Full and fruitful Friday

I don't know why I should think that Fridays are not going to be full but I seem to have an image in my mind that I'm going to cruise through the day with a gentle intersperse of art. But they are always busy and in the main always joy filled. Today has been a full and joy-filled day.

Got a walk in before coffee; put up signs for printmakers exhibition and dropped in to say hi to Julie and Sonja who were opening up today; spent several hours cutting up metal making an anvil and lots of copper for Japan; starting my coffee mugs for the Coffee Essence exhibition; progressing the timber top for the book wall; and cutting weeds.

©2013 Barry Smith - Scale encrusted copper pieces before annealing

Fiona and I are going to Tatebayashi, Japan in late May as part of a sister city art-culture exchange. One of my activities will be to demonstrate metal work at a city festival for a half a day. I needed a portable anvil - so I cut one out of a thick piece of steel I had in the rust bank.

©2013Barry Smith - Portable anvil with rubber feet

©2013Barry Smith - Portable anvil with rubber feet

As you can see from the photo above - after grinding and sanding it looks ok - still has a lived in used look about it; and after a leaf making trial it also works ok. The portable anvil is about 15cm long, 9cm wide and 1.2cm thick. Some one suggested to me recently that if you add a couple of earth magnets to a small anvil it takes the ring out of it - I tried this and it works - you can see three 20mm earth magnets stacked on the anvil.

And of course one needs copper to demonstrate with - so I cut the edge off a shower recess and used a mini guillotine to cut 60-65 pieces of copper about 8cm long by 3.5cm wide.

©2013 Barry Smith - Sixty pieces of leaf forming recycled copper

©2013 Barry Smith - Sixty pieces of leaf forming recycled copper - annealed and pickled

The first photo shows how much scale was on the pieces before I annealed, pickled and washed them. So the anvil and metal is ready for the festival - lots of demonstrating and leaf forms to give away.

Now it is off to wrap Fiona's birthday present; and of course enjoy a Friday wine or two.

Flowers on Friday

A brief post on Friday flowers on behalf of Barry!

He's having a short stay in hospital and so no real art got done. He received these flowers today, so we figured we could blog on Friday flowers - they are beautiful, artistic and allow for the almost compulsory Friday alliteration. But without the usual bubbles to follow!

He plans to resume normal transmission soon, stay tuned.

Time flies on Friday

Fiona and I started the day thinking that we did not have many commitments in our diary; and therefore most of the day would be dedicated to art - it was not to be. The morning was given over to doing paperwork for a community organisation; and then after lunch it all went a little pear shaped as they say in the classics.

In the afternoon I planned to plant some winter veggie seedlings, cover the new bunch of bananas in their protective 'sock' and then get into art - after all it is Friday. Well I got the first two done and then we got a call from Fiona's folks that there were some good books and metal to be had 'for a price' at their local church where they were sorting for a 'garage sale' tomorrow. Some hours later we returned home with some book and metal booty after helping to sort, box and label books for the book sale part of the 'garage sale'.

But I did manage to take a few shots of some bits and pieces we had 'installed' on the block as interesting things to discover as one walks around. These included the rusted peace symbol SooZeQue had generously cut and sent to me; the cutting section of a post hole augur that had gone past its useful date; and a small assemblage I put together out of stuff as I was cleaning up yesterday.

©2012 Barry Smith - SooZeQue's Rusted peace symbol on a blue stone rock wall

©2012 Barry Smith - SooZeQue's Rusted peace symbol on a blue stone rock wall

©2012 Barry Smith - Whirligig assemblage 

©2012 Barry Smith - Top of whirligig assemblage 

©2012 Barry Smith - Post hole augur crown atop old power pole

But I must admit I did get a little time to do the rough cutting, drilling, riveting and assembling of a clock I have had in my mind for a little while.

