Rustnstuff: 05/16

Friday, May 27, 2016

Back to a bit of production but also peace

My art over the last few weeks has been about commissions ;and Fiona and I doing a couple pieces together.

But I got the word from Maleny Additions that a bit more stock was required. So I decided to use today to make Leaf Pate Knives; but because there was spare shorter pieces of metal left over from cutting up a very large tray I decided to make a stash of peace words leaves to give away from time to time.

Blanks for leaves with words stamped.

The peace leaves were to be about 12cm long; and the Leaf Pate Knives about 17cm long.

Stash of pate knives and leaves cut folded and marked ready for second cutting.

Hammered and ready for forming and unfolding.

Leaf Pate Knives and peace word leaves ready for polishing.

Leaf Pate Knives polished ready for tags.

And a stash of peace leaves ready for giving away.

Humble production work. Now off to a exhibition opening.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Its about the moon

Over about the last week I have taken the occasional photo of the moon at different times of the night and morning - not obsessed just enjoying the changing nature and clarity.

The early morning on Monday was particularly unusual - a colourful sunrise as the moon was setting made for some unusual colours as you can see from the photo above. Much of the unusual colour etc was cause by a combination of the autofocus of the camera (Canon Powershot), an early morning bank of cloud rolling in from the west and the sunrise - but more about that later. Unless indicated otherwise all the photos were taken with the Canon Powershot.

First some photos of the changing size and colour and clarity of the moon during different phases.

Monday morning

And now back to that early morning light

And early morning moon - distorted light through cloud and the morning atmosphere - the camera was having trouble focussing and was creating some distortions of colour and light

And contrasting grey sky of the setting moon.

Wednesday morning

So you can see why I get a bit fixated at times.

And the sunrise this morning

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Very exciting - large freestanding etched books

As you might be aware from my Friday blog post Fiona and I have been working together on a set of large freestanding outdoor artists' books. We agreed that we would both post on the books today - but I'm sure you'll agree that Fiona gives a different perspective.

We did the metal cutting, calligraphy and etching on Wednesday.

On Saturday Fiona was away doing print related stuff so I agreed to rivet the pages together so we could then open them together today.

Because I was going to use some 9mm thick aluminium rivets I picked up from a garage sale years ago I had to make some riveting tools to fit the rivets. These were made out of a couple of discarded cold-chisels.

I was about to start the drilling and riveting when I remembered that the resist paint on the back of the pages needed to be removed. I was going to buy some automotive spirits but forgot - so given there was no car to drive into town I tried petroleum - smelt bad but it worked.

The riveting went well as you can see from the photo below.

And before lunch today Fiona and I used a bit of innovation and physical strength to bend the pages into place.

The final set of three books was photographed in a few settings - they have worked out well.

Fiona and I have wanted to make this installation-sculptural set of artists' books for many years and the metal has been there to do the work - it is funny how one commission job provided us with the encouragement to move and achieve the outcome. The theme of the books is peace - etched into the middle page are: imagine peace, dream peace and peace is every step (TCH).

Friday, May 20, 2016

This and that

Most of today has been taken up with art stuff but not making - an art meeting about the exhibition , workshops etc in Japan in October; a community meeting; and a studio visit by a bunch of printmakers. However during the week art was done including a full day on Wednesday when Fiona and I collaborated on cutting and etching the pages or three large freestanding aluminium artists' books; and I completed a couple of Artisan Lamps to give a client a choice of lamps for a birthday gift.

A couple more photos of cutting metal and painting the backs on a pile of gravel as a resist against the etching solution.

And those couple of Artisan Lamps.

The client chose the more standard blow torch lamps. More on the big etched books on Sunday as I hope to rivet the pages together tomorrow. Now off to a printmakers' BBQ.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Seeking white in autumn morning light

As you might know the sun is rising later and later in our valley and mountains. The early morning walks tend to start just as the sun is giving first blush off light to the valley and mountains. It struck me that the only blossoms that I could see were white ones - so I decided this week to focus on finding white in the dim light.

So the photos below are part of the exercise of finding white - some are not great shots as the light was pretty low and the iPhone was not really up to the task on occassions.

And a few photos showing the contrast between the first blush of light and a little later as the light bathed the valley in peach colours.

Fiona tells me it is about 5 weeks to the shortest day of the year for us down under so I guess there will be more photos in low light and off soft morning sunrises.