Rustnstuff

Friday, June 17, 2016

Women of metal

From the title of the blog post one might think this is about women and gender equality etc. Well a couple of weeks ago Fiona and I attended a Communities in Control conference in Melbourne - you can check out the excellent lineup of speakers etc here. One of the groups promoting their role was Emily's List. As part of their promotional material they had Rosie the Riveter socks - which were duly purchased. Rosie the Riveter says women can do it. But this blog is not directly about Rosie or gender equality - but it is about women doing metal stuff.

On Thursday I had 8 women in my garage-studio working with metal. A friend, Annie B, asked if I world do a workshop with a group she is in - I said yes; and cleaned the studio and prepared for a day of: metal and resin, making metal bowls and forming metal leaves.

The results of the metal and resin work.

Some hammering going on.

Bowls and leaves on the bench for a final polish.

It was a grand day and much fun was had.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Sculpture unveiled

Yesterday the sculpture celebrating Unity Water's UN environment award 2015 for an environment water cleaning and wetlands regeneration project was unveiled. It was a wet drizzly day; but what better day to celebrate nature and water; and of course there was a planting of over 400 trees to further confirm the commitment to the environment.

The sculpture was commissioned by Unity Water and the project was coordinated by the environment group Greenhills Fund. The sculpture is made up of two pieces : a 1.7m and 300mm square timber monolith with etched aluminium panels that symbolise water and plants; and a seat with an etched panel that reflects the role of people-community (most volunteers) in carrying out the environmental project

Before the work was unveiled it looked a little like a funeral was to take place; or a magician act.

And then the magic....

Though the sculpture currently sits on a grassed area eventually it will be surrounded by a backdrop of trees that were planted on the day.

Great to see the work in place and able to give recognition to those who won the award; and give a bit of joy and rest to those who walk the Maleny Trail. The sculpture is located about 600-700 m from the RiversideCentre end of the Maleny Walking Trail

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Slim and elegant - Artisan Lamps that is

I found time over the weekend to finish three Artisan Lamps - one to match an earlier lamp I had made out of a solid fuel soldering iron; and two slim lamps.

The slim lamps were made from sections of two weed spray hand pumps; two round brass objects that I have no clue as to former use; vintage brass light fittings; and some of the leftover hairy oak timber.

There was a lot of drilling and cutting involved

But the magic of assembling happened. after the sanding and polishing.

And a pair of slim elegant Artisan Lamps emerged - about 600-700mm high (including globe) on a 110mm square base .

And a couple of photos of the finished soldering iron lamp.

A good outcome for the weekend.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Big Artisan Lamps completed

I got a good couple of blocks of time today to complete the two big Artisan Lamps I have been making out of vintage car lights and fence palings etc etc.

I always find it intriguing when I start to being the different elements together - like the palings and brass mounting plate

And then the circles cut from the gas cylinder that acts as a spreader and stabilises the tripod.

But it all does come together and I end up with twin lamps - not identical twins but similar in many ways - including slight difference in width of the circle cut out of the cylinder - I had cut them for two different purposes and they have sat in the metal pile for about 18months - now is their time. It was hard to photograph these lamps because of their height.I will do a better

I have tried two different inserts for the lamps - one with just the naked globe and another approach using a piece from a milk separator as an internal reflector. I will sit with that for a while.

It is good to have these completed except for another light hand sanding and another coat of oil.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Random snippets

When I started to upload some photos for this Wednesday's blog post I realised that there was no theme to what had caught my eye over the last week. So this blog post really is about just a few random snippets of colour, light and nature over the last week.

So I will just splurge a few of them on the page and hopefully give a little meaning through the captions.

Just goes to show there is just so much around us that can catch the eye and bring us joy.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Lamp progress

This weekend included hosting some of Fiona's dad's mediators; and catching up with a good friend - so not a lot of time for creative pursuits. I did put in a few hours progressing the two big lamps including:

Sanding and polishing the vintage car head light and adding the thread to hold the light fittings ...

Cutting the pieces of brass that will make up the triangular top plate that will hold the lamp (did I mention the lamp will be on a fixed tripod?) ...