Sorting type and 'custard 2'

 

In between huge showers, water invading the studio and digging drains Fiona and I did a lot of rationalising and transferring type  - finishing the job we started earlier this year.

We are planning to dispose of one type cabinet and its trays and quite a bit of type that is surplus to our use. Sorting and transferring 8 and 10pt fonts are very tedious. We got a lot of trays done over the weekend.

Sorting and transferring spacers (72pt and 48pt) below.

A great tray of Gill Sans Bold 10pt

Talking about 'custard 2' - yes we had another inundation event - the result of what is now being described as a rain bomb - about 100mm in half an hour. 

Mid afternoon yesterday I gave Fiona a frantic phone call to come to give me a hand to sort the second indication. Water was cascading over the side (see photo below) and back wall. We threw ourselves into digging a drain behind the retaining wall at the side and digging the one we dug at the back the day before even deeper and wider to cope with the huge volume of water.

The water was seeping in through both the back and side walls of the studio - but again by diverting the water we were able to stop it combining in and then able to mop it up. Photo below shows the volume of water coming out from behind the side retaining wall after we dug the drain.

Good use for hand towels - fortunately we had washed and dried them overnight.

Fortunately this morning we returned to find that the dehumidifier and fan had dried the two sections out - even the feet of the cabinets were almost totally dry by the time we left the studio this afternoon.

I thought folk might enjoy the photo of the friendly healthy huntsman discovered as we worked along the outside of the side wall.

It went to 'custard'

We have been having rain, rain and more rain - so there was no walking to be done this morning. Instead I decided to go to DEP to sort some trays of type - in fact transferring and sorting in one step.

After morning tea I decided to do some work in the shed finishing Tea Caddy Leafspoons - but as I was heading to the shed I got a call from Fiona saying that we had an issue at the studio - water seeping in.

When I arrived at the studio we checked the back wall to find waterfalls (see the opening photo) and a virtual river running along the back of the studio.

We needed to get the water away from the back of the studio - so we had to work furiously with sticks and rocks to create drains behind the retaining wall - a few photos of me drenched digging drains - Fiona was also drenched and removing mud, rocks and pine needles and cones to get the water to flow away. 

Fortunately we were successful in our drainage work as you can see from the last photo above. That left us with the job of mopping up the water that had seeped in and was threatening the paper cabinet and the carpet under the press. Lots of hand towels, mats and buckets were used for the job. The good news is we saved the cabinet and the carpet.

We have left the dehumidifiers on to finish drying the floors. This has left us with the job of washing clothes, coats and towels. 

So a 'custard' rather than creative day. But it was great to work as a team to react quickly to resolve the issue and save the paper and gear. Creativity will wait for another day.

Walk on the block

 

The day started quite dark as you can see below - it rained and rained last night - about 170mm where we are. I decided to walk closer to home in case I needed to dash back - a few light sprinkles were encountered but I got a reasonable walk in - and the light was better for enjoy beauty - above and below. 

G's orchids had been drenched - but there were a few pops of joy there.

And it has rained on and off all day - not likely to do much gardening over the next few days.

Poetic progress and product

 

On Saturday I managed to set and print a couple more double pages for my Daily Words publication - a pamphlet book of seven open form poems including poems about  hope and shine - though the words printed above refer to the word Joy because of the structure of the book. 

Photos below show the sheet set out to create the back to back pages - this all takes a bit of doing.

A couple of photos of proofing and 25 copies of each printed.

Today (Sunday) I focussed on marking up, cutting, grinding and doing a bit of forming of the metal - stages in making 20 leaf-form Tea Caddy Spoons.

This first forming stage was done using a metal form and a polished wood hammer - I taped the edge of the form so it would not mark the back of the metal too badly.

With a bit of luck I will finish these next week.

What is not to love about hearts

 

I did not have much time for doing art today - I was mainly doing community meeting stuff. But I did get time to finish off the solid silver heart pendants and earrings above and below. The solid silver heart pendants are 20mm across and about 3mm thick; and the hearts on the earrings are 15mm across and about 1.5mm thick.

And a couple of copper hear pendants 0 that are 30mm across and 4mm thick.

I love the shadow of a heart left on solid silver overflow blob that developed when I poured wee hearts to make earrings. The droplet is about 30mm long.