Fragments of beauty after the storm

 

Last night we had a crashing storm - lots of lightning and a little rain (23mm). I tried to take a couple of photos of the storm but the iPhone camera could not cope with the sudden transitions from dark to light - though the two photos below give a bit of an idea of that transition. The images look a bit like alcohol ink on yupo per paintings!!!

We woke to an overcast and soft morning which made for a gentle walk and some beautiful soft blossom images such as the opening image and the following images.

Soft beauty after storm and rain is always welcome. We are fortunate that we did not have any destruction.

Copper bracelets and leaves

 

I had a few metal tasks on the go in the workshop over the last few days. The two I finished were copper cuff bracelets I was asked to make; and finishing off a stash of patinated leaves made from offcuts of the blackened rim of the copper laundry boiler I was gifted.

The copper bracelets are twisted thick pure copper wire. I was asked to make two but made three to provide choice. The bracelets were to be 17.5cm around external edges and about 1cm wide. Three very shiny bracelets are in the opening photo.

Some process photos follow.

The bracelets were polished with a wire wheel as I did not want there to be any polish residue on them - they are to be worn for therapeutic purposes.

I had enough metal offcuts from the rim of the boiler to make 7 medium sized (16-17cm long) patinated leaves and 12 smaller (13cm long) leaves.  I did not remove the original patina or the dark fire stain on the underside of the rim. I like how some of the leaves have a beautiful dark sheen.

A few process and other images follow.

The leaves will go into the studio shop for the closing down sale next weekend (29-30 November, 10am-3pm, at DEP 10/74 Maple St Maleny). 

Getting there

 

I have been working on two window postcard sized watercolours and one door watercolour over a couple of watercolouring sessions. 

One of the windows is part of a emergency building - hence quite red - see above; and the second window is a small glass free aperture in a stone cottage ruin as you can see in the progress image below - looking from the inside out. The window area has a large grey timber lintel

Progress photo of the door water colour is below.

A few worktop images follow.

As the title of the blog says - I'm getting there with these. The final layering, colouring and detail can take time - not to be rushed.

Holding - flowers and sun sunshine

 

Yes there are a couple of themes in today's iPhoneography blog: first plants and bushes that are holding or cradling fallen flowers; and secondly blossoms that are holding the morning sunshine. The opening photo is an agapanthus that is yet to open holding a coral tree flower; and below a couple more bushes holding flowers.

On clear days morning sunlight on coming at a low acute angle often just seems like it is shining a spotlight on flowers. The following images are from walks this week. 

Eyes wide open on clear days can often offer such delights. The opening image combines the beauty of early sunlight and a held flower - double beauty.

Beautiful salvaged metal

 

Two different aspects of salvaged metal in this post: metal from salvaged trays -platters; and recycling precious metal.

First - turning the salvaged trays metal into beautiful bowls that eventually will hold sets of Fiona's rainbow daily words. I just love the lustre of the bowl in the opening photo - 13cm in diameter and 2.5cm deep. It was made from a very worn out vintage silver-plated copper platter. The silver in the centre of the platter had been totally polished-worn away. On the edge of the bowl you can see a faint rim of silver; and the back still has a good silver coat - see below.

Some process photos below - including the other 3 bowls on the go.

In my future art life I will no longer make jewellery from found objects etc. I am exploring the possibility of making a limited range of jewellery from silver plate. In preparation for that exploration today I did a high temperature (925 degrees) metal melt of many bits and pieces of silver including short lengths of chain, Fiona's silver wire and silver plate offcuts and other bits and pieces I had collected over the year. I pored the molten metal into a steel form to create sheets that are about 1.5mm thick. In all I ended up with 130gms of silver plate.

Below - silver in the graphite crucible in the furnace; the steel form; and the sheets of silver.

New beginnings for and from salvaged metal.

Garden bench seat

 

As you can see I finished the garden bench seat today. The seat is to sit along the pathway beside the communal orchard that is under development.

The main feature of the bench is a salvaged slab of eucalyptus. As you can see from the photo below I had to put in a plate under the slab to stop it splitting any further and trim the split and splintering end off.

The slab had been milled a bit roughly so I needed to spend quite some time sanding down ridges etc. But in the end it was worth it as the sanding and a coat of timber oil really highlighted the grain as can be seen in the opening and closing photos.

The legs and cross beam were made from salvaged cyprus pine timber and all looked a bit rough and a number of cut ends were on show. In the end I decided to paint the legs and cross beam to protect and integrate them better.

The bench is now ready for installation - maybe on Sunday weather permitting.