Light - waking the day

©2016 Barry Smith - Morning dew, soft light and clear water in and on an Avian Font

The photos in this post are from an early morning walk I took on the block. I was taken by the gentle quality of the light and how the day was just waking up - bird calls, a few bees getting busy, light filtered through foliage and the dew that had not yet been burnt off by the sun.

©2016 Barry Smith  - Heads turned to the rising sun

©2016 Barry Smith  - A single new pink frangipani blossom

©2016 Barry Smith - Cascading colour on the gravel slope

©2016 Barry Smith - Shaft of light through the agapanthus

©2016 Barry Smith - Light, colour and morning dew

©2016 Barry Smith  - Crisp white coffee flower

©2016 Barry Smith - A bee in the early sunlight - on the coffee bush - not sure what it hopes to extract from the unopened coffee blossom

Amazing that one does not even need to venture beyond the boundaries of home to be energised by nature.

The art of building

For Fiona and I art has taken many forms this weekend including: taking down the Japanese exhibition; delivering garden stuff to Entangle; hammering; sewing words for Fiona; having visitors to our gallery shop; and also building.

I had planned a working-bee to build the brick section of a stand for an outdoor  pizza oven at the local neighbourhood centre on Saturday. There were to be four of us but only 3 of us materialised - Adam helped move all the blocks to the site and set down the first course but had to go and attend to family duties - then there was Fiona's dad and myself finishing the last three quarters of the job; so we called in Fiona.

We went from a stack of Hebel blocks to the finished three bay stand for the oven. But of course we had a thunder and rain storm in the middle of the job. Graham worked hard with us but was also the photographer - unfortunately he is not in any of the photos.

I guess that job means Graham, Fiona and I have developed another set of skills given we had never laid Hebel blocks before.

Today Fiona and I made a three hour round trip to deliver the seven garden assemblages (three fonts and 4 quirky objects) to Entangle in Dayboro.

Nice to see the sign and my jewellery below in the Entangle gallery shop.

Things continue to sell through the efforts of Nola of Entangle.

The art of building

For Fiona and I art has taken many forms this weekend including: taking down the Japanese exhibition; delivering garden stuff to Entangle; hammering; sewing words for Fiona; having visitors to our gallery shop; and also building.

I had planned a working-bee to build the brick section of a stand for an outdoor  pizza oven at the local neighbourhood centre on Saturday. There were to be four of us but in the end there was Fiona's dad and myself finishing the last three quarters of the job; so we called in Fiona.

We went from a stack of Hebel blocks to the finished three bay stand for the oven. But of course we had a thunder and rain storm in the middle of the job. Graham worked hard with us but was also the photographer - unfortunately he is not in any of the photos.

I guess that job means Graham, Fiona and I have developed another set of skills given we had never laid Hebel blocks before.

Today Fiona and I made a three hour round trip to deliver the seven garden assemblages (three fonts and 4 quirky objects) to Entangle in Dayboro.

Nice to see the sign and my jewellery below in the Entangle gallery shop.

Things continue to sell through the efforts of Nola of Entangle.

Pendants of love and healing

©2016 Barry Smith - Bound book - metal pages bound for filing

I was asked to make a book-pendant (a pendant with 4 metal pages) with some words of healing and love in it. The person wanted to give it to a friend who is seriously ill. Her mother had told her how I had made one for a friend of her; and how her friend treasured it and wore it all the time so she could feel calm and loved.

The words to be stamped in the book-pendant were up to me so I chose: calm, hope, healing, love and peace.

When making these book pendants I give the selection of metal special attention as I some way I want to add a touch of energy to the pendant.  As you can see from the photo below even special recycled metal can look a bit dodgy before grinding and polishing.

©2016 Barry Smith - Pages cut and page 3 ready for stamping

Fortunately I usually know that quality silver-plated metal is going to come up well as you can see from the photo below.

©2016 Barry Smith - Before the final polish - page three stamped with healing words

When I was cutting up metal for the page to be stamped I came across some heart decorations - I thought these were a bit of a metaphor of the friend in the middle surrounded by love.

©2016 Barry Smith - Found hearts

The bits were polished ready for assembly.

©2016 Barry Smith - Books and earrings ready for assembly

They look good with their chains and ear-wires etc.

©2016 Barry Smith - Pendants of healing and love

And of course I tend to make more than one to give a choice.

©2016 Barry Smith - Pendant of healing and love (5.5cm long and 2.5cm wide)

©2016 Barry Smith - Pendant of healing and love (5.5cm long and 2cm wide)

It was a calming thing for me to do these today after quite a busy week.

Restored by nature

©2016 Barry Smith - Fragment - dandelion seeds with few drops

It is quite amazing the positive impact the beauty of nature can have on one's energy levels. I woke this morning quite lethargic after the hustle and bustle of the last few days.

©2016 Barry Smith - Powerlines in the mist on Treehaven Way

A walk in the soft misty light early this morning; and seeing the heavy droplets of dew that cleaned and clung to blossoms and webs left me feeling somewhat uplifted by the time I arrived back.

©2016 Barry Smith - Deep purple Jacaranda

©2016 Barry Smith  - Web, rust, aluminium peace leaves, droplets and tiny pale spider

©2016 Barry Smith - Frangipani with droplets

©2016 Barry Smith - Red crucifix orchids

©2016 Barry Smith - Lichen on a log

©2016 Barry Smith 

©2016 Barry Smith - Dandilion - almost gone 

©2016 Barry Smith - Blending in

©2016 Barry Smith - Reaching for the light

©2016 Barry Smith - Blown blossoms and leaves in the top of an eroded fence post

©2016 Barry Smith - Bougainvillaea saturated with early morning dew

There are times when nature and its beauty is the tonic I need.

Environmental awareness art workshop tomorrow

©2016 Barry Smith - Almost looks too nice to be a plastic bag full of chopped up rubbish from our waterways

Fiona, Christine E and I will spend all day tomorrow offering three separate workshop activities for all (over 120) of the students at the Amanda Marga River School. The school has agreed to set aside the normal schedule and participate in six sessions where each student will create: resin pieces with me; weather grams with Fiona to go on a metal tree; and jelly-plate prints with Christine.

The art work will be installed on Tuesday afternoon (22/11) at the the Art& Ecology Centre Tanawha as part of the Water and the Environment Collaborative Exhibition. The key artist in the exhibition is Japanese environmental artist Maseru Shimokawa (Daily Walks Notebook); supported by Dr Leah Barclay (River Listening).

I finished my preparations for the resin workshops today. This included chopping up some of the rubbish the students had collected from waterways.

©2016 Barry Smith - Rubbish from the waterways

©2016 Barry Smith - More rubbish from the waterways

©2016 Barry Smith - Chopped up rubbish from the waterways

I checked to see that I had enough plastic bags and shot glasses for each student for resin moulds.

Getting the eight litres of resin out.

Cutting small pieces of paper for the students to put into the base of the resin moulds - they all want their work back.

©2016 Barry Smith - 300 pieces of paper for names

I did a final test run of the shot glasses and plastic bags.

©2016 Barry Smith - And that is what we drink????

So I'm all ready to go. I'm looking forward to seeing what gets created; should be about 250 resin pieces in the installation. Could be interesting photos for reporting on the installation of works.