A tiny tinkling temple gong

On Friday I made a mini temple gong that I thought would be part of my next COMA exhibition piece. However, Fiona and I decided that the gong I made did not allow for enough 'breathing' space around it if I set it into the back of the canvas - size prescribe by our fearless leader Ken Munsie.

So two possible options included mounting the mini temple gong on the front of the canvas; or making a small gong to fit the space in the back.  I decided I liked the first gong enough to want to keep it in our lives for a bit longer and therefore make a second one for the COMA exhibition.

Barry Smith © Tiny temple gong - Sunburst

As you can see from the photo above I have made a tiny gong (about 120-150mm in diameter) - I call this one "sunburst" - for the obvious reason.  Below are a couple of before and after (polishing) shots. The eyes tend to play tricks on me when I look at the back and front views in the rough - but I assure you that it is true.

Barry Smith © TT gong in the rough - back

Barry Smith © TT gong in the rough - front

Barry Smith © Polished - Sunburst

This tiny gong does not have the deep bass resonance of the earlier one; but still has a sweet tone when struck with a soft 'gonger'.

Music on Friday - mini temple gong

We have a new COMA art challenge from Coordinator Ken M - an exhibition titled 'making music' - to be interpreted in our own unique way as long as it fits on a 12X12inch canvass.

Barry Smith © Detail of centre of brass gong.

So you can see from the photo above (with me in the reflection) and below I spent my afternoon creating a mini temple gong from a flat piece of brass. I had to resort to new brass again as I did not have a recycled piece big enough for this work.

Barry Smith © 2500mm circle of .6mm brass

Barry Smith © Centre roughly beaten

Barry Smith © Gong from the back before polishing 

Barry Smith © Polished mini temple gong

Barry Smith © Polished mini temple gong

Barry Smith © Polished mini temple gong - rainbow patina

The gong is about 200mm in diameter. I had to anneal it about 10 times in the sequence of beating to get the shape and tone. The repeated annealing resulted in some nice rainbow patina. The final planishing beating on the centre hardened it and gave it the shine. But does it gong? Well we had to do the sound test. Fiona did a mini video with the iPhone.

I think it has turned out pretty well.