It’s coming up to Xmas. You can tell,if only because there’s that idiot picture of that idiot dog on the cover. Xmas is all about tradition. And it’s lovely, but there’s always the question of what to get them. The question of presents.
A few years ago, I bought My Fine Wife an Air Fryer for Xmas. It was that year everyone either bought or was given an air fryer. Has anyone still got theirs? And has anyone who has still got theirs still use it? Didn’t think so. Anyway.
Actually it was the perfect present. It was a nice big thing in a nice big box, it came with all manner of attachments and a little sachet of dust that you could pour over it to save it the trouble of gathering dust itself. It was quite expensive and I got some serious brownie points – mostly for the size of the box. About a week later, quietly and without fuss, I took it back to the shop and got my money back. The perfect present. Big time brownie points… and your money back.
Buying presents for a loved one is always a bit of a mission. What do they need? They need nothing. How many bright red Triumph Spitfires can you drive at any one time? We don’t do presents any more. We give each other ‘experiences’. A ticket to go and see that. A trip here, a visit there. Making memories. So much nicer than an idiot kitchen gadget, even one where you get the money back.
Anyway. This year I had a birthday, and My Fine Wife gave me ‘cuttlefish casting’. No, me neither. I know she gets her hair done at a place called Cuttlefish, but how can I say this? If you were going to buy me a present that had something to do with hair, you wouldn’t need much wrapping paper.
“Cuttlefish are a chunky squid-like creature with a well-developed head, large eyes and mouths with beak-like jaws. They have a fin that runs around their body, eight ‘arms’ with suckers plus two tentacles around the mouth. Cuttlefish are extremely variable in colour, but are usually blackish-brown, mottled or striped”.
The cuttlefish casting was at the Phoenix Art Space, that large possibly unattractive building near The Level by St Peter’s. I must have driven past that place a thousand times – last week alone – but I’ve never really taken much notice of it. But there’s loads of fantastic stuff that goes on there. Like cuttlefish casting.
Cuttlefish also have a ‘cuttlebone’ which they use for buoyancy. You probably know them from when you were a kid and your Aunt Sadie had a budgie called Twinkie and she used to give it a cuttlefish to eat. Well, a cuttlebone.
Cuttlebones wash up on shore. They’re white and oblong shaped. One side is hard as bone, the other is soft like polystyrene made of chalk. You make a shape in the soft side, fill it with molten pewter and that’s the casting.
The class, led by Anna Watson, was easy and fun. It was loveky to spend the day doing something new, something creative.
I decided to make a ring. I like rings. That was straightforward because I could just copy one of my other rings for size. Loved it. (It’s the one below, next to the dual prong ring). A bit of rubbing down, a bit of filing, a bit of shining. Loved it. Buoyed, I decided to make My Fine Wife a ring. Well, this was all her idea. So I made her a ring. And then another.
Reader, both rings fitted her like, well, rings. I’m not sure who was more surprised: me, her or the cuttlefish. One thing I do know though. More brownie points than a warehouse full of air fryers.
The Whistler 