Interesting Links & Thanks to all

I'd like to say thanks to everyone who's helped me, and mention some other people I've come across with goods & services you might be interested in...

Personal thanks

Thanks a heap to my beloved Bill, for giving me the pyrography machine, and the mitre saw, and supplying the special light, and the wire wool, and the PVA glue, and the PVA varnish (I even pinched his paintbrushes!), and the mitre clamps, and volunteering all his pieces of spare plywood, and letting me use his power tools, and showing me how to use the aforementioned power tools, and then for doing it for me when I get stuck!
And also lots of thanks for scanning all my work with his flatbed scanner, (my old one was is part of the printer, and plywood doesn't bend round the platen so well!) and last but definitely not least, for letting me use his beautiful and complicated digital camera to take pictures of them.

Also thanks to Mum & Dad for the pattern book, which really helped start me off. More thanks go to Dad, who gave me bits of wood from his scrap pile, including those nice slips of old oak. And even cut them up for me! You can find out more about my family here, if you're interested.

More thanks to my long-suffering colleagues at TriSystems, who have to try to find something original to say about each new bit of work I display to them for their critique. I suppose the cake & biscuits I also supply helps the good reviews...

Heartfelt thanks to Susan Byrne, for the beautiful dragon artwork that my new logo is made from! Watch this space for a link to her work, and for a new pyrographed version of the logo, too...


And all the other people who have been so encouraging... Thanks to you all!

Mystical sites - Pagan, Wiccan, etc

Esoteric Source	Jon and Maria's newly launched pagan magazine, Esoteric Source, has a great discussion forum, too, full of lively folk. They've been very helpful to me, over the years, and I'm most grateful to them! Find them on Facebook too...
UK Pagan	UK Pagan is an interesting site, with Facebook and LJ communities too, and a bubbling forum at The Valley.
	Dragonswood is an interesting UK discussion forum for pagan folk, very friendly with a real community spirit. There's a magazine of the same name, too - look out for my writings in it, from time to time.
	Pagan Network, formerly WiccaUK, is a veryt lartge and diverse pagan community forum, full of fascinating discussions on all manner of subjects. They publish the magazine Witchtower, in which my scribblings can also sometimes be found.
	A long-running pagan magazine, Pentacle has now reverted to it's original editor.
Witchvox	An international forum for all manner of Witches and other Pagans, covering a huge amount of information and with some very interesting essays on all kinds of subjects.
	Fairies and Dragons is a really great shopping site - has a lovely range of items. Beautiful stuff...
	The Forest - A friendly international pagan community.
Mike Crowson	An interesting site, with discussions of many esoteric subjects. Mike is a Writer & Researcher on Esoteric Subjects, a Freemason, Rosicrucian and Martinist, and an author as well!
An Fianna	A pagan discussion forum - a great place for research of all sorts.
	UK Pagan Links have all manner of pagan links, including some nice artwork, jewellery, etc.
Skeleton Key	"A hitch-hiker's guide to Witchcraft"!
Moonmaiden	Such cool Gothy clothing...
Galadraheim	Heaps of information on Traditional British Witchcraft, and some interesting links
Su Su Ma Ma ethical links	Directory of ethical sites around the world.
Toni Allen	An interesting tarot-reading site

Arts and crafts

Annie the Pedlar	Annie the Pedlar is a lovely lady - she's a historical recreationer, appearing at events of all sorts as a travelling pedlar, She sells all manner of Tudor goods, and demonstrated crafts and such, as well as making beatutiful historical costumes. You'll find her at all manner of living history events, including the Colchester Oyster Fayre.
	Metal and Magic : Ursula Vernon's art site - wonderful stuff. I just love Gothbat, and really wish I had this kind of artistic talent. She's so brilliant, and with such imagaination! Check out the wombats, the cute pink lizards, and the unforgettable cuttlefish hat...
Liminal Threads	Liminal Threads is the needlecraft of the marvellous Maria, who hand-embroiders all sorts of items with custom designs. Painstaking work with mystic meaning...
Hayley Rust	Hayley Rust is an artist, specialising in fantasy art. Pretty fairies!
Hedingham Fair	Karen and Colin of Hedingham Fair sell all sorts of fascinating books, beautiful and original cards, clothing, jewellery, etc, showcasing Karen's wonderful artwork. They have the best Green Man items I've ever seen... You'll find them at lots of pagan events, typically including the Pagan Federation London Convention, as well as medieval evnets like the Colchester Oyster Fayre.
	Elfwood - Vast archive of fantasy art of all sorts, from the rankest amateur to some truly beautiful work. I can spend hours sifting through the images here...

