Rustnstuff: 03/17

Friday, March 31, 2017

Motivation for a pendant or two

Not a lot of time for art today - quite a bit of cleaning up after the recent rain and wind; and catching up with an overseas artist friend.

But Fiona's birthday motivated me to make a simple natural looking pendant from timber and wood (Hairy Oak off cuts). I made two so that she had a choice. She chose the long slim one - so the other will go to a friend.

Making those pendants resulted in my finishing a couple more bone pendants.

And a couple of silver-plated EPNS and resin pendants - by-products of the ring commission I was doing.

Now I'm off to help do a few bits to prepare for dinner with the visitors tonight.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

A few delights from the week

We continue in a wet weather pattern - and given the cyclone in the north and the way the resulting low is tracking I'm sure we will have a lot more. Still the rain brings out the colour and freshness in so many things; and that is balanced by grey skies and backgrounds.

The bees are still very active - they really seem to enjoy the basil blossoms.

The pumpkin vines have gone crazy - growing in all directions - curling through and around the hedge at the shed, the agaves and the coffee patch.

Discovered this great fungi on my walk this morning - as big as a saucer; and delicate ones or course.

The grey skies do make for soft backgrounds.

The wet road offers a contrasting background for a fallen flower.

Rampant growth in autumn - seems a bit wrong; but I will enjoy it while it is there.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

A whole lot of hammering

Today I got to finish a couple of rings I have been working on - a commission - I will share this somewhere down the track.

And then I changed over to perfecting the prototype of the bowls for the coffee measuring spoons so I could go into production.

I found that 'sinking' the bowls in a metal form was leaving marks on the metal; and hammering them in one direction did not integrate the marks into the bowl. So I hammered in the direction of the marks and was able to incorporate them into the final product.

I marked up all the rough formed bowls (and the couple of prototype); and got into hammering. I calculated that in hammering the 14 small bowls (about 45mm across) I did about 5,000 to 6,000 hammer strokes. The bowls are now ready for grinding and polishing.

I also played with streamlining the forming of the handles including length of brass rod. I that worked out now.

I think I will feel the result of all that hammering in my hands and forearms tomorrow - still a good achievement.

Friday, March 24, 2017

Beginnings and continuing

Fiona has coined the phase "a jittery kind of day". This refers to those days where one finds oneself jumping between many demands or projects. Today has been a jittery type of day: a trip to the coast for a meeting for Fiona and me spending time getting tyres replaced on our car; and doing a myriad of things in preparation for a garage sale tomorrow where proceeds will go to a couple of women's support services. So there was no time in the studio today.

During the week I managed to progress some pieces of work.

I have been asked to makes tea caddy spoons and coffee measuring spoons by a business in Victoria; and Maleny Additions said they are out of stock of ladles and pate knives. So I have had to get into production.

Yesterday Julie came over to spend time in the garage-studio stamping inspirational words to go into the vessel I made from the family silver-plated tray.

We have ended the jittery day with rain and a whiteout in the valley below.

Given we will be up at 5am tomorrow morning doing all the final set up for the sale I think there are grounds for an early wine and an early night.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Beautiful gentle rain

Over the last little while we have had a series of short showers of rain on the mountain - bit goldilocks like - not too heavy and not too much - just right.

Yesterday I managed to plant another 8 small trees down the back of the block - makes it about 20 over the last couple of weeks. So the gentle rain overnight was just perfect. The morning walk was taken in a light drizzly rain - a grey day.

Great day for photos of fungi and droplets on moss.

The home plants just loved holding droplets as well.

A quiet and refreshing morning

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Installing the Peace Book Sculpture

Strange the way tasks get done on the block. Fiona and I etched and made three large aluminium peace books about 10 months ago as a sculpture for our block. We planned to install them on a platform near the 'bridge' across the rock river below the house. Well many other things happened and the platform was not built. I purchased the timber a couple of months ago - still the platform was not built. But over the weekend I realised that I needed to move the timber out of the carport at the shed in preparation for a garage sale next week and open studio over easter. So instead of storing the timber around the back I decided to build the platform and install the Peace Book Sculpture.

A couple of photos of the building process on Saturday.

The start of the installation process this morning after overnight rain. Fiona was giving excellent placement instructions from the top deck of the house.

After securing the books in place with brackets, screws and rivets the sculpture looks great from all angles.

So good to have this sculpture in place - it has now inspired Fiona and I to plan the next sculptures for the edges of the rock river. The platform will age; and the sculpture will patina.

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