Friday, October 21, 2011

For a friend; & Finishing on Friday

A couple of weeks ago I had a bit of scare with one of my eyes suddenly developing a couple of cysts etc etc. Needed to see an optometrist urgently - fortunately we live in a small town and one of the optometrists happens to be a relative of Fiona's and a friend - so she rushed into town and did the diagnosis -  yep cysts things but not bad. So I promised her a set of earrings for going that extra mile - have to love that people care. Today I got the time to make a few earrings bits including the pair below.

Barry Smith © Serving tray EPNS earring bits
But she will be able to choose from the three pairs below - simple rods versus the more decorative?

Barry Smith © Serving tray EPNS earring bits
I also got time to finish those 'bits in the rough'. I have polished them without taking all the patina and annealing colour off them.

Barry Smith © Polishing softens the edges-creates the highlights
Barry Smith © Polishing softens the edges-creates the highlights
Barry Smith © Polishing softens the edges-creates the highlights
Love this little set as you can see the lettering from the old fuel stove base they were made from.

Barry Smith © Added dimension of recycling brass objects
And just in case  - I made a couple of extra earring bits from silver serving trays.

Barry Smith © Earring bling from the EPNS serving tray
All in all a productive Friday afternoon.

9 comments:

  1. B - what a grand Friday effort! Gee, so happy to hear your eye is all ok. K

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the expressive lines of the earrings.

    The textures are amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad to hear there is nothing dramatically serious with the eyes. Your earrings are wonderful and I love that you didn't polish away the patina on your 'bits in the rough'! They look so gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those first earrings are absolutely gorgeous! What a great reward for going the extra mile. I wonder though when doing something out of what seems to me in my old fashioned mind common decency and kindness became such a rare and remarkable thing? Very sorry for the pretext of her visit - I hope all is well with your eyes now and will remain so for a long time to come! Your vision and what you create from it are so very precious. Be well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. so glad that your eyes will be fine as can be. oh!
    the earrings are wonderful. amazing how you can dream up so many styles, details, movement and more. awesome to see what you have been up to.

    ReplyDelete
  6. B!! how GORGEOUS!!! i can't tell you enough how much i LOVE your metal work. it's nothing i've ever seen before!

    ReplyDelete
  7. A worrisome event for you Barry... glad it's not a disaster. Certainly your creativity has not been affected. Gorgeous stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love these Barry, they are beautiful (I probably should admit to a *tiny* earring fetish!)

    Completely understand the scare. I was diagnosed with cataracts at 35...rather aggressive fast developing ones. I thank my lucky stars that I was born when I was, 100 years earlier and I'd be totally blind now. But it was a hard journey for a while, being on the waiting list for surgery for several months, my eyesight got so bad I could barely read, and couldn't drive anywhere. I wondered for a while whether I'd ever be able to paint or draw again.

    ReplyDelete
  9. K,ML, S, TT, TL, L, JM & MIA - thanks for thoughts and concern about my eye. Pretty important things for artists and as MIA indicated very threatening when things start to go a bit awry. But it looks like all is OK with mine. One of the things I love about playing with recycled metal is that one is not afraid to have a go - if it fails it has not cost a lot. I also find that I don't only use the metal but also see if the shapes and objects offer options. For example the centre pair of earrings were the remnants of a platter handle where it attached to the bowl. I had cut the handle off and given the metal way - the stubs left called out to become something beautiful. Go well. B

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcomed - it is good to connect with fellow travellers.