Rustnstuff: 08/19

Saturday, August 31, 2019

Leaf in hard tumbled stone

It was a wet day today so it offered the opportunity to do in-cottage jobs like fixing the lock on the front door, fixing the weather seal to the front door and sanding and painting the area around the kitchen towel rail - all quite mundane but necessary.

After lunch I got to do more stone cutting on the extra hard tumbled rock picked up from the cove at the end of the village. The photo of one of my chisels below demonstrates just how hard the inclusion the rock are. It will take me a bit of time to grind-file the chips out of the chisel.

Still I managed to get a reasonable leaf form cut into the rock.

It has joined other rocks on the tiles in the fireplace until we decide on a better home.

Now time to sit back and enjoy a Friday wine in the highlands.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Coos, blossoms and other fragments

This post will be a mixed bag - I'm still coming to terms with the transfer of photos to the laptop and sizing them for a blog. I will get there as I do more posts. Anyhow in the end I decided to upload a few fragments from the last couple of days including coos as seen fro the photos above and below.

And field blossoms - some would call them weeds.

And a couple of photos from Sandside Harbour

I guess the mixture is not so bad.

Monday, August 26, 2019

Sidetracked by the bog

In the main the weekend was given over to getting the yard of the cottage under control. No one had been in residence for about 6 weeks in summer so the weeds and grass are knee high. It is taking quite a bit of time to make it look loved again - but we are getting closer.

Instead of doing art work (in my case finish cutting the leaf) we decided to take a trip and visit Forsinard National Nature Reserve which is in the centre of the highlands blanket peat bog - 4000sq kilometres of internationally important bog - one of the biggest carbon sinks on the globe. Our local village is on the edge of this amazing entity.

Following are a few images from a glorious few hours spent taking in the beauty and importance of this rich and diverse environment.

The sidetrack was well worth it.

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Hard as stone

Art today was about attempting to do a little stone cutting on a tumbled rock (below) from the cove.

The stone was duly marked up - keeping it simple I chose a leaf shape given it was almost 12 months since I had picked up one of the chisels we had left in the cottage.

Then it was out to the wee storage shed to begin the cutting process.

Obviously the stone I picked up from the cove was hard as - lots of silica inclusions - so I had to take it slowly to avoid chipping and the cutting itself was just slow. Still I managed some art on Friday at the cottage which is good.

A few more hours of delicate cutting before the stone is finished. I hope to do a leaf series whilst over here - I will be trying a variety of stone!!!!!

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Highland fragments

Fiona and I are currently in the highlands - we've been here for a couple of days and already it weaves its magic - colour, unpredictable weather and different light. Given it is hard to adjust to the laptop to do a blog this first will just be a few images from the last couple of days walks.

The morning started bright and cloudy but then the blue broke through - the afternoon is now grey and quiet.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Fearless girl and other fragments from Melbourne

This small statue, 1.2m high) exudes such serene strength - standing up to the taunts and challenges faced by women.

The original was commissioned by State Street Global who are now challenging everyone who has commissioned the artist, Kristen Visbal, to make copies (see article in AFR 7 August).

You would have thought State Street Global would have jumped at the chance to embrace the movement and claim the kudos for commissioning the original and supporting women world wide by allowing copies to be made.