Pieces for peace

 

International Day of Peace (IDP) is to be held on Sunday 21 September. 

To recognise this day of peace and to encourage folk to send positive peace vibes on the day I made a stash of metal (pewter) peace tokens to give away. The opening photo and the one below show some of the cleaned and polished peace tokens.

The melted salvaged pewter metal peace tokens was poured into forms that had been pressed into metal moulding sand - the pinkish sand in my case.  The finished pieces are a bit rough as my moulding sand has been reused quite a number of times and is becoming too dry. I melted the pewter to 750 degrees so that there would be plenty of times for me to pour metal into each depression in the sand.

During the week Fiona and I gave the pieces away in preparation for Sunday. There are so many wars going on in the world at the moment. May we all pause for a moment on Sunday and just send strong positive vibes to encourage the perpetrators of war to cease and to choose a peaceful path. 

 

Blossom beauty

 

The opening photo and the one below show some lavender I gathered from the garden to welcome Fiona home from her NZ conference. 

The rest of the blossom beauties are from my neighbourhood walk. Though the weather has been dry and the there is a lot of untidy dry leaf litter around the bushes and plants are responding to spring and the warmer weather.

I give heaps of thanks for the fact I live in a location where nature is still able to offer such beauty. As I say most weeks on this iPhoneography Wednesday blog - beauty reminds me to continue to celebrate the small things and have hope.

Vintage type

 

I have been thinking about making limited edition publications using a vintage manual typewriter rather than setting up letterpress type. I'm thinking about typing on tea-bag paper - not a new idea I know but it is new for me. I want to be able to use my own words and achieve an outcome similar to the type in the image above and below. Of course I'm will need to focus on typing accurately!!!!

I brought a vintage manual; typewriter online. It arrived on time and it was well packed -  but as part of the postal procedure the carriage of the machine had been locked. Apparently this is the usual procedure when transporting older portable typewriters. The challenge for me was that there was no manual; and I knew nothing about carriage locks.

As you can see from the photos below I took the case off the machine after checking out online how one might free up a vintage typewriter - just not mine. I did manage to find and operate the carriage lock button; but still the carriage would not move.

I was just about to give up when Fiona and I had another look together and that is when I noticed that a small pin that would move the carriage on letter at a time had jumped out of its bracket - see below.

Once the pin was back in place we tested the movement - hey presto it worked. I put the machine back together and then we tried typing - a few of our efforts follow.

I'm happy that I can now test out this slightly dodgy old machine actually typing a small edition of a prose poem of mine based on fallen autumn leaves cascading over the local weir wall.

Watercolour fun after finishing commissions

 

On Thursday I started doing watercolours of a couple cheeky birds as you can see from the opening photo. Whilst I made a good start there is still a way to go.

Some progress-process photos follow.

Below are photos of the finished four commission pieces where I tested and photographed them in a frame.

I'm happy with the finished four; and very happy how the wee bird pieces are developing.

Joyous bits including blood moon and visiting python friend

 

The title says it all - no unifying theme in this blog post apart from sharing a small fragment of the diverse beauty that nature offered during the past week including the beauty Fiona brought inside - opening photo.

A couple images of the blood moon at its fullest and as the eclipse waned towards dawn

A beautiful gentle python visited us for a few days.

I loved the new spring growth agains a blue sky; and the play of the fallen leaves in the water flowing over the local weir.

A few more blossoms - the first two are classified as weeds.

And a bird against a soft cloudy sky this morning.

It is as though we can breath in the fragments of beauty nature offers.

Repurposing a bracelet

 

I was given a bracelet that was made from Mexican silver. I had been acquired many years ago; had some memories attached to it; but was not being used; and was also broken in some parts.

After a quick on the spot assessment I indicated to the giftee that I would deconstruct the bracelet and use parts to make earrings and maybe a pendant. I indicated that I would gift a pair or two of the earrings back to the giftee if she wanted to pass the history and memory of the bracelet on.

The opening photo and the two following photos show the 'dismantling' process.

I set aside pieces that would come together as pairs or earrings and a pendant - again in the opening photo. Sharp edges of pieces were filed off and the pieces given a polish. Photos of the assembled pendant and earring appear below.

The earrings and pendant will be for sale. The bracelet has been repurposed and given a new life.