The Flickr Madeinengland Image Generatr

Land Rover..

The original "Mini" car...

The theme for for "Smile on Saturday" for Saturday 7th of June is "portray the letter P", where, as the name suggests you need to portray the letter P in some way. In this case, I have used pretty pieces of découpage paper from my collection to form the letter P. There is even a pansy in there for good measure! I hope you like my choice for this week’s theme, and that it makes you smile!

Scrapbooking was a popular pastime in Victorian times for both children and adults. Creating a scrapbook was not only a craft project, it was also a way of preserving memories.

In the 1800s, the automated printing press was invented. Suddenly books and printed material became much more widely available. As well as writing in their commonplace books, people began to cut out and stick in printed items. Things like greeting cards, calling cards, postcards, prayer cards, advertising trading cards and newspaper clippings were collected. Some of these books contained a mix of personal journal entries, hand-drawn sketches and watercolours, along with various scraps of printed material. These books were literally books of scraps.

By the 1820s, collectable scraps had become more elaborate. Some items were embossed: a process by which a die (a metal stamp for cutting or pressing) was punched into the reverse side of the paper, giving the front a raised three-dimensional appearance.

In 1837, the first year of Queen Victoria's reign, the colour printing process known as chromolithography was invented. This lead to the production of ‘ready made’ scraps. Brightly coloured and embossed scraps were sold in sheets with the relief stamped out to the approximate shape of the image. These pre-cut scraps were connected by small strips of paper to keep them in place. The laborious task of cutting out small pictures was thus removed, and sales of scraps went soaring. Many of the best-quality scraps of the period were produced in Germany, where bakers and confectioners used small reliefs to decorate cakes and biscuits for special occasions such as christenings, weddings, Christmas and Easter.

These embossed chromolithograph scraps are of German and British origin and date from the 1880s.

Various Cadillac ambulances. Left two Corgi re-issues, which seem to be based on the same prototype as the smaller Matchbox. On the right are two Dinky Toys, Pontiac 263, and the larger, later Cadillac 288 – both have their original stretchers.

A simple light painted still life of a vintage adjustable wrench on blue satin. I just liked the richness of the tones and textures. Perhaps it needed another element to make more of a story - but I like the results nevertheless.

Matchbox King Size K-12 Foden recovery vehicle 'BP Matchbox Service Station'.

Matchbox King Size K-13 ERF concrete mixer 'Ready Mixed Concrete'.

Anyone who follows my photostream knows that I collect beautiful and vintage pieces of haberdashery. I usually focus on Dewhurst’s Sylko spools, but I also have spools from many other manufacturers which have interesting and beautiful graphics on their heads. For this photograph I have a spool of Glista silk substitute machine twist from the 1930s and a spool of Cozilka machine twist from the 1920s. Some time ago, I went fabric shopping at a specialist shop that has a particularly wonderful range of unusual fabrics that they sell by the quarter metre (just enough for my purposes). Amongst other pieces I bought this beautiful hand dyed pale blue pleated wool crêpe which I have used to accessorise my two spools and two lovely cobalt blue glass Art Deco buttons from the 1920s.

The theme for “Smile on Saturday” for the 17th of May is “ton sur ton”. “Ton sur ton” is a French expression that we can translate as “tone on tone”; that's when there are two (or more) assembled items of the same colour, but not the same shade (tint, hue). In this example, the spools and the buttons are all shades of blue, but the shades are darker than that of the pale blue crêpe background. I hope you like my choice of subject for this week’s theme, and that it makes you smile!

I could find very little about Glista Bright Machine Twist other than an advertisement from an English Du Barry patterns magazine from 1939. The advertisement says: “Be sure and sew with Glista, the best machine twist for woollens or cotton fabrics – strong and silky – works perfectly for machine or hand sewing. 100-yard reels – look for the name on the reels.” I know Glista Bright Machine Twist was produced in Britain, and I know it was sold through F. W. Woolworth & Co.

