iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Tomorrow's train reading! New adaptations of stories from the Mabinogion, in a fun modern idiom.

A white person's hand holds a paperback book: Eleven epic stories from The Mabinogi: The Mab, edited by Matt Brown and Eloise Williams, illustrated by Max Low. It shows a mythological landscape complete with a flower woman, a stone head, a rider, and a woman of sea and flowers. It has a sticker-style flash saying "With a Foreword by Michael Sheen".

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Up until approximately 0.7 seconds before I took this photo, this field contained a hare.

A conspicuously empty farm field, with short grass between a wire fence and the bushes.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This beautiful lady is 32, and having a really lovely retirement with my auntie.

A black roan mare with two white socks on her hind feet stands in an idyllic Welsh field, swishing her tail and turning her head towards the photographer (me) as if to say "stop that and feed me Polos". In the background, a smaller white pony is being stroked offscreen.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Spindle bush outside the old bank I'm staying in for the week.

A spindle bush - a mass of oval leaves, green fading to bright reddish pink as they get more sun exposure up high.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

What's the good free image editing software for Windows? Please save me from installing GIMP again.

A linework flower crown. I need a program that will do sensible threshold/curve/greyscale/crop work on this for art purposes.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The harbour music is good today!

Porthmadog harbour, with boats at anchor and a narrow view out to sea past the forested headland. The sky is dramatically overcast.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Our garden picnic attracted this friendly orange fellow. He was not allowed to eat the salad dressing or drink my tea.

The wreckage of a garden picnic, with a large orange cat investigating the plate. His fur complements the purple blanket and green grass perfectly.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I have clearly reached fountain pen critical mass, because I don't even remember acquiring this one. It just turned up in a pen pot, complete with (clean, dry) converter.

A matte black Parker pen with gold nib & accents sits on a green cutting board.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Zippy was the state of British puppet technology and was (spiritually) succeeded by Dusty Bin, a triumph of animatronic art.

A man in a peculiar blue suit embraces an anthropomorphic bin, with a face reminiscent of Henry the Hoover during a manic episode.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I'd quite forgotten this poster I made four years ago! With thanks to the late Terry Pratchett and to Steeleye Span. I think there's also a version somewhere that ends with "Nae Fucking Pasaran!" instead.

A poster, black mediaeval-style text on white, with red exclamation marks: Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna be fooled again!

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Update: I found another "tale" in the same book (a Penguin Popular Classics script of A Midsummer Night's Dream) so I could make this pendant.

A rectangular pendant, light blue with gold swirls and an impasto gold border. It has the words "fairy tale", cut from a book, near the bottom edge.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I lost a word. It was right there, and then I must have breathed on it or something. Now I need to find another one.

Two unmounted jewellery pieces sit on the corner of a laptop keyboard. One is purple and angular - it says "merry and marvellous" using words cut out of an old book. The other is oval, in a complicated blue and gold pattern. It says "starlight revels". Between them are the words "gentle", "midnight", and "fairy".

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

The proper ribbon arrived. And now I remember the reason I developed a method of making these that meant I didn't need to sew double satin ribbon.

A black ribbon with a tri-slider and a swan hook attached sits on a piece of greyboard.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Some organic shapes. This ink (with the starch paste medium) varies so much more in different lighting than acrylics do.

Some bright blue and coppery brown jewellery pieces ready for findings.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I keep meaning to put a loop on this wee Opinel so I can put it on my keyring. I wish I could carry my No. 6 as EDC but it's juuuuuust over the legal limit here.

A very small Opinel knife, with a steel ruler for scale. The knife is 75 mm fully opened.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

And now with a varnish layer so I can see the colour better.

Two of the same pieces, with a layer of wet varnish.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I've finally managed to cut up some paste paper from a few months ago into jewellery blanks - now comes the hard part, finding out what shape they want to be.

Four pieces of heavy paper, covered in textured and rivered ink like aged and verdigrised copper.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I not only remembered how to assemble these chokers (recycled satin ribbon with layered tissue paper for flexibility) but improved the workflow too - these are definitely neater than the last batch. Next: pretty paper, paint, varnish.

Four chokers lying flat on a wooden table. They are greyish white, waiting to be painted.

A length of grey satin ribbon being wrapped in tissue paper, showing the construction of the fastening loop.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I have lost the laser cutting file for this pendant, and I am extremely annoyed. I'm redoing it, but it's still a real faff.

