Slate and timber

Over the last couple of days I have managed to get a bit of time in the workshop. On Saturday I attempted to make a slate (from cottage roof) and silver pendant for Fiona; and today I managed to finish 3 timber vases.

In regard to the pendant I say attempted because the slate was very flakey and shattered when grinding at the end of production. The pendant above was meant to be a third longer in length but I needed to trim the bottom and ended up with a square shaped pendant. I wanted to 'stitch' the slate to reflect some of the work Fiona is doing for her Scotland exhibition.

In the end I made a second pendant with rivets - but even there ran into trouble as a bit broke in the slate so I had to glue a short rivet into that hole - and I only had brass short refits.

The timber vase making today was more successful. I finished the vase made from the found pine offcuts - below.

Made a second one from camphor laurel.

And finished the dark timber vase I started in our course.

I like how the three of the vases look together - each unique in colour and form

Small circles of beauty

 

There has not been a lot of time for creating lately - various family and friend commitments have required the time. It is good though that one can grab small moments to make small things such as these metal bits - stars and ingots.

And F and I have been doing a few small bits together including choosing and preparing wee stones to make pebble earrings.

Celebrating the small creative moments is important.

Just orchid beauty

 

This blog simply enables one to immerse in the beauty of orchids. The rain has been so constant that not has been all but impossible to get to doo outdoor walks. A couple of quick trips to G's orchid house enabled me to capture some of the beauty on show at the moment.

I have removed the backgrounds to put more focus on the blossoms.

I hope you enjoyed those images as much as G and I have. We are talking about turning a few into cards!!!

Another couple emerge

I have managed to finish a couple more wee watercolours. The one above that I call Spirit of the Fishers Past; and I had another go at painting the Fishing Huts at Armadale Cove - below.

A few process photos follow including drying a salt encrusted sail under Megan's heat lamp. Yep - tried a new technique that was very applicable to the fishing-boat painting I was doing.

As you can see from the photo below the salt produced some interesting texture.

Photo of the two paintings that have had the paper texture background removed in preparation for printing - if we go that way.

I have to have a think about the subject matter for my next works - something a bit more out of my comfort zone!!! 

A little more carving

 

I was back in the workshop starting to turn timber offcuts into more vases. In the photo above you can see the new pebble vase at the back - this one is made from Bunya Pine.

A few process photos follow. You can see the brown spots that look like eyes are in the grain of the timber.

I made a start on a vase where I'm leaving bark on one face. I didn't get it finished because of other demands - maybe tomorrow. Love the Veritas draw knife!!! The timber is Liquid Amber - salvaged from a broken branch.

Ending with another photo of the completed pebble vase.

The carving is all good fun - though one has to be careful with very sharp carving tools; and the whole process is a bit time consuming.

All about webs, light and droplets

 

Wherever one walks at the moment you are likely to see spiders webs - in part because the mist and the rain are highlighting the webs by dressing them in droplets.

I thought I would share a bunch of webs I have seen over the last couple of days on walks. The droplet encrusted webs need to be catching the light to shine; some can only be seen from a side angle; and some want to delicately camouflage themselves against the foliage.

Webs - so fragile yet so unique and beautiful with droplets.