Second Viking shield FINISHED

Second Viking shield FINISHED

I am glad to say that I have finished my second Viking shield and it turned out quite good. Typical of me, that I am not 100% happy with it, but then again I never am happy with my work. But that's me in a nut shell I suppose.

So this is the finished Viking shield, that has been aged and ready to be hung on the wall.

It took me ages to paint the design and when it was almost finished I realised it looked more Roman than Viking. I then looked at a few books on my bookshelf and decided that a few Celtic designs from the Book of Kells would look good in the medallions and I am hoping that it looks more Viking now.

I used natural earth colours like burnt umber and yellow ochre as these colours would have been available a thousand years ago. The green colour was made up with yellow ochre and some copper oxide. Once I was reasonably happy with the painting, I then aged it and put a few coats of wax over it all. There is a slight brown colour to the wax which gives it a rough antique finish which is what I was looking for.

I then pined and nailed the boss on to the shield before putting the handle on the back. I decided to pad the boss with some of the jute webbing as I feel this gives it the look and feel of a real usable Viking shield. This shield was however made and designed as an art piece, but I am confident enough that it would work well as a re-enactment Viking shield, although I am sure it would get destroyed in battle.

Over all, I am happy with this project and am fighting the urge to build another few shields. I think my next project will be to finish a self portrait piece that I made when I was in college a few years ago. The portrait is called Evidence and although I got a distinction for it, I never got round to putting a few final finishing touches to the piece.

So until next time, thank you for reading my blog and please comment if you wish.

I am trying to lose weight and get fit

Being overweight, I am looking at ways to lose a few stone, and MY GOD, DO I NEED TO LOSE A FEW STONE!  My diet isn’t really that bad, all though I do have the odd treat now and then. I have a savoury, more than a sweet tooth, although I am partial to wine gums, gummy bears and jelly sweets that do not contain fat or as much sugar as any other type of confectionery or candy as our American cousins would say. When it comes to savoury, I love salt and vinegar flavour crisps which I don’t tend to eat that much, although I do buy the odd multi pack of KP Meanies which I have been guilty of consuming within an hour. Funny thing is, my younger brother Arren (sounds like Arren but starts with a D) has the same love for these savoury snacks. In saying that, I would buy Meanies every 2 months or so. The truth about me being overweight is the lack of exercise more than anything else.

It wasn’t that long ago when I used to do a lot of exercise as I used to love cycling and I was once super fit. I used to cycle 10 miles into work and then 10 miles back, in all weather conditions. This changed when I purchased my house which was about a mile from where I worked at the time and before I knew it, I was really unfit and now I’m at least 6 stone over weight. One of the biggest factors of me being overweight is the fact I totally lost my confidence and motivation. In fact it is more down to motivation than any other factor. I try to get myself motivated but, I just can’t seem to keep it up which in some way may be due to me being unemployed and finding it hard to find any kind of work. Even when I tried to get back into college or do an up skill course, I get rejected. It just seems to be a vicious circle that I am finding hard to escape. The good thing is that I am not depressed which is a blessing as I had suffered depression since I was about 12 so you can imagine I lost some of the best years of my life. ANYWAY that’s another story.

Two years ago or so, I bought a set of Nordic walking sticks and I am now using them. Yesterday I brought my dog for a walk along the canal and once I let him of the lead I was able to use the Nordic walking sticks for really the first time (although I have used them briefly in Donegal) I have to say using the Nordic walking sticks is really good as you tend to get a full body work out. OK, I do feel a bit self-concuss about looking like an overweight doofuss, but I was surprised at how fast I was and how much ground I was covering, also it seemed way easier than normal walking as a lot of the strain is taken by your arms and sticks. Yeah I can see me getting into this Nordic walking although I would rather do this with human company than with my dog. The problem with doing it with a dog is, you have to put him on a lead and it is almost impossible to use the sticks as he always gets in the way. I have also been using a fantastic pedometer made by Omron which shows the amount of steps you take and it also records the aerobic steps that you take, which is when you walk fast and use your lungs more. Yesterday while on my walk with my dog I made 6482 steps of which 3233 of these steps were aerobic. My goal was to do 10,000 steps but as it started to rain and I got soaked to the skin, I thought it better to get home and dry than catch my death.  I think if I keep this walking regime up, I should be able to lose weight and get fitter in no time. I am looking forward to getting fit and maybe my old clothes with start to fit me again. I am going for another walk with my dog today although the sky looks very grey and I think it may rain.