The neck of a white person, wearing a black ribbon choker from which hangs a bronze-coloured pendant styled as a rose, with two layers of five petals each and a central boss.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Another paste-paper experiment - this time with Diamine Golden Ivy, to see how much shimmer stays visible when it dries. Destined for jewellery, probably.

A complicated palette-knife colour field, varying densities of the same green, on white paper.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

This copper ink, on the other hand, is entirely varnish-safe.

Five rectangles of paper with various background colours and textures, decorated with metallic copper ink.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

It's nice to find out now that this white ink is not remotely waterproof - well, tea proof - before I tried to varnish it.

An elongated black octagon with a white tree on it. The ink has been badly smeared.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

On closer inspection, the promising looking century-plus old "something happening inside a giant teapot" printing block is actually kinda racist.

A print of a very large teapot that's actually an opium den, complete with stereotypical Chinamen.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

A proof sheet for some miscellaneous ornaments and blocks - yes, it's gash printing, and some of these need shimming, but it's decent reference. #DHTries

Many printing blocks of an extremely miscellaneous nature.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

And some unfinished/test-piece chokers. Again, ribbon and paper and pain and varnish.

Half a dozen chokers, mostly some variant of blue.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I had to dig into the jewellery archive box, and found I had far more finished bits than I thought. All of these could do with finding homes! Everything is made from laminated paper, paint, varnish, old book fragments, and post-factory lingerie lace scraps.

A flat (ish) lay image of some jewellery pieces - they include some with lace inserts, a couple of ivy leaves, a red heart saying "gratification", and a green oval bordered with gold circles on which are the words "beautify consent".

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Some jewellery blanks for me to try #letterpress printing onto - assuming I don't have to deal with contractors tomorrow instead of studio time.

Half-finished jewellery - ovals in various colours and text scraps, and the end of a brown choker.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I think of this as "Insular Deco". Two divergent versions, loosely based on a mussel shell I picked up at Ardtoe last year.

A rounded form with curls and loops in black outlined with gold, filled in with a greyish blue. Digital art, traced from an original pencil sketch.

The same rounded form, black curls and loops, filled with textured blue and purple watercolour. This one is entirely analogue, developed from the same pencil sketch.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I ordered some new pencils (Derwent Graphitint) recently, and I've been trying them out. This is "Sage" and it's the colour of an English meadow. I need to print on this, even if an artistic response to the climate crisis (/polycrisis/global burning/First Summer of Hellfire) feels pointless.

A very roughly rectangular colour field, sort of golden brown, done in watercolour pencil.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Can anyone explain what this wet stuff is? I think it's related to being on holiday...

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

This morning's garden sketch, since this lovely holiday cottage has one. It has been pointed out that I may have wildfire on the brain a bit. Also, Tombow ABT Pro pens are the closest of all implements to feeling like a magic wand.

A sketchbook sits open, showing a stylised brown tree growing from a rocky hillside, on a textured orange background.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

It prints! Caligo safewash, more or less equal parts phthalo green, burnt umber, and extender. Printed on my sizzix mini-press.

A skeletal nettle leaf printed in dark green on kraft paper.

A skeletal nettle leaf printed in pale green on kraft paper. This is a ghost print from the previous one.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

I ordered courgettes. I'm pretty sure each of these is at least a courge.

A white person's hand, holding a net of very large courgettes.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

So this engraved fine - I'll want to try a reversed out version too. Soon I'll be able to run it through the mini press to see how it prints.

A rectangular piece of clear acrylic laser engraved with a nettle leaf.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I'm also working on this one - I've never been able to cut it before, because the hackspace laser cutter computers I used haven't had the processing power. But that was years ago, so we'll see. (8900 nodes) #DHMakes

A line art stinging nettle leaf, quite complex. This was scanned from life in London, ages ago, and then digitised & cleaned up.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

It's not always easy to see what's a scan problem and what's an artifact of the original print, or for that matter a slip of the carver's hand on the original block. For the two on the right here, I'm leaving them, but the jag in the middle left looks wrong so it goes. #DHMakes

A zoomed-in portion of a vector image, black curves on white. There's a noticeable sharp jag on one of the curves in the middle-left, a nick on the outside in the bottom right, and what looks like a slightly lumpy thorn on the top right.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Today I'm doing some SVG cleaning - a vector I downloaded has some scan errors in. Nothing that would show up in print, but this is for lasering so I want it as clean as possible. (After figuring out how to convert from EPS for Inkscape...) #DHMakes

An extreme closeup of part of an SVG, shown in black and white curves with grey nodes. Some of the nodes in the middle are out of place as though someone had drawn a needle down the image.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

This lonely ebay sort is destined for printing on a series of increasingly rough surfaces to see what shellacked wood can safely cope with.

