Days

Click on the images for larger versions.

'Blackie' my guard dog, loud but a big softy really

Raindrops and leaves

A resting fly

Palm leaf silhouette

The CNC Router in action, cutting out a Sudoku board I designed

Making sure it's doing the right thing, from left to right: Autocad Man Prageet; The Big Boss Shiran; Head of  the Workshop Pradeep; and Workshop Boy Samir.

Spanner in the sunlight close-up

Squirrel, squirrel, shake your bushy tail!

A swallowtail butterfly having a rest

First batch of my designs being prototyped - London Landmark Bookends and Bouncy Animals

Sanding belts

For Jess Jones and her love of elephants!

I love all the different No Smoking signs everywhere, the Sinhala characters are beautiful

A very yellow leaf

Pieces for a Noughts and Crosses Board Game, freshly varnished

Every time I look at this planing machine I see a monster that eats wood shavings