Cozilka was a brand produced by B. N. & H. Ltd. B. N. & H. Ltd. were Brough, Nicholson and Hall of Leek, Staffordshire. The company was founded in 1812 as a silk and artificial silk thread producer. They became famous throughout the textile world as very high quality silk fabric and thread manufacturers. Cozilka is probably either silk or artificial silk, and the name was created to be a imitation of Dewhurst's Sylko trade name.

Matchbox Major M-5 Massey-Ferguson combine harvesters with metal and with plastic wheels. The older one has lost its steering wheel, but I have a scrap one, so intend to attempt a repair.

Matchbox King Size K-3 Caterpillar D9 bulldozer.

Matchbox King Size K-1 Weatherill Hydraulic Shovel. I think this must have been the first King Size model – there was a smaller similar toy in the 1-75 range.

Matchbox King Size K-5 Foden dump truck.

Matchbox King Size K-2 Muir Hill dumper.

Matchbox King Size K-7 Curtis rear dump truck.

Matchbox King Size K-2 KW Dart dump truck.

When it was my birthday two years ago, a very dear friend who enjoys photography as much as I do, and knows that I collect beautiful and vintage pieces, gave me a wonderful selection of antique ribbons, buttons, buckles, lace and other fine notions. She also gave me three follow up tins of similar delightful gifts for Christmas.

Those wonderful gifts are what has inspired me to create this series of "Embroider my World" images featuring examples from my vintage bobbin collection. In this case I am using two of my Dewhurst's Sylko Flame reels of cotton which date from between 1938 and 1954. The spool sits on a vibrant orange silk Kurta from India which has been machine embroidered. The spools are accessorised by two dainty pieces of Latvian lace which came from one of those three tins of haberdashery that Christmas several years ago now.

The theme for for "Looking Close… on Friday" for Friday 16th of May is "the colour orange", and I could think of no better a subject than some of my cotton spools and another entry to my growing "Embroider my World" series. This makes for a bright image – one which I hope you will like, and I hope makes you smile!

A Kurta is a knee length tunic shirt with long sleeves and a buttoned placket. It is worn as a casual garment on its own or with sleeveless jackets, for formal occasions.

Belle Vue Mill, commonly known as Dewhurst’s, was built by Thomas Dewhurst in 1828. It opened in 1829 as John Dewhurst & Sons and was one of Skipton’s largest spinning and weaving mills. The mill’s position next to the Leeds Liverpool Canal meant that raw cotton could be shipped in by boats from Liverpool. Finished goods would then be sent back the same way ready for distribution. Coal to power the machine’s steam engines was also delivered by barge. In 1897 Dewhurst’s was bought by the English Sewing Cotton Co. It continued to produce Sylko, one of the mill’s most famous products. It was produced in over 500 colours and sold throughout the world. Sylko cottons are still available at haberdashers today.

Only 100 of these were made between 2001-2002

18/11/2006, loading fuel oil at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Islas Canarias, Spain.

Vessel's port side main deck and cargo manifold.

An oil products/chemical tanker, which was at this time being used as a bunkering vessel (possibly for Russian/Ukrainian fishing vessels operating in the area of Mauretania. The Captain and C/O were in fact Russian).

Keel laid during September 1973, launched on 05/11/1974, & completed on 07/04/1975, by Richard Dunston (Hessle) Ltd., Hessle, England (h904)
2,334 g.t. & 3,500 dwt., as:
'Pass of Balmaha' to 1985,
'Deltauno' to 1987,
'Lobelia' to 1990,
'Lobster' to 1991,
'Lotus' to 1994,
'Mare Titanium' to 1994,
'Taro' to 1995,
'Concorde' to 2002,
'Tenerife' to 2002,&
'Blue Ice' until sold to India for demolition.

Arrived at Alang on 21/05/2008, work commenced on 26/05/2008.