Production with a twist

 I'm in a bit of production mode at the moment - making bits for the Food Festival; product for Open Studios; few replacement things for the shop; and couple of requests.

Over the weekend I got some time to make a few 'leafspoons'; a couple of silver leaves; finished the copper ladle; and made a quirky "pinky talon" (more on that later).

The photo below is a shot of some beaten leaf forms and leaf spoons before second annealing and opening - I just thought together they looked a bit flowerlike.

©2012 Barry Smith - Leaf forms in the rough

I made a number of leaf spoons out of an old serving tray that had ornate pattern on it. Though I have severely beaten the metal the pattern has held up as you can see from the photo below. The spoon part of these leaf spoons is about 25mm long and the leaf about 80mm.

©2012 Barry Smith - Leafspoons

A fellow friend and artist  Helen  wanted a silver leaf as a gift for a 'baby gift' - so I made two from a small quality silver-plated EPNS cake-biscuit tray. Both leaves are about 130-140mm long and about 24mm wide.

©2012 Barry Smith - Silver-plated leaf forms 

The copper-silverplated ladle bowl got a recycled handle from a badly moulded brass salad serving set bought from a junk shop. I chopped the handle off and trimmed and polished it. It has come up well and has been riveted to the bowl with small hand formed copper rivets.

©2012 Barry Smith - Copper ladle with brass and wooden handle

©2012 Barry Smith - Copper ladle with brass and wooden handle

And just for something different. Susan B dropped in to talk with Fiona about their next book. I had finished forming, but not polishing, leaves and leaf spoons. I dropped into the shed studio to say hi and show the bits in the rough. Susan said wouldn't it be neat to have a leaf that you could wear to parties on your pinky finger - as a sort of talking point. Can't let a challenge like that go by - so the "pinky leaf talon" was created - copper prototype. Fiona has hand modelled it. The cylinder that goes over the finger is about 40-50mm long and adjustable; the leaf form is about 60mm long.

©2012 Barry Smith - Finger leaf form

©2012 Barry Smith - Pinky Leaf Talon - modelled by Fiona

©2012 Barry Smith - Pinky Leaf Talon - modelled by Fiona

So you can see the weekend had lots of twists in it - twisted leaves, spoons and pinky leaf talon that is. Fiona and I managed to get quite a bit of work done on the block in preparation for the wedding on 1 September; and Open Studios. We finally moved my big timber stack to the back of the shed studio - so studio 601 mvr is looking good from the outside.