©2012 Barry Smith - Folded rusted metal clock

©2012 Barry Smith - Folded rusted metal clock

As you can see it is pretty rough and I did learn a few lessons on the speedy way through - buying a better mechanism for a start. Does it work? I don't know. I will install a battery and check that out tomorrow. Now it is time to head off for a glass of red and a little dinner.

Fungi, flowers friends and info on Friday

The day has been full and fruitful. The morning was clear and crisp and even though we are heading closer to winter the flowers and fungi seem confused. The Strelitzia below was one of a bursting clump.

©2012 Barry Smith - Strelitza

And the tiny (25mm) fragile almost see-through fungi populated a side lawn.

©2012 Barry Smith - Tiny fragile fungi

©2012 Barry Smith - Almost like crystal

And the fungi below had found a nice home on small logs under a tree.

©2012 Barry Smith - Fungi bowls

I attended a 4 hour information session on public art and grants available for different categories of public art - this is of great interest to us at our neighbourhood centre and to our art4place group.

We got our power pole replaced on our block today as the old one was in danger of crashing down - so there was clean up after the tradespeople to do; cut the old pole up - some beautiful fungi on that; and collect the lemons from the have of the lemon tree they had demolished in the process of installing the new pole.

But then I got a bit of time to create a pair of earrings for the grandchild of one of our elderly neighbours - but more on that on a later day. We are now off to have a red wine and a pumpkin and blue cheese risotto and maybe watch the rugby union football -  not a bad way to end the day.

Friday- fellow artists and finishing bowls

Art on Friday is one of the mantras in our household - though art comes in all forms. Today I met with a 'wood artisan' who contacted me and said he had a gift of rusted tools that had come from a friend who died recently. I spent sometime admiring his creativity and workshop - ended up with a severe case of equipment envy. I travelled to Montville with Noela and Fiona to deliver Fiona's metal books and dream boats and Bazola (Noela and I) pieces to Mark at Main Street Gallery. And after mowing the front of our block I did finish a couple of meditation bowls and a foldformed leaf. So a varied art Friday.




The bowl above is made from new copper and has a focus on the present - so the wording is Now, Be, Centred, Here. It can be read from any point and makes sense - live in the present.

The second bowl looks weary and worn as it is made from copper recycled from a laundry boiler. However is invites one to Live, Laugh and have Light in whatever moment we find ourselves - even when weary and worn.

The leaf is made from a silver plated tray. Something beautiful from something so utilitarian. I think it will be a gift for a friend.

Friday Creativius Interruptus

It has been a wet, windy and somewhat miserable day on the mountain. The morning was given over to admin and community art related work. Fiona and I did manage to get down to the studios (me = garage) this afternoon.




The photo above indicates that I was reasonably productive - but all the pieces are in unpolished form; and why is that I hear you ask. Well a friend dropped in and needed to drink bubbles - well what can you do for a friend in need of bubbles - the polishing has been put aside for another day. However one thing I would like to point out is that I attempted a three fold bowl today (bottom middle); and I think it has turned out OK - the final results will be on another post.

Butterflies and Metal Bowls

Friday was Friday 13th wasn't it? But all was not lost on the mountain: as you may be aware there was selecting the person who was to receive the Hiroshima Peace Bowl (Cathy); I managed to do more work on the Bigish Butterfly for the ephemeral art for the Festival of the Walks; and did a bit of foldforming.

I experimented with a long foldform where I beat the metal on two different edges and therefore had the form curving in two directions with different characters - one a frilly edged leaf and the other a smooths curving leaf. I didn't like the final outcome - it looks like a deformed snake - but one needs to test these things.

I also did a couple of small bowls using metal I cut out of what I thought was an old brass plate fruit bowl. In the end I don't know what the metal is - looked like brass but I think it was steel. It was very hard to 'unfold' the bowls and beat them into the bowl shape; but I do like the dark burnt patina on the back and the inside polished up well.

The butterfly is now ready for action at Mary Cairncross. It has had several coats of flat white paint and has been marked up so that the public can glue coloured paper swatches similar to those in the detail photo.