An opportunity to promote peace and joy

©2017 Barry Smith - Fiona's small gift packaging made from recycled book pages 

Recently we caught up briefly with 5 international visitors. We knew that as well as building links there would also be some exchanging of small gifts.

I took the opportunity to make and give folk some inspirational words for their pocket or wallet-purse. Peace and joy seemed the right way to go.

©2017 Barry Smith - Inspirational words for the pocket

I thought that giving a leaf with the symbol of tree of life not only wished the people long life; but also could be seen a a way of saying trees are important to life.

©2017 Barry Smith - Tree of life - a long life of peace and joy

A small gesture and a small post.

Product off to market

I managed to finish stashes of product to send off to Entangle and Maleny Additions; and also a bunch of leaves and Peace Leaves for giving away.

First the leaves and Peace Leaves on rust - just because I love the contrast of the silver against the beautiful rich rust background.

©2017 Barry Smith 

©2017 Barry Smith 

The work and grinding-polishing benches can often look quite full when one is doing quantities of stuff.

©2017 Barry Smith 

©2017 Barry Smith 

The final pieces looked good.

©2017 Barry Smith  - Leafspoons on sandstone

©2017 Barry Smith - Leaf Pate Knives on rust

©2017 Barry Smith  - Swing tags by Fiona

©2017 Barry Smith  - Swing tags by Fiona

It is strange that I often don't think that making 'product' is about art; and yet the folk who buy the individual pieces often remark how they love the unique, creative and handmade nature of the pieces.

The hard work of an installation on the block

Sculpture on the edge of the 'rock river' - the sculpture stands 2m tall

I roped in neighbours and a fellow artist to help with the task of installing the big (and heavy) post assemblage-sculpture in the photo above. A bit of a scruffy, generous and willing team.

The challenge was to take the sculpture from outside the studio-garage, down a steep flight of rural stairs and along two further terraces before lifting it into place. Fiona guided the team, gave a lift and push here and there, gave advice on orientation and straightness, and took most of the photos.

I had dug the hole in the cool cloud of an early morning.

The following photos show some aspects of the low-tech installation process.

Of course one needs  a photo of the detail

And a couple more of the sculpture from a couple of different parts of the house

The circle of peace

What a wonderful surprise came in the post a couple of days ago. Luthien of Altered Alchemy sent me a stash of gorgeous and intricate Bookmarks for Peace for gifting on to other folk to promote peace.

I had sent Luthien a stash of Peace Leaves to be distributed for peace. Her beautiful response was not only to distribute the Peace Leaves; but also to make the stash of Bookmarks for peace.

These Bookmarks for Peace are part of the important circle of peace - they will just keep the peace ripples going.

Small shallow vessels

I was meant to be making 'product' (Leaf Spoons and Leaf Pate Knives) for Maleny Additions and Entangle in Dayboro. But then I realised I needed to make a few bowls for gifts. So I made the vessels first. I did make a good start on the 'product' as well.

Metal for small bowls usually comes from the bases of silver plated objects like goblets or small round trays; or sections of small silver-plated trays. Bases of the objects can often look pretty bad before hammering and polishing.

In the end I made six small bowls that I refer to as Star Bursts or Fungi depending on the shape of edge of the vessels.

An a gorgeous couple of small bowls from copper offcuts - I polished the copper bowls with a brass wheel which transferred a film of brass onto the copper.

I made three very recycled looking shallow bowls from the bases.

I have enough bowls to choose the three gifts I want.

Post assemblage-sculpture for the block

©2017 Barry Smith  - Reversed 2 soldering iron - patina and greyed timber

I got time today to finish the largish post sculpture that will be set up near the 'rock river' down the back of the block.

The sculpture is made from: a 2.5m long piece of 20cm square hardwood; a set of brass branding irons (numbers) that were gifted to me; and about 30 copper soldering irons that were also gifted to me; and a square piece of brass plate. It will be a very structured piece; but I think the timber, copper and brass will work well in the rock river setting.

©2017 Barry Smith - Setting out branding irons and soldering irons on the front face of the assemblage-sculpture

©2017 Barry Smith  - Branding iron O and soldering irons for the back face

©2017 Barry Smith - Soldering irons for the side faces

©2017 Barry Smith  - A few of the back to front numbers and soldering irons in place

©2017 Barry Smith  - A few of the back to front numbers and soldering irons in place

©2017 Barry Smith  - Patina and greyed timber

©2017 Barry Smith  - Patina and greyed timber

©2017 Barry Smith  - The completed work - does not photograph well on the horizontal

The assemblage-sculpture is very heavy. I need to dig quite a large hole for it to be concreted into. We will need four people to get it into place. Probably do it sometime next week - maybe.

Morning after rain

This morning's walk was in the mist - both going and coming home.

Lots of gorgeous fresh droplets of mist water.

Tiny spider webs accentuated by a slight covering of mist.

The fire pit has been totally filled - that will be appreciated by the birds.

The good news is that we have had quite a lot of rain; but it has been relatively gentle; and our tanks are once again full.