Orchids and other blossoms

This blog post simply shares the beauty of G's orchids and other blossoms experienced during the week.

Starting with the orchids - opening photo and following.

Some of the other bits of beauty I have been uplifted by during the week

I think in these times of horror, brutality, savagery and destruction  perpetrated by so called leaders of some so called developed and sophisticated countries we need nature to offer us solace through its simple beauty. May the beauty of nature and universal peace prevail.

Progressing watercolours and thankfulness

 

Even though Fiona and I were preparing for the studio garage sale I still managed to attend my watercolour group morning with Megan. 

As you can see from the photo above and below I progressed the old barn and the abandoned house in Lednagullin.

I have also made a start on a couple of versions of a restored mill wheel in Sworldly.

On Saturday Fiona and I had a successful studio garage sale thanks to the support of many of our artist friends. It was grand to see and chat with many art friends. A big thanks to all who bought stuff - may it all contribute more creative pieces.

Set up for art studio garage sale

 

Tomorrow (Saturday 26 July) Fiona and I are having an art studio garage sale at Deckled Edge Press 10/74 Maple street Maleny from 10am to 4pm - yep one day only.

We are selling a heap of art materials and small art tools. The sale includes lots of really good quality paper, bone folders, awls, book fabric, inks, frames, display stands, tea towels for screen printing, art books and more. 

The opening photo and the following photos show that it is all set up for easy appraisal and everything is priced to go.

So drop in early Saturday morning and grab a bargain or three. Looking forward to seeing some of our tribe and some new folk as well. Apologies, but we are not in a position to provide detailed information or imagery about individual items.

Random fragments of beauty from the phone

 

A bit of a miss-mash of images today - some from this morning's walk but others taken over the last couple of weeks including the one of the moon and barbed wire above.

The rest of the images cascade below in the order they were transferred from the iPhone to the iMac.

At times is is good to look back at fragments of beauty that have caught the eye and lifted the spirits.

Working with metal instead

 

I had planned to do some comfort bird carving-whittling with a visiting friend; but time constraints meant that we did a hour or so of working with melted recycled pewter see below. 

The work included pouring some hearts and stars (see opening photo); but also pouring cottages and peace button in moulding sand - see process-progress photos below. I love the photos of the forms being pressed into the sand; and metal pouring or about to pour. The pewter was heated to 550 degrees.

A photo of the final stash of hearts and starts follows.

Cottages and peace buttons with the sand brushed off with a brass bristle brush.

We were amazed that we got so much done in quite a short period - though I did a bit of preparation by getting the furnace heated and the first crucible of metal melted. 

Workshop experience with a friend

 

Over the last couple of days I have cut and roughed out some bird forms in preparation for a couple of hours in the workshop with a friend. To give us choice I have roughed out 3 wee bird forms as you can see in the photo above.

Some process photos follow including cutting a blank out of a camphor laurel log.

More photos of progressing the forms follow.

I hope to post on where we get to if we manage to make time in the workshop.