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It’s now illegal to use paint stripper that contains dichloromethane unless you have done an expensive course and sat an expensive exam. You can get paint stripper with the dichloromethane taken out, but given that it’s the dichloromethane that actually strips the paint, those ones are a bit pointless. So whereas I previously stripped the paint off coloured objects (such as Boc Sparklets soda siphons) I have been forced to leave it on. Turns out it looks a lot better so it’s actually a good thing. This one had a black frying pan for his belly so I sprayed that red to match his head and legs.

Smaller art galleries don’t tend to have many, or indeed any, plinths for displaying 3D work. This is understandable because most artwork is 2D and hangs on the wall and a large collection of plinths would be expensive and present storage issues when not in use. So I was trying to think of an alternative to purpose-made plinths and I came up with the idea of tea chests, remember those? Back in the day wooden tea chests were commonly used for moving house or for a homemade double bass in a skiffle band, but these days you don’t see them so much. Maybe tea isn’t shipped in single-use plywood boxes anymore. Not to be discouraged I posted a wanted request for old tea chests in the local Facebook marketplace and got quite a good response – mostly from people who had used them to move house thirty or more years ago and still had them cluttering up their attics and garages. I wasn’t sure how they’d look with my robots but it turned out that the contrasting colour and texture, and maybe the fact that they are also recycled, compliments them quite well.

My exhibition at the Skye Bridge Studios, Kyle of Lochalsh is now open!

There are big robots, smaller robots, robots that light up, and acrylic photo prints. Everything is for sale.

Transporting all my ROBOMOFOS down to the Kyle of Lochalsh for my exhibition was a bit stressful. I didn’t expect them to all fit in the van, but they did. And then I was worried that the bumpy roads would shake their nuts and bolts loose, but they all arrived unscathed and in one piece. Hopefully I won’t need to bring too many of them back again.

I’ve got the Coronavirus but it hasn’t made me so ill that I can’t still make robots. Here’s my first Covidbot. He looks ok, I hope he’s still got a sense of smell.

According to the BBC, Melih Gökçek, mayor of Ankara, has been sued by Turkey’s Chamber of Architects and Engineers for wasting taxpayers’ money on a giant robot statue. And in response Mr. Gökçek replaced the 6m tall robot with a life-size model of a T-rex, which was presumably less of a waste of money. But why did it have to be one or the other? I love giant robots and I also love life-size dinosaur models. Wouldn’t it have been better to leave the robot where he was and just add the dinosaur to the scene? Robots and dinosaurs are a great combination.

I am having an exhibition in the Skye Bridge Studios in Kyle of Lochalsh. This will be my first exhibition outwith Orkney. I have just paid the studios a visit to see the gallery and meet with Sara Jonathan and Kat. It’s a fantastic space and doubles as a theatre foyer so lots of folk will see my robots even if they hadn’t specifically planned to. The show will run for the whole of August so I would hope to get plenty of tourists as well as Kyle locals to see my work. It will be quite a logistical challenge getting all the robots down there in my little van but there’s still plenty of time for me to work it all out. Very exciting!

Happy Christmas robo-fans. I hope Santa was good to you this year. My wife Renate gave me a lovely bottle of robot-flavoured eau de toilette pour homme. So if you are wondering what I smell of now it’s the essence of self-confidence, fuelled by feel-good energies. A futuristic aromatic fragrance born from the clash between luxury craftmanship and new-tech. Thank you very much darling!

I love to get updates from my customers regarding how their new robomofo is settling in. So I was delighted to receive this photo from Richard who has named his robot Ronald (after South Ronaldsay). Happy Christmas Ronald, I hope santa is good to you.

I’ve just been to check out the Pier Arts Centre Christmas open exhibition in Stromness where two of my robots are on display. It’s a great show this year with an incredible diversity of top quality work showing just how much talent and creativity there is on these islands.