Rustnstuff

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Peace, giving and the beauty of blogging communities

The weekend has been full on for Fiona and I - sharing our studios, our place and our art with fellow artists, friends, followers and the inquisitive public. The weekend has been another affirmation of the life change we chose; and the importance of art in it.

But what I wanted to share is the wonder of the giving, sharing, inspiration and peace that emanates from the small communities that we can be part of through art blogging.

During the week a parcel arrived from Luthien of Altered Alchemy. There were many special dimensions to the gift that the parcel held. It was made from a bringing together of the metal I had shared and pieces that Luthien had collected and created; it was such a recognisable piece of Altered Alchemy art; it was, as is all of Luthien's work, full of meaning and reflections; it was in part a response to a post I did many moons ago; and it was about peace - arriving in time for International Day of Peace.

Lurthien had sent me her peace piece In Honour Of - what an amazing thing to do - to gift something that was so full of thought and meaning. Check out the above link to see what I mean about creativity and meaning. Luthien - thank you so much.

The photos taken with the iPhone are not the greatest but I think you will get the picture.

In Honour Of sits proudly in a niche in the entry area to our house. These niches are dedicated to the works of creative women - Robyn, Kim, Mieke, Shannon, Mel, and Luthien - I think Fiona has quietly created it that way.

There are so many aspects of the artist blogging communities that fill me with energy, strength and inspiration. This week Luthien's gift and Mary-Jane's flags for peace project are up there in lights.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Ready or not - for Open Studios

Tonight I was going to post on a beautiful surprise peace gift I received from one of our gifted fellow artists in our blog community; but the day (and indeed most of this week) has been given over to finalising the products and getting our studio-gallery (601 mvr) sorted for the first weekend of the Sunshine Coast Open Studios 2012 that starts tomorrow. So I'll post on the preparations today; and then post on that special gift on Sunday.

Fiona and I are better prepared this year in that we have a wider range of pieces that showcase the diversity of what we do; and we have enough stock to deal with any demand on the first couple of days. My work ranges from small hand formed jewellery pieces to the larger outdoor sculptural pieces. But I will let the photos give an insight into my work and presentation in 601 mvr. I would say most if not all the works on display are created from recycled materials - apart from jewellery findings.

Both Fiona and I are tired but we are feeling we have put in a good effort to share our studio space and our art forms with the public. We will see what tomorrow brings. Now off for a little sav. blanc and dinner.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Rings for Saturday

The first day of our Open Studios is on Saturday - no pressure but we do need too have a reasonable amount of stock across a few of our art lines.

I gave myself the goal of having about 6-10 rings available for the opening day. So I started a production line. Cut and anneal recycled lengths of brass tubing from old spirit stoves; and with two more annealings I beat them so that the tubing is curved outwards and them over on itself. I ended up with a handful of pretty ugly metal.

As I have mentioned in posts before - one of the risks of using recycled metal is that whilst it looks very similar it can be very different. I cut and annealed 15 lengths of tube from 4 different spirit stoves. I managed to get 10 useful forms as one of the stoves must have had poor quality brass which had a tendency to split when beaten

Quite a bit of grinding and polishing turned that into a handful of shiny bits.

And then the hard part - inserting strips of anodised aluminium without totally trashing it as I did the final fold and beating to get the brass to hold the aluminium in place. As you can see from the photo below I had moderate success - the aluminium did get a little trashed. I did finished one ring with no insert - I actually like this plain ring.

Maybe the solution is to stick with the wire I used in a couple of earlier tube rings; or put in strips of copper and silver At least with the copper and silver I can buff the scratches out. Oh well - we learn as we repeat the production.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

An art and community weekend

The weekend got off to a busy start with Fiona and I helping set up the stall for the Neighbourhood Centre for the Real Food Festival on Friday. Of course we got our Friday art in.

Saturday was divided between: putting together the signs for art4place's Creative Spaces 2012 activities; celebrating Fiona's mum's birthday and her dad's father's day; attending the Real Food Festival to give support to the Neighbourhood Centre's stall volunteers; checking out Shannon's Handmade Table; doing a quick whip around the RFF; and making more 'leaf spoons' - yes some sold!!

Today (Sunday) the art4place signage was finished as you can see from the photos below. Each of our six artists will be provided with an A2 sign that promotes their activity; an A2 sign that tells the story of their placemaking art; and a couple of art4place flags to attract the eye of the public.

This afternoon both Fiona and I just got into more production for our Open Studios. I spent the afternoon cutting metal for: medium leaves; daily words; words in your pocket; daily word bowls; and small earring leaves. We did have an interruption when a couple from Sydney visited thinking the Open Studios had already started - we couldn't turn them away so we showed them the studio and explained what we did. Fiona sold letter pebbles.

