Sunday, December 17, 2017

About buffalo horn and typewriter restoration

There was not a lot of time spent in the studio-garage over the weekend to do art. In the main the time was given over to the official opening of the Buttress Root sculpture and the gatherings of people.

©2017 Barry Smith - Buffalo horn pendant (about 7cm long and 1.5-2cm wide)
I did get a little time to make a couple of buffalo horn pendants just for fun. One of which is above.

The process started with sawing a piece of rough and very old buffalo horn that was given to me. It originally came from a feral buffalo in the Northern Territory.

©2017 Barry Smith - Sawn slices of buffalo horn
Sawing and sanding the horn needs to be done with a good mask as the fine horn particles are not good for the lungs.

Two of the slices of the horn took on life as pendants after sanding, drilling, adding aluminium and brass studs and black plaited cord.

©2017 Barry Smith - Simple buffalo horn pendant
©2017 Barry Smith - Slender buffalo horn and brass pendant (about 7 cm long and .75cm wide)
I have started an end-beginning of the year clean up in my studio-garage. I rediscovered a couple of vintage typewriters (see photos below) on the the shelves and decided to see if I could bring at least one of them back into working order over the next little while.

©2017 Barry Smith - Old Remington Rand typewriter - rough and rusty - sadly missing a ribbon spool and ribbon
©2017 Barry Smith - Old Imperial typewriter rough and rusty - includes ribbon spools and ribbon
So far all I have done to the typewriters is to give them a good dust off and a couple of liberal sprays with WD40. More on them as the rehabilitation progresses over the next couple of weeks. But are they not just things of beauty in their own right?

2 comments:

  1. I feel so lucky to have one of your buffalo horn talismans and love that you are restoring these beautiful old typewriters!

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  2. The typewriters are beautiful and fascinating...good luck with your restoration. Your pendants are lovely and mysterious, partly because of the strange qualities of the horn. From the pictures it is hard to tell if it is metal or wood, or what. That it is an animal horn explains its enigmatic allure.

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Comments are welcomed - it is good to connect with fellow travellers.