Rustnstuff: 01/18

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Bits from NZ

Fiona and I went to NZ for a few days to celebrate my birthday. It was a few days of art, nature and relaxation. Following are a few images from the trip away - not a lot of people photos.

We are back on the mountain; and doing a bit of catch up.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

There was no time for a walk on Treehaven Way this morning as we had to be up very early and on the road. So in this Wednesday iPhoneographic post I share a few images taken during the week.

First some fragments of a new wall in our local optometrist made from washed rough cut thin slices of timbers from railway sleeps or a bridge. The square holes seem to suggest "dog spikes" that held the railway tracks in place.

And a couple of photos of the setting sun shining through a western window and catching a rose and an orchid on the dining table.

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Vase and flower assemblage progressing

I did not get much time over the weekend to progress art projects. I'm putting in quite a few hours doing painting of deck posts and railings. Putting people first has also taken a fair amount of time.

Still I'm happy with the progress. First job was to fit the copper sleeves into the cut off bases of the tulip vases.

And then over to the grinding and polishing bench.

Initially I'm glueing the various pieces together; and when the glue is dry I will put one or two rivets through the vase, the sleeve and the copper stem - binding it all solidly together.

I have left the tape in place to give the glue the chance to reach maximum strength - but even with the blue tape on the flowers are looking good in the train horn vase.

I like the shadow of the small flower form below.

I'm thinking that I really need to make seven flowers so the bunch looks more sumptuous. That means I need to source another couple of tulip vases - so we will see.

Friday, January 19, 2018

Love is the answer

Mo Crow is doing a project with some of the key words being "I dream of a world where love is the answer". Some folk are making and contributing pennants; and some folk might be contributing talismans. The talismans for the project are to be special tiny pieces that are no bigger than 1.5cmX1.5cm.

I think of a talisman as something that one can: carry in one's pocket; have on a string around one neck; or in a small talisman bag of bits and pieces. So I decided to make a talisman out of melted metal - a powerful amalgam of different metals.

I started by cutting up some metal pieces I had melted some time ago.

And then stamping them with the key word - love. I sort of got carried away and made 7 talismans; and one bigger piece. The metal stamp alphabet is tiny (about1-1.5mm); and I need to use a magnifying glass to check I have the right letter.

Three pieces sort of fit together to make up the words - the answer is love.

The other four are randoms.

I need to check what I will send to Mo Crow.

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

A vibrant morning

I'm always amazed that the same walk on Wednesday morning can always deliver new surprises. This morning I was just taken by: the blue of the sky, the strength of structure of the Satin Bowerbird's bower, bright blossoms and vibrant birds.

I will just share some of the beauty in the sequence I experienced them - apart from the detail of one of the flowers shared above.

No wonder I came home with a smile and lift in my spirit.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Components

Fiona and I are doing quite a bit of work on our block and house at the moment - so time in the studio can be in bits and pieces.

I grabbed a couple bits of time over the weekend to make components for my flower assemblage sculpture including:

hammering the cone shaped sections of the flowers to be;
making the circular pieces that will fit inside the opening section of the vases; and
assembling the 25 stamen.

The cut down tulip vases can look pretty bad at the start - the beauty is under the grime.

The hammering of the cone sections is done in a very systematic way using two different sized metal forming stakes. And after polishing the hammer marks become a uniting feature of the five flowers.

Again the metal for the sections that will be inside the trumpets are not really much to write home about. After pressing into their shallow bowl shape and given a first clean one can see the potential.

The stamen are made from 1mm plastic covered stainless steel wire and 6-7mm glass beads - mainly purples and smokey grey-black.

Other components to be made before assembling include: brass tubes to hols stamen, long copper tube stems and slightly larger copper sleeves to hold the stems and be glued into the base of the trumpets. These pieces will be made in the next week I hope.