Each afternoon over the coming week Fiona and I will continue to make for the Open Studios.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Open Studios preparation

Yesterday and today Fiona and I sneaked in a bit of creative time which we have been applying to making product for sale at our Open Studios in a couple of weeks time.

Ladles and spoons have gone to the Real Food Festival for Shannon's Handmade Stall. But I found I liked making the small delicate 'sacred ladles' - ladles that can be used in the kitchen but also for sacred water and cleansing in a 'temple' maybe. So I got into making another batch over the last couple of days. It was a real production line - beat bowls; make handles; and sand and polish both bowls and handles. The components are ready for assembling in the photo below.

Then it is on to the riveting - drilling holes; setting rivets; and doming rivets. I have made myself a very practical little setting tool that fits 1.5mm rivets made from copper nails from Japan - makes riveting a fairly quick process.

The photos below show the almost finished five - still need final polish. If you look closely and at the opening photo I have used some square brass I bought in NYC for a couple of the handles. You can also see I have gone very small with one 'ladle' - not much bigger than my thumb.

Of course not everything works out. In the photo below you can see the silver-plate on the base of the stem of a goblet I beat into a bowl for a ladle has separated from the coper - poor electroplating or too much heat in the annealing process. This is the risk of using recycled metal - but a small challenge.

And talk of too much heat the photo below is of an earring leaf form that got hidden under a stack of leaves I was annealing and it totally burnt and bonded - quite interesting colour though.

So I finish Friday satisfied with both production and creativity - now for a glass of bubbles.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Leaves and goods ready for market

I'm attending a class reunion tonight. I don't usually do that - this is my second one ever; but it is 40 years since my group graduated so it was thought that we should get together before we fall off the perch so to speak. Anyway there will be about 20 of us there plus any brave wives or partners. Fiona is brave - she is attending.

I thought by way of marking the event I would make 'leaves' to give to folk. So I made 23 brass leaves (each about 7.5cm long) as a memento. So the photo below shows what 23 medium leaves looks like as a group. The leaves are made from reclaimed metal from the sides of brass jardinieres.

Yesterday Shannon G, a fellow artist, came over to collect Fiona and my bits for her stall (Handmade Table) at the Real Food Festival. The photo below is my stash - doesn't look a lot really but it did take time to create.

Thought the photo below might bring a smile to the faces of folk who think the 'leaf spoons' look tadpole-like - it looks like a shoal.

And you can see what a great job Fiona did on the packaging and labelling of the bits.

I guess we will see how the public reacts to Shannon's Table and our wares.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

A little time for some little products

This weekend has, in the main, been taken up with hosting and then tidying up after Beck & Ben's wedding. The wedding went well - apart from the fact we had a cold snap and a breeze - so it was a tad bracing on the deck.

This afternoon Fiona and I spent a couple of hours doing a bit of creative stuff. I am working to finish off my planned 'quota' of various functional products for the Real Food Festival on 8-9 September. This afternoon it was salt and pepper spoon sets.

As you can see from the photos below I got 4 sets of simple Jensen influenced spoons to rough pre-polish stage.

A closer inspection will show that with a couple of the sets I have left the bowl end square; and on the back I have beaten these with the sharper end of a small riveting hammer to give a textured finish. All of the ENPNS spoons still have their scratches and even sticky price tag marks on them.

I managed to roughly beat another set of small copper spoons made from thick copper wire.

After polishing the spoons above I will have completed all the salt-pepper spoons and will only have another 3 leaf spoons to do.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Block 'creations' on Friday

Fiona and I are to host a wedding on our decks tomorrow - so we have felt we needed to finish a few bits of landscaping and tidy a few things on the 'block'; as well as doing the general clean.

One thing I've wanted to do for sometime is to finish the terrace below the Peace Bell. It is finally done: the retaining wall has been finished and painted; the gravel has been hauled and raked; and a few pieces of timber have been added to creates steps and points of interest; and the large rusted fire-pit Fiona and I bought a long time ago has finally been installed. I think it has a bit a a zen sparseness to it. Pity about the big water tanks in the background - I guess the Camellias will eventually hide them.

The photos were rushed and don't really do the terrace justice.

As part of the general tidy up I couldn't resist adding a few more bits of rust to be discovered.

It has been a long and physically taxing Friday but satisfying both from a creativity and giving perspective.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Emerging from stone

After two days of tapping, scraping, sanding etc the local artists produced monoliths that will become the installation Peace in the Trees as part of the art4place's Creative Spaces 2012 placemaking art event.

Noela M visited the sculpture workshop site yesterday, took some photos and did an art4place post (check it out here) so I won't repeat that.

We are all tired from our efforts but satisfied with the images we encouraged from the stone. So I thought I might just share a few of the fragments as they emerged; and when I'm less weary post on the finished pieces - and of course the pieces once they are installed with the trees.