Interesting sites

	The Mudcat Cafe - A lyric archive and discussion group for folk and blues music. Great stuff - they have the words to the songs I grew up singing! And they have very interesting discussions, too. I will make a donation to the upkeep of Mudcat from any commissions I take from Mudcatters.
The Speculative Dinosaur Project	This is just great - What if the Chicxulub bolide had missed us, 65 million years ago? What would the Earth's ecosystem look like now, without that major extinction event? These dinosaurs-that-never-were look so convincing!
	Perhaps to fill your newly pyrographed jewellery box, take a look at Joanna's Jems, a supplier of all kinds of lovely hand-made jewellery. Joanna specialises in making semi-precious gemstone jewellery, and also has some very pretty beaded items, especially bracelets. Joanna's Jems can also be found on EBay, as eBay Shop Joanna's Jem's

Pyrography Supplies

	My hotwire pyrography machine was made by Peter Childs, and Roy Childs there was very helpful in all sorts of ways - I'm grateful for all his help & advice. Especially in helping me to reduce the heat on the pyrography machine, with a diode accessory box. If you have any sort of enquiry or problem, he's a good person to ask! He also has a great Gallery and Links page.
	Colin Ellis, from Dalescraft has been a great help to me. Their wooden items are top quality, handmade from a huge range and are very reasonably priced - they'll even make stuff to order. He also provided test pieces, which proved very useful. He also sells on eBay, as seller colinellis007, and is a really pleasant, helpful chap. They're a small company and do get busy times, though, so it's as well to allow them some lead time.
Shire Leather	Andy, from Shire Leather, has also been most helpful. He supplies some really nice leather items for pyrography and other crafts, of beautiful quality - bracelets, neckpieces, bookmarks, keyfobs, etc. Look for him on eBay, as seller craftyfellow. I believe he will cut items to order, if you wish, and also do hot foiling work, as well as make leather goods to order - he's full of useful hints & tips on leatherwork. Andy is also often overworked and harassed, so give him time!
	Janik have gone, but their range has now been taken over by Craft Supplies. They supply all kinds of pyrography machines and wooden items, as well as all sorts of other woodworking stuff. They're not cheap, though! ASnd the nice Gallery & worksheet & links are all gone...
Jack Cheyette	Nicola Cheyette, trading as Jack Cheyette, has supplied me with various leather items at great prices and was most helpful. She has a good range of vegetable-tanned leather goods of all sorts - purses, glasses-cases, etc. The italian fine leather range that she does is just lovely - so soft, and beautifully made. She even provided me with a large number of additional scrap pieces, which is incredibly useful!
The Big Wood	Jeff Govier, at The Big Wood has some very nice wooden items suitable for pyrography (for sale directly and via EBay), at extremely competitive prices and with very reasonable postage costs. He will also make one-off items, and delivery is very fast.
Others...	Never underestimate EBay! There's all sorts of items for sale there, and you never know what you'll find. Make sure that leather is vegetable-tanned and wood is unfinished, though, and watch out that you don't end up paying more than you would in the shops. Speaking of shops, the discount booksellers like BookWorld, BookSale, etc, and "cheap-shops" like QD and Wilkinson often have some very reasonable items that can be burned on, as can supermarkets liike Asda. Whitewood and rubberwood (often sealed - you have to send that off) are the most popular woods, though - not great, but OK. There's often a bit of beech about, especially in kitchen equipment, and that burns fine.

Other Pyrographers

Animal-related sites

	Bunny Creations - Bunny themed cards, jewellery, stationery, homewares and much more! Watch out for unique bunny items from Scorch's Pyrography there...
Reptile Aid	This voluntary organisation cares for reptiles and amphibians in need - they need your help to look after abandoned reptiles of all kinds.
Dearne Cavy Rescue	These lovely people care for unwanted, sick and neglected guinea pigs. They even take in unwanted Rats, Hamsters, Mice, Chinchillas, Degus etc.
Fur & Feather	The web site of Britain's only magazine for pet and exhibition rabbits and small furries. Really informative if you keep any small animals, and full of helpful advice.
The Rabbit Welfare Association	The largest UK rabbit welfare organisation, promoting responsible rabbit ownership and furthering eduction of both the veterinary profession and general public on the correct care of rabbits. The RWA's registered charity, the Rabbit Welfare Fund funds projects into the RWA's aims.
My Pets Pages	More great pet stuff - have a homepage for your pet! Nice idea. They say : "Your pet's home on the Internet. Create your own FREE pet web site or tribute site using My Pets Pages unique web design system."
Happy Hutch	These people make really nice-looking pet hutches, with all mod cons. A far cry from the rabbit-hutches Grandad used to make out of old doors!
SittingPrettyKitty	Cool stuff for kitties! Manufacturer of unique handcrafted cat furniture, cat trees and cat scratching posts.

Technical

This is the first webpage I've tried making, and I found the HTML Examples website invaluable. I initially lifted everything I wanted directly from their site, and had a working page, with pretty much everything I wanted, in a couple of hours.

NTL World weren't quite so helpful as regards their FTP upload, but their broadband service is great, and they give you this nice free webspace!

I originally registered my domain name through uk2.net who were very quick & efficient, and diverted that domain to my NTLWorld webspace for a small sum of money - very useful.

But now I have a "proper" site, hosted by my brother, Steve Annison. He's also helped with all sorts of advice, and is even working on a new site for me. He's a webmaster, with his own company SLA Associates making some really beautiful and functional websites. A good choice if you want a site of your own. This site you're looking at now isn't one of his - it's only one I just hacked together in my spare time - his version of this site is FAR nicer! It's a demo on the site - go take a peek.

Any remaining insoluble or incomprehensible technical questions I have tend to get referred to my long-suffering and technically marvellous colleague Dan!