Metal fragments

As you can see I have still been doing bowls instead of finishing the vessels for the September exhibition.

I had all these fragments of metal left from earlier pieces of work so I decided I would try to make a patchwork square ‘bowl’. I wanted the bowl to look like it had been used over and over in the past and was too precious to throw away because of its sacred or magical history and so each owner repaired the ‘bowl’.

In fact all the fragments used in the piece bring past history and uses to the piece. The copper came from an old laundry boiler, the aluminium from a two burner liquid pressure stove, the stainless steel from a hot water trough and the brass came from the very old knapsack spray.



It was quite a tough piece to make as the bulkiness of the rivets and different thicknesses and strength of the metals often created tension. Still in the end I think it does have that patched worn look about it. The photos don't really do the piece justice - too much reflected light.

The other two little bowls pictured below were made as a gift to my friend and fellow artist Noela – she has been having a bit of a clean out of her ‘studio stash’ and has been handing on to me bits of rust, copper wire and other metal she has not used for a long time. She also gave me a number of small flat brass trays that were used in scientific scales many years ago –a bit of reworking and added rivets and the retention of patina have resulted in a pair of friendship bowls about 100mm in diameter.



I guess the next blog needs to be about those September exhibition vessels.