A printing favour

 

A friend of a friend asked if Fiona or could check out some old copper printing plates, see below, to see if it was possible to make prints from them. Given Fiona is up to her eyes in exhibition preparation I agreed to clean the plates and run a proof or two off them. The outcome of my endeavours is shown in the opening photo above.

After gently cleaning the plates I cut some quality etching print paper offcuts, dampened them, inked up the plates with water based etching ink and ran them through a small hand press we have.  One of the plates is shown below on paper and baseplate of the wee press.

I initially tried using Paynes grey ink but did not get a good proof so I switched to sepia - better outcome.

Whoever created the plates had done a very good drypoint job - some very fine detail as you can see in the photos above. The plate with the cross was not as good as the artist had used an etching process that did not work as well.

The current owner of the plates is now think about next steps - really depends on family connections etc. The task took me a couple of hours - good that Fiona and I have the skills to do small proofing tasks like this.

Mostly antler

 

I grabbed some time over the last couple of days to cut up a piece of antler to make a few pair of antler earrings; and one pair of bone earrings.

As you can see from the opening photo and the following one they have turned out well.

Some process photos follow. As you can see from the first photo the antler looks pretty rough before it is ground and polished.

Fiona and I had a discussion about which side of the antler material should face the front. In the main I have gone with the external section of the antler facing forward. But check out the photos below to see what you think - the first is with the external section forward and the second is the internal section of the antler.

These earrings will be heading to Scotland.

Hardy blossoms in the cold and dark light

 

The mornings have been dark and cold - but there is still beauty about - with the morning stars as you can see in the photos below; and in hardy blossoms as you can see in the opening photo and other blossoms in this blog. I love the paperiness of the petals on the blossom above.

A few more images of those hardy blossoms follow.

See if you can find the wee caterpillar and the wee insect in the blossom below.

As Fiona indicated in her blog post here we have been blogging for 15 years now. Rustnstuff has been, and still is, such a good way to journal my work and create a record of my art journey.

Trio of vases

 

Yesterday I set myself the goal of carving three vases from salvaged timber. One of the possible downsides of using the salvaged timber is you need to be willing to accept the cracks and old inactive wood borer holes. Still as you can see from the photo above the end result can be beautiful.

Following are some process photos including cutting a log into pieces and enjoying the bark that was removed.

Ending with another photo of there trio of carved timber vases.

New life- new memories

 

I was given a small stash of old and neglected silver-plated metal in case I could use it. I always ask to see if the person gifting the metal wanted to retain some connection with the pieces. In this case I agreed to make earrings for three family members if I could find metal that was still ok to use.

As you can see from the opening photo I have made five pair of earrings - I always like to give myself choice. I have made these earrings with the texture of the tray to the front.

The process photos start with blanks cut out of one of the trays. I also gave a piece of the metal the bend test to see that it could handle being folded - which it did - it was silver-plated brass. The photos also show that there are quite a number of steps involved in making leaf earrings.

The following photo is after I had added jump rings and earwigs to the ground, drilled and polished leaves.

And I took time to give my 'love' and 'joy' stamped earrings (see below) for Scotland a final grind and polish on the wheel.

I get a good vibe when I can gift back to people who give me material in a way that gives them a piece of their history but with a new purpose to create new memories.

Flowers about the house

 

Fiona makes it a habit to have a few flowers about in the house. Most often these are flowers picked from the gardens around our home. This blog post simply celebrates the beauty of these ordinary flowers.

I also celebrate the beauty of some of the orchids that are in bloom in G's orchid house at the moment.

The flowers about the house make me smile.