We are preparing for cyclone related weather event and dodging wind and showers; but still this morning I managed a walk. There are a few fragments to share including a little honey eater collecting nectar from a grevillea flower.
During the week we were fortunate to see this sliver of moon in a brooding sunset sky.
Even in stormy times a few fragments of beauty shine.
In my ink painting experimentation I have not yet settled on 'brushes' or layering approaches yet - though I quite like the soft single swipe of colour with a squeegee over graphite pencil.
Megan (http://www.meganbiceartist.com/) did some experimental swatches of different inks and paints that could give some techniques to try - see below.
On Thursday I not only tested the single swipe using a squeegee as in the opening photo; but I also tried glad wrap over wet acrylic ink with a base image of marker pen; and glad wrap over base image drawn with marker pen. Some process photos follow.
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Outcome of the experimentation follow.
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I would like to be able to whittle-carve small wooden comfort birds that could be gifted to folk who might need them. Something I would like to do whilst in Scotland.
Comfort birds are small palm sized bird forms that can be held and give the holder a sense of calm, peace, hope etc.
I have watched a number of videos on how to whittle-carve such a bird. However, most videos indicate one would cut the rough bird form from a sanded or planed block of timber using a band or scroll saw - I have neither of those so I wanted to see if I could cut a rough form from a salvaged length of camphor laurel branch; and then finish the task with hand held knife and hand sanding.
The opening photo shows the rough form I have achieved to date - including having done a bit of hand sanding to remove rough edges. The photo below shows the form marked up for knife work.
Following are some progress-process photos going from cutting a block out of the camphor laurel branch through to rough cut form before a bit of hand sanding. The hand sawing process took quite a while; but it is good to know one can take a reasonably low tech approach to the task
Over the weekend I hope to do some hand whittling. This has been a big learning process for me.
We are edging closer to autumn; and yet nature continues to astound with its beauty.
This blog shares a few images from this morning's walk including the opening gem; an image of a torrential shower and one of a little visitor; and a few more of G's orchids which just seem to keep on giving.
This morning's walk....
The short sharp torrential shower; and little visitor after rain - looks a little bit bedraggled.
G's orchids.
May these wee fragments of beauty uplift us in these challenging times.
As the title says I used my time with Megan on Thursday to try a few ink paintings - see opening photo. I was testing out the notes I made when I did some experimentation way back when!!!
First stages are taping the area to protect from the ink and doing the base sketches and marking up with pencil and permanent pen - below.
A few process photos follow including testing resist solution for the moon. Also I relearnt that it is important to clean the surface of the yupo paper with alcohol to remove fingerprint oil. I also need to find a suitable tool to swipe the ink wash across the work without leaving so many marks; and without using so much ink. Both the wide brush and balsa wood fail on both counts.
A photo of the moon photo follows - after removing the resist I applied acrylic ink and then a drop of alcohol ink to ocular the moon.
The experiment of doing the rough acrylic painting was a fail - the ink over the painting virtually removed all the colour from the painting. I'm going to redo the painting with permanent ink pen and then do the over wash agin - will see how that works. Still I'm learning more as I go along.
Yes the above photo seems similar to one from a week ago; but I can assure you that many steps have been completed to take the rough products to this finished, polished shiny stage.
The objects have had the back of their bowl sections planished on metal stakes; all edges ground and leaves and bowls shaped; and the pieces given three polishing - two by wheel (one brass wire wheel) and one by hand. They are now ready for their swing tags and market.
Some process photos follow.
A couple of the finished pieces.
In all there are 18 objects - half most likely will go to Scotland and half to Maleny Additions.
