Capturing memories

I intended to finish the garden assemblages over the weekend and blog on them today. In fact I did most of the design and preparation work for four pieces but did not finish them. I needed to do quite a bit of grinding to know back some of the flakey rust and take off sharp edges - I did not want to disturb the neighbourhood on Sunday - they will be finished during the week.

©2016 Barry Smith - Piano hammer and copper bound steel string

A quieter task was to make a 3D artwork out of some of the pieces I salvaged many months ago when I dismantled Steph's piano. The piece is for her son - a piece to capture the memories of the days when he and his mates had their band.

I was quite drawn to the keys and wires. I wanted to mount the bits on a piece of timber panelling from the piano case; and I wanted the piece to be uncluttered.

©2016 Barry Smith - Hammers used to attach the wooden extension of keys to the backboard

©2016 Barry Smith - Some of the piano stash to select from

I masked off the raised section of the back of the panel and painted it white to provide a 'canvas' for the assemblage. The photo below shows a bit of a design test run.

©2016 Barry Smith - Test the design

The final piece came together well - I have used quite a few elements of the piano including: timber paneling; black and white keys (with annotations for the music students on the white); felted timber brackets; a large screw; timber hammers off the keys; and a section of copper bound steel strings.

©2016 Barry Smith - Finished piece  with oiled edges - horizontal

©2016 Barry Smith - Finished piece  - vertical

And as you can see from the photos about it could be hung vertically or horizontally. The reverse side of the panel still has the original dark stain on the timber.

©2016 Barry Smith - Felted wooden bracket and large screw - love the bit of tatty red felt

Piano sculture and melting process

On Friday I helped friends transport and install Steph's recycled piano frame as a sculpture in their landscape - looks good with the pond and trees as a backdrop.

I'm having problems with blogger; so I will just let the melting process images do their own talking - if I can get them to come across - already failed a few times.

Over the weekend I made quite a bit of headway on a larger Artisan Lamp for an artist friend; and did a couple of metal maquettes for a possible future commission. Always something to keep me busy on the mountain.

Once was a piano

©2015 Barry Smith - Strings and leaves

An artist friend asked me to dismantle and remove an old worn out piano - it could no longer be used (including badly rusted and broken strings), could not be refurbished and would cost too much to have it transported to the dump. And of course there were too many memories associated with the piano and too much good material that could be recycled for it just to be dumped.

So yesterday afternoon after 3 hours of unscrewing and gently removing components the main part of the job was done and the whole piano was loaded onto a trailer to be delivered to our place today. Below is a photo of the dismantled piano unloaded near the shed-studio this morning.

©2015 Barry Smith - Dismantle piano - looking pretty good.

Today I spent another couple of hours finishing the dismantling job - removing all the screws and nails and stacking the bits into categories. I think there are plenty of pieces I will be able to share with fellow artists. So that is my art for this Friday.

©2015 Barry Smith - One of the boxes of keys

©2015 Barry Smith - Detail of key end

©2015 Barry Smith - Detail of hammer connections and springs

©2015 Barry Smith - Detail of pins and felts for keys

©2015 Barry Smith - Pedals and return springs

©2015 Barry Smith - Some of the many rusted screws

©2015 Barry Smith - Odd small bits of timber

©2015 Barry Smith - Neatly stacked large planks of timber and long brass hinges 

©2015 Barry Smith - Heavy duty wheels and bolts etc

All that is left now are: the board with pins for the keys: the bar of felt hammers: and the heavy wooden back frame with the cast iron body and strings.

©2015 Barry Smith - Looking tidier - almost three sculptures in their own right

The back frame and body with strings is a sculpture in its own right - might be set up on the block but could also be set up on someone else's block or yard - we will see. It can still be played like a slightly out of tune harp.

©2015 Barry Smith - Beautiful

©2015 Barry Smith - Detail of plain steel strings

©2015 Barry Smith - Detail of copper sheathed strings - base

I was asked to use a mix of components from the piano to created a wall art piece to honour the memory of the piano and the joy it gave to the family - the learning and the playing of music.

©2015 Barry Smith - Love how quite a lot of the keys still had different systems in place for the children to learn to play - will be preserved.