Let me see, now… I mediate it was in 1966 after I was on holiday with my family in Kinghorn, but it no doubt will were the old year after we holidayed in Rothesay. Regardless, we were strolling along the coastline and my father was deciding on up a few cockles and mussel shells and inserting them in his pockets. He also lifted a fragment of what I will be capable to most effective describe as ‘slate’. Later, in Woolworth’s, he sold a packet of Humbrol paints that got right here in tiny glass vials (keep in mind them?) and some glue or resin, though I neglect precisely which variety.
Next, he connected the mussel shell to the slate, then affixed the smaller shells across the be half of, and when the whole lot was safely and securely connected, he painted the shells. Hey, presto – instantaneous residence-made ashtray. When we returned residence at the dwell of our holiday, the ashtray made the trot with us, and as my father was a pipe smoker, in overall made spend of his handiwork – as did my mother, who smoked the occasional cigarette. (Fingers up individuals that conception I was going to remark she was a pipe smoker too? Cheek!)
In the future in the early or possibly mid-’70s, I seen one day that the slate snide had been replaced with a sturdier, heavier snide and I believed that the long-established one had broken, possibly as a outcomes of being dropped or my father requiring it for some rather a few aim. I never came across out the real motive, but it no doubt seems reasonable to order it was one in every of these two chances. About a of the shells had also been broken over time and the paint on them was no longer as sparkling and intellectual because it had once been. I would continually meant to spruce it up reasonably, however the decades got right here and went with out me ever getting spherical to it.
Nonetheless, several months attend, a pal and me visited Prestwick, where I picked up a few tiny shells from the coastline, realising that they were the very chappies I wished for every time I finally obtained began on ‘tarting up’ the ashtray. Now no longer that it had been historic in quite a lot of a year as I’ve never smoked, and company in overall drag outdoor in the occasion that they are ‘gasping for a fag’ Anyway, lengthy myth instant, I applied myself to restoring the ashtray’s cosmetic look over the final couple of days and now it seems better than it has for a actually lengthy time. I historic acrylic paints on the shells as acrylic dries quicker than enamel, then lined them with acrylic varnish.
That is the accomplished outcome in the photo atop and bottom of this post and I must be very best and screech I’m rather proud of it. Lawful mediate, it goes the whole skill attend to my childhood shut to 60 years ago, and I associate it with at the least three homes (possibly four) I’ve lived in over that time. As I acknowledged, it no longer fulfils (and hasn’t for an especially lengthy time) the aim of an ashtray, being retained largely for its cosmetic allure (to my eyes, if now no longer yours), as well as the welcome memories that one see at it can bring. It be a acquainted ‘face’ from the previous and it be obtained a free residence with me for the relaxation of its (and my) days.
Any an identical reminiscences, Crivvies, of items from your childhood? Then we’re ‘all ears’ (so to talk), so allotment them with the relaxation of us in the feedback fragment.