A letterpress "x" nestled into a pile of rounded beach stones.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

I'm an idiot, I already ran half this experiment. The answer is "yes, but textured acrylic can damage softer wood blocks". This is one of the early attempts, and the pattern of the acrylic transferred itself to the block for the next one. #DHTries

A woodblock print of a mountain tree, in black on a stormy blue/gold veined acrylic background.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Here's some waves for aabody as needs some North Sea in this heat.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I'm trying to work out whether relief printing inks will stick to different kinds of painted and/or varnished surfaces, and/or whether textured paint will damage letterpress blocks. It's going slowly.

Painted, unvarnished, textured surface. A sphagnum moss bog.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Every hometown's got the ominous megastructure, what's yours?

Trawsfynydd nuclear power station: a blocky concrete structure with pointy bits and very few windows, set in a green mountainscape.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I managed one dry brush layer and I'm desperate to do more, but even more desperate to rest if I have any chance of making it out of the house tomorrow. I don't know what this will be in the end - I might try lino printing onto it.

An acrylic painting, scant sap green over gold, showing monoprint pressure veins.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

What I'm actually doing is layering some backing onto this (something like 8-10 layers of 300gsm paper) and planning on hand cutting some pieces from that. Rectangles always work, but organic shapes can be tricky to get clean lines on with a scalpel. #DHTries

A complicated blob of pressure rivers, in many shades of brownish green ink on white paper.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

I am normally a big fan of @themerl.bsky.social, and this new "Nook" refuge space looks beautiful, but there is one detail which makes the study table unusable. I am referring of course to these anti-ergonomic stools. Unless the expected visitors are potted plants, which would be on brand.

A screenshot from Instagram from the Museum of English Rural Life, showing their new "Nook" retreat space. It looks like a lovely artistic work area, with a reading table which has built in lamps and lots of art on the wall behind, but this is ruined by three stools which are practically crimes against humanity. Seriously, I can feel my back and my knees hurting just from looking at them. They're pretty, but not fit for sitting on - the asymmetrical legs will get in the way of your knees and make the balance unintuitive unless you're sitting bolt upright. Museum visitors deserve ergonomic seating.

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

The letterpress collection at Peacock has a whole pile of cuts from the printer and publisher James Daniel & Son, including this catalogue. There's no date given, but another in the set -the cover for Mill O' Tiftie's Annie - has a date of 1896. Image is flipped for readability, & see alt text.

A printing block with a bookseller's catalogue.
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
Printed published and sold by
JAMES DANIEL & SON

BLACK KALENDAR OF ABERDEEN, containing a Record of all Criminal Cases &c. 2/-
GILL BINKLETS, a Fully Fuper 1/-
PETER WILLIAMSON, Life and Curious Adventures of, who was kidnapped from Aberdeen and sold for a Slave 6d
MILLER AND HORSEMAN'S WORD, or the True System of Horsemanship, with Valuable Receipts for making blacking for Harness, &c., &c. 6d
HORSEMANSHIP, Nimmo's Rare Art of, with general Remarks of the Treatment and Management of Horses 4d
JAMIE FLEEMAN: Life Sayings and Doings of, the Laird of Udny's Fool 1d
HAND-BOOK OF LOVE, giving Reasons for Marrying and Reasons for not Marrying 1d
NEGRO DIALOGUES, STUMP SPEECHES, SERMONS, &c., &c. ?d
GEORGE BUCHANAN: The Witty and Entertaining Exploits of, commonly called the King's Fool 1d
SCOTCH TEA-PARTY, an exceedingly Humorous Scotch Story 1d
ROYAL DREAM BOOK, containing the interpretation of a Great Variety of Dreams 1d
BALL-ROOM GUIDE, giving the Steps and Figures of all the Valses and Set Dances 1d
HAND-BOOK of MAGIC, containing a large number of Conjuring Tricks &c. 1d
THRUMMY CAP 1d
MILL O' TIFTIE'S ANNIE 1d
MATTY AND MEG 1d

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Somhairle Kelly @eithin.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Anyone have any guesses what this fine fellow's trade is? Copperplate, flipped for ease, from a late C19/early C20 printer's collection. #DHMakes #HistSky

A printing block showing a man in what looks like a Victorian or Edwardian interpretation of generic historical costume - there's a jerkin, a fancy hat, and close fitting breeches or hose. He carries what looks like a bat or cudgel under his right arm and a rhomboid with a handle (trug? Smoothing board?) in his left.

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