Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove (2)

The cover image for the first issue of my new photography zine Sweyne's Eye.

Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove (1)

To celebrate the publication of my first photo-book, Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand  ̶i̶n̶  Glove, I will be sharing some of my images from the new zine here on Pixie-Led. 

Sweyne’s Eye is my new Swansea zine, which is designed to act as a window to my various photographic projects exploring my local neighbourhood.

I have devoted the inaugural issue of this new zine to a series of images I captured back in 2015. That year, encouraged by my recent purchase of an activity tracker (Fitbit) and my involvement in a location-based augmented-reality game (Ingress), I found myself actively pounding the streets of Swansea. as I chased an ever-increasing step-count. During my perambulations, I was shocked at just how much clothing I saw discarded around the city. Curious at the sheer scale of their number and the diversity of the abandoned items, I took to photographing the forsaken clothing, collecting hundreds of images of them throughout the year.

As I continued the photographic project, however, one particular item of clothing began to particularly intrigue me, and I started concentrating my image-making solely on the dropped gloves I happened upon during my walks. The gloves appeared forlorn and disquieting in the landscape and suggested moods and concepts richer than those connoted by the other dishevelled clothing I had photographed.

Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand  ̶i̶n̶  Glove collects for your perusal 60 photographs of deserted, stray and feral gloves, all photographed throughout 2015 in and around the City of Swansea. The zine also includes a few of the early images I took for the series, including shots of trainers hanging from street telephone wires and a jester's hat washed up on Swansea Bay. I hope you enjoy and help support my new project. And I look forward to sharing further images with you in the second issue of this new Swansea zine very soon...

Anyway, here is the first image I would like to share here from the book. Look out for some more over the next few days...

Image taken from the new zine Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand  ̶i̶n̶  Glove

Kombucha Bottling

Our first batch of Kombucha has now completed its first fermentation process and is now bottled up. We have a few flavours brewing here too amongst the plain original kombucha, namely Raspberry and Ginger/Lemon :)

Our next fresh batch of kombucha has also now been started...

Sweyne's Eye 1 ~ Intro

Sweyne's Eye 1 ~ Layout Design Cont...

Working on the Layout of Sweyne's Eye 1

A Sleepy Distraction

It is difficult concentrating on the editing of my first photo-book zine with this one in the background. She can draw my attention even when she is fast asleep :)

Fermenting Kombucha

Following up from last week's post, here is the latest photograph of our kombucha. As you can see from all the bubbles, it is fizzing away nicely as it continues to ferment:

Fermenting kombucha

Sweyne's Eye 1...

I started work this morning on the design of my first photobook zine - Sweyne's Eye, the first issue of which will feature a little project entitled: Hand i̶n̶  Glove.

More details soon...

Excited Sparrows on a Windy Afternoon

Our little feathered garden friends are loving our new bird feeder. The sparrows especially can't contain their excitement and their constant twittering can be heard from our house even in the rain and wind :)

Brewing Up Some Kombucha

I've been a little unwell of late, suffering from an eye condition that has been exasperated by my being allergic to most of the antibiotics I have been prescribed for the problem. Anyway, as well as developing quite drastic allergic reactions to the antibiotics (swollen, burning eyelids and lips), they have also had a rather devastating effect on my stomach :( Whilst I am now on my fourth different course of antibiotics, courtesy this time of the local hospital eye specialist) and await to see if these can know wy health troubles on the head, I am combatting my belly woes with the consumption of kombucha.

To help combat that, I am currently drinking kombucha. And I really have to say that this product really has helped me a heap. Unfortunately, this drink can be on the rather expensive side if purchased commercially from local health food shops, and as my wife and I intend to continue drinking this beverage for at least the next couple of months to test out the claims of its much-lauded health benefits, we have decided to give brewing it at home a try.

The required scoby (an acronym for 'symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast') can be found easily online via dedicated forums, commercial producers or ebay. I purchased our starter scoby from ebay:

Our kombucha scoby from ebay

A close-up of the kombucha scoby

To kick start the fresh kombucha brew, we added a bottle of live starter tea, which can be purchased from Holland and Barretts and a growing number of supermarkets as a stand-alone drink.

A tasty bottle of live kombucha tea, which I used to kickstart
a fresh batch of kombucha drink

This was added to a bowl sugar-sweetened black tea, which was then decanted into a kombucha jar, along with the scoby.

Sugar-sweetened black tea - a base for the kombucha drink

Sealing the top of the jar from unwanted bacteria, we then placed the jar away from direct sunlight and let it do its work.

A fresh jar of pre-fermented kombucha - complete with scoby

It is now just a waiting game as we wait for the fermentation process to commence and take hold on the kombucha drink. I will add an update on proceedings in the near future...

A Rainy Sunday Morning

Another rainy Sunday morning. Still, it has created quite a moody atmosphere and I am taking full advantage of it to do a little ghost story writing.

To add to the ambiance, I am playing an absolutely beautiful pagan folk CD by Telling the Bees. I have seen this band play twice and they were both gorgeous experiences. I even got this treasured CD signed by the band before that sadly split:

You can catch a great interview by Andy Letcher from the band here. The artwork on the album is also as beautiful as the music itself and was crafted by the very talented Rima Staines.

A Walk Through My Local Woods

I took a walk down to my local woods this morning. It was a misty morning and I added to the mood of the walk by separating myself from the ambient sounds of the woodland by donning my headphones and playing the moody Nordic sounds of Forndom. I Loved it :) I need to do this walk more often as the whole circular route from my doorstep is less than 3.5k steps.

Frosty Leaves

After the last few days of much-needed sunshine, which had me prematurely anticipating the return of spring, I was today reminded that, here in the UK, we are still very much still entrenched in the depths of mid-winter :

And it has been such a long winter already :(

Sunset at Newport Wetlands

I took a late afternoon wander around Newport Wetlands this past weekend. It was quiet out amongst the reeds, with few people and, strangely, even fewer birds. All was still and calm there. There was not even a breeze to tussle the reeds that sprung like forests from the boggy ground. And the sunset was incredible!

This short video, made as I made my out along the floating walkway through the wetlands towards the sun really does remind me of one of Kaneto Shindo's Onibaba:

The Wetlands were designed to help birds and wildlife after the construction of the Cardiff Bay Barrage had a devastating effect upon their numbers. The birds must have all settled for an early night this particular evening though, as apart from the odd flock of seabirds, seen skirting the Severn Estuary in the distance, the place looked almost desolate.

But the delight that was lost from not seeing many birds on this walk was more than compensated for the splendour of this year's most spectacular sunset yet:

A gentle scene of sky and water and reeds

Taking a stroll along the floating walkway towards East Usk Lighthouse

East Usk Lighthouse overlooking the Severn Estuary

Reeds fringing the coast at Newport Wetlands

The northern shore of the Severn Estuary

The sunset climaxes over Newport Wetlands and the Severn Estuary, bringing a close to a wonderful hour's walk:

As the light faded from the sky and I traipsed back to my awaiting car, I saw the fading light over one of the ponds that lined my track looked delightfully serene. Never have I seen so many pylons looking so picturesque:

And with that moment gone too, darkness fell quick and it was time for me to head home for the night...