Rustnstuff: 08/18

Friday, August 31, 2018

Social comments and other fragments from a few laneways

Fiona and I have been in Melbourne for work and catching up with friends and colleagues. We are home today but now playing a little catchup after our trip away - so there will be no idle creative moments in the studio-garage on this Friday.

Whilst I often think that most of the graffiti in the laneways is unsightly I guess there are times when artists and others use public spaces off to the sides as a way of getting social messages across.

Following are a few of the social comment and other images.

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Partnership in the press

Fiona and I recently launched the website for our new very exciting joint venture - Deckled Edge Press.

Deckled Edge Press is a partnership between us. Whilst we are both artists in our own right; we share a love of all things letterpress.

Deckled Edge Press is a small home-based press, where we work together and print small editions of booklets, poetry, posters, post cards and other offerings, nearly always with a social justice message.

We believe in the power of print to share these messages of support and inspiration and love working together on them.

Deckled Edge Press is situated in Maleny, in the beautiful hinterland of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. The press works out of an American barn shed which used to be our home. It is a delightful and quirky space with magnificent views of the Glass House Mountains.

A few screen shots from the website are below just to entice you to visit the website; and given the text is a bit light in colour the best thing to do is visit and take a quick tour of the website by clicking here.

There in not a lot in the ship at the moment but that will change over time.

We will be running a couple of workshops each year. One is taking place in November this year if you are interested check out the Workshops link here.

And if you want to contact us or subscribe to our Deckled Edge Press Newsletter check Contact out here. And by the way the Instagram link is right here.

So there you have it - a brand new partnership in the press.

Friday, August 24, 2018

A few functional gifts

I grabbed a bit of time to make some small ladles to give away as gifts when we travel. I estimated I had time to make three new ladles from scratch and to refresh one I had made some time ago - it mainly needed a really good polish.

The following photos tend to step through some of the process including: making or reforming bowl shapes; hammering the bowls; making handles; grinding and polishing; and giving them a final polish after riveting the handles on.

The three new ones are looking good; as does the refreshed ladle.

So these will be off to good homes in the coming weeks.

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Rainbows in the house, moon and other fragments

I have said before that there are weeks where there is no theme in the images one captures but rather a mix of things that grab one's attention. This blog simply shares some of those fragments.

Winter rainbows in the house.

Two phases of the moon.

And other random bits.

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Creating a small gift

The photo above is a good example of the fact that one needs to see the potential in stuff. I wanted to make a small funky Light Catcher for a friend - as you can see the starting main element below was not pretty.

A bit dis-assembling and selection of a couple of additional bits and I was on my way.

It took quite a bit of time to remove built up grime, oil and soot. And I had to grind back a failed patch up job done in the past. But the pieces revealed some underlying beauty.

The main bits were glued together and left to cure in the vise.

And the beauty of the piece was revealed on the rusty metal trolley.

I think it will be treasured.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Patina for peace

Today I committed to two tasks: finish cementing in posts to build up the veggie garden wall; and make 11 peace doves for International Peace Day.

Why 11 peace doves? Usually I have 21 peace doves to hang on what we refer to as the peace tree at the top of our driveway. Last year I used really strong cord to attach them to the tree and surprisingly enough 18 are still there - doing their peace thing all year and re-emerging after all the leaves fell from the tree. So I need to make three replacements. I also want 7 for a little peace installation in Scotland. And of course one needs a spare.

As you can see from the photo at the beginning I decided to use some deliciously patinated copper for the peace doves - only the best for peace.

The cutting out of the bird shapes by hand is a bit fiddly; but it is lovely to see the shapes emerge from the scrap metal.