This site is currently undergoing maintenance; certain functions such as site search may not be available If you have any questions, comments or suggestions regarding this site or my YouTube channel, you're most welcome to contact me using the form at the bottom of the page. Where possible and appropriate, I try to read every message I receive but I cannot guarantee a reply due to the sometimes…
PRANG! is a brand new retro-style game - Play PRANG! Origins PRANG! started out life as a joke - in one of my scambaiting videos, a scammer accused me of 'playing prang of the transaction' (I think they meant 'playing pranks') - In my video, I turned this into a little mockup of an 8 bit video game; you can see that at around the 2:40 timestamp in this video: Much, much later, it occurred to me…
If it seems a little quiet here lately, there's a reason for it... Most of my new content is happening on my YouTube channel now - If and when I get the chance, I will write up some of my projects here, but if you want to see the latest, freshest Atomic Shrimp projects and other articles, please head on over to my YouTube channel - and consider subscribing so you'll be the first to see new videos…
Coconut shell is quite an interesting material - underneath that bristly exterior, there is a lustrous dark shell that can be polished to quite a lovely finish. In this article, I take a coconut shell and make it into a little musical instrument. I've done a bit of coconut shell crafting before - here - so I knew what I was hoping for when I set out to make this object. The Project The…
This is the second in a series of recipes that are designed to meet 5 specific criteria. That is, they must be Cheap , Tasty , Nutritious , Foolproof and Scalable - ideal for anyone cooking on a budget, cooking with little experience, or cooking for one. Ingredients 1 Can of tomato soup 1 Can of mixed beans or baked beans About 5 medium potatoes 2 Large carrots About half a sweet red pepper 6 to…
I've been watching a number of 'Red Hot Knife vs Something' videos that have been trending lately - and it struck me that they all seem a bit... wasteful. So here's the Atomic Shrimp take - Red Hot Knife vs Steak. My idea was to take a nice piece of quality steak, season it, then cut it at the table with a red hit knife - each slice getting cooked and seared as it's cut - and it actually worked! -…
We had a 'Christmas Jumper Day' at work. Trouble is, the office that I work in is too hot for me at the best of times - there's no way I'm wearing an additional layer. But it's for charity. I can't just sit it out - so my solution was to print my own Christmas-jumper-style shirt. I started with an old-ish shirt and one assumption. My assumption was that, since decorator's emulsion paint doesn't…
This is the first in a series of recipes that are designed to meet 5 specific criteria. That is, they must be Cheap , Tasty , Nutritious , Foolproof and Scalable - ideal for anyone cooking on a budget, cooking with little experience, or cooking for one. Ingredients 1 small onion 1 large potato 1 courgette (zucchini) 3 eggs a small red pepper (I used two very small peppers of different colours) 1…
This is a food experiment that's been on my To Do list for at least a couple of years now... To take a takeaway bucket of chicken and make it into some sort of pie as the centrepiece of a more balanced family dinner I went to the KFC drivethrough and picked what seemed to be the maximum chicken-to-money ratio - a Bargain Bucket containing 14 pieces of chicken and 4 portions of fries I also added a…
The wooden tops of my trusty old folding workbench were starting to look really beaten and worn - time to make them over with some lovely new hardwood. After I finished doing that, I also had a great idea for repurposing the old scarred and worn bench tops into something unique and new. The old benchtops really were starting to look worse for wear - some parts were nearly more paint spills and…
More tinwork fun with drink cans. This time for a star-shaped box with a convex profile - the design is still a bit half-baked, but I'm putting it up here in case anyone wants to experiment with it. (Article updated October 2016 with video tutorial to make this item into a shabby-chic Christmas tree ornament) This is my prototype, which turned out quite well - it's interesting how the geometry of…
Out for a walk in the woods, to enjoy the autumn foliage, I very nearly overlooked an abundant crop of Trumpet Chanterelles. (Article updated October 2016 to include video and recipe) On Video This page was originally posted on 11th November 2014 - updated October 2016 to include the following video detailing these lovely mushrooms - and a recipe for cooking them: What Are Trumpet Chanterelles?…
Stuffed crust pizza normally only has a ring of stuffing around the edge - I wanted to take that a bit further - so I made this - the Stuffed-All-The-Crust Pizza. The Stuffed-est of crusts. The Idea It started, as many of my other (and larger) projects do - quite randomly and at the wrong end. I bought a 1 kilo jar of enormous hotdog sausages, without much idea of how I would use them - then I…
I wanted to make a one-off little knife to use when I go foraging for mushrooms. I made this one out of cheap junk. My foraging knife began life as a worn and broken decorator's knife that I picked up for 75p at a car boot sale - it had a thin and beautifully springy blade. I could see the potential. I removed the old handle and ferrule and I ground the blade, rounding off the tip where it had…
Here's a really quick and simple way to make a floating-wick oil lamp, using materials that can be easily found anywhere This floating wick oil lamp is made from a heatproof glass, a crown cap bottle cap and a little bit of absorbent kitchen paper. It will burn for hours on a surprisingly small amount of oil. Here's how to make it: Oil Lamp Safety This lamp can be made safer by adding a little…
Rosebay Willowherb is a common plant of roadsides and riverbanks which has edible roots, stems and flowers. What Is Rosebay Willowherb? Chamerion angustifolium - also known as 'fireweed' and 'bombweed' on account of its tendency to appear on disturbed or scorched ground - this is a common plant, often seen in great patches along roadsides, path edges, river banks and wood edges. It grows up to…
An outing to The Devil's Punchbowl at Hindhead, Surrey, for a picnic lunch and a spot of berry picking. Bilberries are found in abundance here, and this trip has become an annual fixture for us. This article originally written on June 29 2012 - Revisited Summer 2016 - with video. Video (Added Summer 2016) What Are Bilberries? Vaccinium myrtillus - Bilberries, also known as Blaeberries,…
A few years ago, I salvaged a collection of small but powerful rare earth magnets from old computer hard drives. They've been sat there (well, actually stuck to a bit of shelving), waiting to be used for something. OK - let's go Magnet Fishing! What Is Magnet Fishing Magnet fishing doesn't actually involve fish at all - it's essentially just treasure hunting for ferrous objects that people might…
I fancy making a musical instrument. Trouble is, I'm no musician (well, I can play the harmonica and pan flute to a mediocre level). So I was looking for something that requires a bit of intuition, rather than dexterity in the playing. The Koncovka seems to fit the bill exactly - read on to find out why... The Koncovka (pronounced kont-sov-ka) is a bit of an unusual wind instrument. It resembles a…
This is a project based on a woodworking technique that I discovered (or maybe invented!) completely by accident. It's a wooden bowl made from slices of tree trunk - the clever part is that nature provides the curvature... It started with some coppiced hazel sticks - near where I live, the local council had cut down a mixed hardwood hedgerow - including some hazel coppice yielding very straight…