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[plinky music]
So why fish, in particular, fish?
Why fish?
Yes
I've done landscapes, and boats, and flowers.
This is the fish phase!
Yes, and then I got onto fish about 1990, and I've been stuck on fish, they work, they
work and sell, so I stuck with that. And I'm not allowed to do birds, because Janet my
wife does birds - she's the one...
Well she said to ask you some difficult questions and I'm trying to wrack my brain thinking
of questions...
That's one of hers if you open that book, our book at that page her birds, so I don't
do birds at all - and she doesn't do fish.
[Visitors laugh]
You don't want to tread on each others toes!
That will be one stage...
Right you can see that there's a fish
Oh this is where you take the newspaper off
There's a fish under there and another fish under here
Oh you've got a tiny hole for the eye!
Yes that's to tell me where the eye has got to go
Aaah, okay
The dot is at the centre of the eye
Mmmhm
And I'll just pull this off first
So you keep a record when you're preparing them of what you've done, do you, like that
on your little postcard? Or is that just to show how...
That's a photograph of a previous one
And I've written all over it what to do, what to better and so on and you can see that's
too straight on
Mmm
So I've animated it now, so I've redrawn these so the bottom one is more curved, so that
I'm always sort of changing the design.
Like, uh, with these, when I cut the next one out probably if I'm not satisfied with
this I'll change the template - that's a thin card one.
And I'll decide perhaps to put the tail further up, so what I would do is I start, I cut this
about and start gluing it together and then I put it down onto newspaper, onto about six
sheets and draw round it with a ballpoint and then cut that out and that's how I get
those and I write b on the bottom fish and t on the top fish and m on the middle fish
Laughter
And so on just to tell me because when they go into water they come out ready to tear
and I need to know what to do, putting it down is a fiddly business that
So when they go onto the plate they're wet?
Oooh yes oh yeah
Otherwise they wouldn't curve?
Yes and they've got to because it's going down onto a bent piece I'll show you what
I mean...
As it goes down it doesn't want to go down properly, so as I'm putting it down, I'm snipping
it ever so carefully in places.
To curve it?
Then you put it down, then you find out that it's, you haven't left enough room for the
tail or something like that.
[Laughter]
So you've got to take it all off again and pop it in the water and put it back down...
Well you know it's a fish...
Oh yes it's great fun is that, I decided I wouldn't be doing that here
[Chuckles]
That needs real concentration
[twiddly music] There is a fish
[Sounding rather unconvinced] Okay
And when this dries out, this paper, I can peel that off and you've got a fish you can
work on so I've the drawing of the fish, the outline of the fish is accurate to my original
drawing. I'm not judging that as I'm going along, so then I'm doing the scratched parts
on now onto here and then it dry out and it'll be fired - that's once fired, what we call
biscuit - and then I'll put a glaze on there, a transparent glaze and that will bring up
the colours to a dark blue and the yellow
[More plinky music]
Sorry?
Are you a keen fisherman Frank?
No, no I'm not, no. No I feel sorry for the fish [Frank chuckles]
So as it dries till it comes off a bit...
You've just got to pick it off before it gets too dry?
Well, it'll come off when it's drier so but I want it uh at this semi dry stage.
Mm, yeah look what's there; yes I know what it is now, I'd forgotten it's an Australian
angelfish.
If you want any of the cards you can take those, they're free
I think of you every time I get out the shower because we have your fish on the walls
Oooh lovely!
[Everyone laughs]
I wondered where you were going with that!
[Everyone laughs]
Sounded a bit ominous
[More laughs]
Well that is definitely a superior bathroom!
I can remember once they came, they had a meal with us and and, um Bill and Marlene
were there as well, and sort of, it ended up Bill was sitting at the table, he'd drunk
a bit too much - he was singing to himself at the table - and Ivy and Marlene were tap-dancing
in our porch because it's got a tiled floor [chuckles] great time, yes, artists they're
dreadful people [laughter]