Rustnstuff: 09/17

Friday, September 29, 2017

Working with what you find

I was not greatly motivated today to do creative work - there has been a lot on over the last little while; Fiona and I have both been a little ill; and it was extremely hot.

But a look around my metal hammering bench revealed a number of bits and pieces I had sweated off various objects. I kept them because I thought they would make interesting funnel shapes when hammered.

The metal, hammer and stake called me so I decided to give them a go by working at the bench inside the garage-studio with the fan on. They hammered up well.

The beauty however is drawn forth on the grinding polishing bench. Against the rust of the rust bench the true beauty of the shapes, silver-plate and the hammer marks show forth.

I think a cold glass of something white is required tonight.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Mainly about moisture and crucifix orchids

Whilst we did not have rain overnight we did have something between a heavy dew and a mizzle.

We woke to a whiteout in the valley.

The morning walk revealed how much the blossoms revelled in the the moisture and collected droplets.

Great to have even small amounts of refreshment for the trees and blossoms given our current dry.

A rusty gate hinge on a weathered post - part of a new installation of posts on our block - more on that when we have added more rust to the posts - Fiona says we need a rust playday.

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Words to focus the day

Over the weekend I managed to finish 4 sets of Daily Leaf Words. The motivation was that I had sold my last set.

Many folk are aware that these sets started out as a mini version of Fiona and my daily exercise of each drawing out an inspiration word out of forty that Fiona has written in calligraphy on decorated light card rectangles.

Initially I made sets that had seven inspirational words stamped on small flat rectangular pieces of silver-plated EPNS or copper. These were presented in a shallow hammered silver-plated bowl. But my Peace Leaves inspired me to stamp the words onto metal blanks and turn them into small leaves. The seven leaves in and around the small hammered bowl looks a little more sculptural; and I think attractive. So Daily Word sets became Daily Leaf Word sets. The current set of words are: love, wonder, peace, hope, shine dream and joy.

The sets have turned out well - similar but unique.

A few photos of the process.

The sets are now ready to go to new homes.

A few small hammer bowls made from silver-plated copper offcuts.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Imagine Peace - International Peace Day

International Peace Day has arrived - another annual opportunity to pause and imagine peace.

This year the world just seems to be in need of a lot more of it to counteract what seems to be an outbreak of mad threats and intolerance.

©2017 Barry Smith - I loved the small new green shoot that is in the foreground of one of
Fiona's Peace Weather-grams - a symbol of hope and small beginnings

At our place on the mountain we will just pause a few times today to wish, hope and imagine peace.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Desperately dry

It seems that we are in drought on the mountain - so many people are having to get water trucked to fill their tanks; the grass and plants are all struggling; as are the birds and animals. This is the first year that the nectarine crop was wiped out by bats whilst very green; and orchids and green bananas seems to be fodder for possums.

Even so nature seems to be able to persist and offer colour and texture as can be seen from a few shots from my walk this morning.

Still I hope that over the coming weekend we get a little rain to wash off the dust and give the plants and animals a refresh.

Sunday, September 17, 2017

Picking up the threads

It is a period we all go through - having a lot of commitments; creating havoc in our studio space; and needing to clean up to enable us to start again.

Well that happened to me over the weekend; and after cleaning the surfaces I discovered a number of projects I needed to finish including: Peace Doves (sort of doves!!!) for our peace tree; Peace Leaves for Fiona's dad to take to his meditation group; big copper leaves for the next in the Bending series; and bowls and leaves for a few sets of Daily Leaf Words.

The priority was the Peace Doves - I needed to make 10 new doves to add to the five that were still in in the tree from last year and the ones that had fallen out of the tree to make up 21 for International Peace Day.