Good morning Mr Zip-Zip-Zip!

Good morning, Mister Zip-Zip-Zip,
You’re surely looking fine!
Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust,
If the Camels don’t get you,
The Fatimas must.

Here we have some pretty interesting lyrics taken from 1918 ragtime classic ‘Good Morning Mr Zip-Zip-Zip’ where ‘Camels’ and ‘Fatimas’ are apparently references to cigarette brands that were popular at the time. The tune was a favourite with US soldiers during the World War 1 era and was available as sheet music for piano, band, orchestra and male quartet as well as for talking machine or player piano.

Just why the muse demanded I juxtapose this with a rather racy looking young lady clutching a couple of water pistols you’ll have to work out for yourself. It’s laser engraved on wood then hand painted and stands proud at 39 x 26cm. Drop us a line if you’re interested…

Cheers

id-iom

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Remember the Alamo (Phil Collins – No Context Required)

Who’d a thunk it? Before he donated it to a Texas museum back in 2014 Phil Collins had the largest collection of Alamo memorabilia in private hands including Davy Crockett’s fringed bullet pouch and Jim Bowie’s legendary knife. Apparently he’d been obsessed with the Battle of the Alamo since watching something about Davy Crockett on TV when he was a kid and then indulged himself once he’d made some moolah as an adult. Today’s out of context quote is Collins’ reply to reports belittling him for his supposed belief that he was at the Alamo in another life.

Anyway, I’ve juxtaposed his quote with a wide eyed young lady who looks a bit like a clown. Once you’ve liberally sprinkled a few pilfered logos in and adorned it with a green & yellow background then you’re good to go with another successful ‘No context required’ piece. It’s laser engraved on wood then hand painted and stands proud at 39 x 26cm. Drop us a line if you’re interested…

Cheers

id-iom

 

Phil Collins – No Context Required

Another day, another Phil Collins inspired piece. Today’s out of context quote from Phil is him bemoaning his success and potential overexposure in his heyday in the 80’s and realising how it could lead to something of a backlash. I’ve juxtaposed his quote with a bodybuilder with a cat’s head. Mainly because I can but also because it removes the quote so far from context that it takes it to another dimension all together – which appeals to me hugely. Once you’ve liberally sprinkled a few pilfered logos in and given it a yellow and grey background then you’ve got another successful ‘No context required’ piece.

It’s laser engraved on wood then hand painted and stands proud at 39 x 26cm. Drop us a line if you’re interested…

Cheers

id-iom

Phil Collins – No Context Required

With Phil Collins regularly invading my thoughts for no fathomable reason I thought the best way to exorcise the demon, so to speak, was to let the genie out of the bottle and give some Phil inspired designs a go. It turns out some of his quotes, when taken out of context, have led to a bit of a design goldmine and today’s piece is my initial effort.

Phil is well aware he’s a caricature but what he doesn’t know is that he’s been lasercut on wood and then hand coloured and now stands proud at 53 x 36cm. Drop us a line if you’re interested. I think it’s safe to say that you can expect more in the same vein in the days to come. They get a bit weirder…

As a bonus for the eagle eyed viewers out there – how many of my out of context band references that I’ve shoehorned into the picture can you find?

Cheers

id-iom

Et tu Brute?

My old history teacher would not be best impressed. There’s me with a highbrow Julius Caesar assassination/Ides of March related piece and the vague but persistent memory that it falls on the 17th March (ie. today). A swift internet search reveals that I have, of course, got it wrong and now my piece is two days past any  date related relevance as, I’m sure we all know, the Ides of March corresponds to the 15th March in our calendar. D’oh.

Anyway, today’s piece is laser cut and hand-painted and features Caesar’s head (on a Roman coin) getting stabbed up by his old buddies and includes his legendary last words ‘Et tu Brute?’ which means ‘Even you Brutus? as he expresses terminal dismay at the treachery of a supposed friend. But you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs now can you? I’m sure he’d done worse in his time. Here ends the lesson.

