Finessing and finishing

 Between periods of bad weather I managed to get out into the Wee Workshop, aka garden shed, to grind and sand four of my cupped stones. One was given away a couple of days ago; and the rest will head back to our Maleny home. 

Whilst I have cupped mainly roundish stones I wanted to have a go at a square piece of stone I have had in the yard for a few years. I love the layers in the stone. As you can see from the opening and following photo the cupping process has highlighted the beauty of the layers.

The four finished stones.

The three that will head home with us.

And the one that was gifted - oiled with vegetable oil so that it brought out the dark colour and can be used for salt etc once the surplus oil has been polished off.

Stone work has now been finished for this trip.

Cupping stones - bowls for salt or special objects

 

Over the last couple of days I have been 'cupping' some stones collected from the cove stone beach on past trips. Cupping simple refers to carving shallow cup or bowl shaped indents-depressions in stone. In the late neolithic and early bronze age people carved cup and ring decoration into some standing and reclining stones. There is no clear story as to why this was done or how they were used.

As you can see from the opening photo I thought such cups in smaller sea tumbled stones could be used to hold salt; or they could hold special personal or sacred items such as rings or gem stones.

I used a diamond grinding disk in my side grinder to carve the stones. Bit of a tricky task as the grinder vibrates quite a lot, the side grinder is quite heavy with the battery attached and the work is very much hands on - not for the faint hearted. Needless to say I was gloved, masked and goggled up!!!! A few progress-process photos follow.

A few photos of finished cupped stones.

A few of the stones were given a coat of vegetable oil to bring out the colour.

Final photo is another of the striped stone that will probably make it's way home with us.

Wee stones for the hand

 

I have grabbed another couple of moments to go to the Wee Workshop to make a stash of quite small stones with metal. The opening photo shows one of the finished stones in Fiona's hand. The photo below shows me holding the smallest stone - about 2.5cm - on a leather pad in preparation for a one pass cut with the diamond blade.

A few more process-progress photos follow. The first one shows a stash of stones on the bench beside the side grinder and green diamond blade.

The final photo shows two completed stones in the palm of Fiona's hand.

Metal and stone

 

There hasn't been much time for making over the last couple of weeks. I have grabbed an hour here and there. Today I grabbed a couple of hours to finish off some small stones with inlaid metal; and sawed a pair of earrings.

Four completed stones can be seen in the first and last photos in this blog post. I say they are small stones because the longest is about 4cm. They are comfort or memory stones to be carried in one's pocket or bag. They fit comfortably in one's hand and quickly take on the warmth of the person holding them. A couple of the stones were requested by a friend in Australia; and I hope to make enough for sale at our Pop Up Art Show in the Little Red Cottage in Maleny at the end of November.

Some process photos follow. The grooves in the stones are freehand cut with a diamond blade in my side grinder - a task done carefully and quickly - one quick and light pass of the rotating blade.

A few photos of the pierced jewellery process and rough cut pieces follow. I intend to take the rough cut pieces back to Maleny and finish them before the Pop Up Art Show. The earrings and pendants are being made from salvaged metal - a mix of brass and silver.

As I said at the beginning a final photo of the four stones - arranged by Fiona on a drink coaster!!!

Stones for market and other matters

 

Fiona and I have a table at the Watten Craft Market tomorrow ( Saturday 31 May). 

We have a good range of pieces including Fiona's pebble inspired earrings, cards, art pieces, some of my wee watercolours, metal books, leaf spoons and stones with inlaid silver and brass wire.

I decided to make some more stones for holding in the hand. The opening photo shows some of the stones I have made. Below are a couple of photos of the making process.

On Wednesday our creative energy went into replacing the 'felting' on the roof of our workshop aka garden shed.

Fiona was a bit taken with the neat arrangement for the garden tools - her photo is quite artistic. Having a place for everything in the workshop-shed means we can use it comfortably for both purposes.

We hope to see heaps of folk at the Market to yarn to about our art; but of course sell a bit of our work.