Rustnstuff: 08/16

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Like a suspended curtain of pink light

When we woke this morning the sky looked quite nondescript - a bit cloudy and grey. I thought I would be walking out into a winter type morning - but nature had other ideas. Over a period of about 15-20 minutes the sky turned pink with fragments of cloud suspended in the the sky.

And it didn't look too bad on Monday morning either.

The light poured through the breaks in the cloud in the east as I walked Treehaven way.

And of course there are a few things that catch the eye as one walks along.

And strangely enough the sunlight was flooding in through the kitchen window as we prepared breakfast - lighting up the orchid on the sink and hypericum berries Fiona brought home from Melbourne so we can dry them and see if we can grow them

With starts to the day like that one has to kick into it with a smile.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Highway haul

I went for a one full day road trip with Fiona's dad. yesterday. She is away for friends and business so I thought it was a good opportunity to go to a market and a few country towns in our region to check out and buy stuff for lamps and silver-plate. There was about 5.5hours driving involved; but as you can see from the photos below the road trip was worth it.

Quite a few lamps in that lot; and shiny stuff from the seven trays below.

I think I now have enough blow torches for the moment; and my silver-plate bank is maintained.

Friday, August 26, 2016

Preparing for Japan

Fiona and I are joining a fews of our artist friends (N, C & M) in a Sunshine Coast Council sister city art exchange in Tatebayashi Japan in October. The exchange will, amongst other things, include a one week group art exhibition; and a one day citizen's festival.

At the festival the group will work with festival participants to create an environmental themed art piece that could include: a hand made book; a print; a handmade brush; brush art works on paper; a stamped metal leaf; and a string and metal tag to hold it all together..

I have been cutting 100 pieces of metal for flat leaf forms; and 100 small tags with punched holes.

Today I started the process of polishing the bits - mainly tags today.

I have also been testing the stamps with different hammers and different surfaces under the metal.

I came to the conclusion that a 1kg hammer and the end grain of a hardwood block would work best. Now I'm off too have a Friday night glass or two of red.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

The usual impacts of grey skies

We are still officially in winter so I should not be surprised that there are grey skies when we wake early.

The moon setting in grey sky can produce some unusual colours - I love how the background to the moon almost becomes purple or grey-purple.

The grey sky also impacts on the final stages of the moonset - the moon just seems to fade away.

The valley this morning was full of rushing clouds.

The sky over Treehaven Way was pale grey-blue which made for some nice wire and bird on the wire contrasts.

There are signs of spring - new flowers are beginning to appear.

Good that when I begin my walks the sun is now up - a real bonus.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

A new direction in resin

At the official opening of Entangle Living Art's gallery-shop in Dayboro one of the owners Nola asked if I would make some resin cufflinks and key-rings to complement the resin jewellery I had taken down for the opening.

I have made 6 pairs of the cufflinks and made a few resin brass circles for the key-rings. I started the cuff link process using flat and square or rectangular cufflinks that Fiona's dad had bequeathed to me. Small watch parts were set in the resin. I taped a small frame around each cufflink to hold the resin. After letting them to dry for a day and a half I sanded them into shape. A few photos of the individual pairs follow.

And a photo of the brass circles also with resin and with parts.

Whilst the resin dried I did some preparation for the citizen's festival we will participate in when we go to Japan for the exhibition in October. I'm making 100 flat brass leaf blanks for metal stamping and 100 small brass tags. But more on that another time