Cheers

id-iom

Badvertising – Taste the feeling

It’s funny how many advertising slogans can be applied to the murky world of drugs. For today’s instalment in a series we’re imaginatively calling ‘badvertising’ we’ve gone for Coke Zero and the classic ‘Taste the feeling’ tagline. We could have just have easily used ‘real Coke taste and zero calories’ but preferred the classic tagline as it’s a little more descriptive.

Anyway, today’s piece is on my current canvas of choice, namely wood, and using my current favoured technique of laser engraving. Plus, just a little bit of white paint pen just to accentuate the obvious. Drop us a line if you’re interested…

Cheers

id-iom

Looking back at the beauty of robots

Today’s piece is something of a first (well, for us at least) and I’m proud to present our first double sided picture. It’s on a 60 x 40cm wood panel and features laser engraving, stencils, spraypaint, paint pens, acrylic paint and laser cutouts. If that’s not enough I even managed to come up with my own patented industrial-looking hanging contraption from the hardware shop so it can be easily flipped to give your walls a new lease of life. Drop us a line if you’re interested.

One side features an austere looking lady robot with the words ‘Morrigun combat unit v1.7’ engraved on her metallic skin and the crow insignia of the Death’s Head battalion on her forehead. She doesn’t look entirely pleased to see you. All this under the legend ‘We can see beauty in robots but it remains to be seen whether they will be able to see beauty in us’. I’ve got to admit it doesn’t look good for humanity. I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlords…

The other side was inspired by the Massive Attack song ‘Safe from harm’ and features a man with lilac hair and eyebrows and his not-so-subtle stare which he’s been flashing at a certain somebody for a good while now across the crowded dancefloor. He’s giving it his best to re-enact the bit of the song summarised in the line ‘I was lookin’ back to see if you were lookin’ back at me to see me lookin’ back at you’ which is handily engraved into the side of the piece just to clarify issues.

I really enjoyed making this so there’ll hopefully be more to come in the way of 2 sided pictures…

Cheers

id-iom

Pocket size Emma Willis

Since completing an artwork version of Pocket size Emma Willis a while ago I have been itching to somehow make my idea an actual product and finally, with access to a laser cutter, I’ve managed to realise my dream.

Sometimes, when I’m feeling a little low, I imagine a small, pocket-sized Emma Willis giving me a big thumbs up and suddenly everything is better. Now I can just reach for my keys and there she is giving me a pint sized thumbs up. I feel better already.

I know it’s all a bit odd but the muse demands what she demands.

Cheers

id-iom

Crack Royale

If you’ve not played the mobile game Clash Royale before then it’s probably better it stays that way unless you’re looking for some insidiously addictive online action to steal away all your free moments. If you have played then I’m sure my little pun for the title needs no further explanation and it’s probably better if you put the phone down and step outside for some fresh air before you have another game. Anyway, whilst playing you can send emoji style messages to the other player to taunt them or gloat a little and this is my favourite one to send upon winning a match. Just to rub their face in it a little. And there’s our clan name at the bottom. I’m not sure what it stands for as someone else started the clan.

As an aside I think I’m finally getting to grips with getting these laser cut and engraved bad lads painted up. I think it’s about time I started doing some bigger bits and pieces with the laser cutter so that should be happening soon. Watch this space…

Cheers

id-iom

Two hearts living in just one mind (mini magnet edition)

I’ve had Phil Collins on my mind a little too much recently. It is entirely inexplicable. So today’s piece, with its Collins inspired title, seems particularly fitting. We’ve used this image before in for a limited run of six A2 pieces (there’s still a couple left!) but today’s laser cut mini edition comes in at just 10cm x 7cm and has some magnets fitted on the back  for easy placement.

Anyway today’s piece is trying to express that duality that is contained within us all. Whichever aspect is on top doesn’t negate the fact the flip side still exists. Personally I think the key to happiness is trying to minimise the difference between the two. But maybe that’s just me. Anyway, I just love to get ambigrams into our work if I can and I think I’ve outdone myself with getting the angel/devil ambigram involved in a piece where it actually makes some sense. As I’ve put it on there twice (but flipped one of them) it reads the same whichever way up you have the picture so it’s like two for the price of one…

Cheers

id-iom