Ceremonial fundraising tea pot

As indicated in an earlier post I have been working on a mini sculptural tea pot for Kim's Australia's Biggest Morning Tea auction to raise finds for cancer research and support. It is a good thing when the local art community can both create and contribute to an important cause.

Whilst the finished tea pot doesn't look a lot different from the rough assembled pot quite a lot of effort has gone into cleaning, grinding and refining the piece. It now only needs that last bit of polish.

Hopefully in its current form it will appeal and attract a reasonable bid and so add to the fundraising coffers. At this stage I am calling the piece Sacred Healing Tea.

Foldformed Letter N

This letter is a perfect example of what A Letter a Week 2010 is all about. Often I just do not have enough time to do the bigger creative things because life, work and weeding take over; but I can squeeze in a little creativity - such as a beaten metal letter.

This letter N took about three quarters of an hour to do: from cutting the metal blank from the side of the pot plant holder; through the foldforming of the letter; and finishing with a polish.

At the end of the process I felt at least I had done a little bit of art rather than none at all. So I will persist with my letters as they give me the chance to stop, do a little creative stuff and practice metal beating techniques.

Simple triangle sculptures

I did a post about two weeks ago on the fact that I was able to cut the rusted fireplace up into the pieces I wanted to use to create two simple sculptures for the garden. These sculptures are based on pairs of triangles that are joined by right angle welds which were part of the original fireplace construction.

Fiona and I moved the pieces of the two sculptures around to see how they would look in different configurations on the bone coloured stone below the retaining wall out the front of our house. One sculpture has four pieces that are about the same size; whereas the other has three pieces in descending size.

At the moment we have settled on the configurations in the photos. We like the rusted planes and the contrast with the stone. As you know I have been doing these as part of the body of work I am doing for the Lucas Parklands -Open Garden exhibition in June. Fiona however keeps saying how much she likes them on our block - guess we will wait and see.

Lazy pumpkins - update

I threatened in an earlier blog that I would give a pumpkin update so here it is.

The good news is that there are still heaps of pumpkins developing. Fiona and I counted (yes I know quite tragic) over 40 pumpkins that have developed in this second wave; and we picked 6 ripe ones yesterday. And the vines are still growing and heading downhill through the coffee bushes.

Anyway I thought I would share a few photos about quirky things that are going on. The first photo is 'the hanging pumpkin' of the not so great wall of Maleny; the second is 'pumpkin at rest' - developed on top of one of the posts of the retaining wall; the third is the 'rocking pumpkin' - growing on the rocking chair sculpture at the shed; and the fourth is 'the twins'.

Tea pot for fundraising morning tea

Fellow artist Kim Schoenberger has invited a bunch of us to develop art works on the theme of tea for the Cancer Council's Australian Biggest Morning Tea. This event is to raise funds for cancer research and support etc.

All the pieces of art donated will be auctioned to raise funds. The auction is going to take place at Main Street Gallery in Montville. The art pieces will be exhibited for a week or so before the auction.

I have decided to do one of my small skinny tea pots along the line of my spikey skinny tea pot. Though this one will not have the spikes etc.

As you can see from the photos of progress so far the tea pot has a slightly sacred, temple ceremony look about it. Maybe you could suggest a name for it???

I started the assemblage and grinding of it today as part of my Friday art hit. I hope to finish it this weekend.

My letters for ALaW

Wow! The time to upload my letters for the A Letter a Week 2010 challenge has come around pretty quickly. The month of March offered the opportunity to do 5 letters.

As you can see from the photo I am continuing my beaten metal letters - foldformed for the straight letters and beaten heavier brass for the round letters. This month J was the only round letter.

I think the challenge has helped me improve my technique of doing folds that have a start and stop point inside the perimeter of the metal. This applies to L and M in particular. Not perfect but getting cleaner.

Cherry blossoms in Japan- Camelias in Maleny

I was reading over the weekend that the Cherry Blossom wave has started in Japan. The cherry blossom phenomenom unfolds from Kagoshima in the south and gradually moves through to Hokkaido in the north.

However this natural cherry blossom exhibition is being matched by the Camelia blooms on the mountains of Maleny at this very moment.

We planted about 40-50 Camelia bushes two years ago on the terraces below our house. The warmer weather after the recent rain has resulted in a rush of blooms.

In the photo below you might be able to make out another connection with Japan - our temple peace bell can be seen in the background through the Camelia bush.

Book stacks - ephemeral assemblages

As planned I managed to get time to complete the book stacks. These stacks will most likely become part of the Lucas Parklands forest walk exhibition.

Though I call them book stacks it is not just a matter of stacking a heap of books together.



As you can see from the photo above each stack has its own water-rot resistant ply base and top; and a continuous metal thread through the centre. I attempted a few stacks about 12 months ago and found that to get the rigidity I wanted it was necessary to compress the book in lots of 5-7 using the top piece of timber, a large square washer and a nut to pull it all together. And to stop the books swivelling I glue them together as I go. The stacks below are strong and are freestanding units.



The three assembled stacks form one ephemeral sculptural piece I have called " Quiet Transition".



The idea is the stacks will stay out in the open and be subjected to the vagaries of the weather; and over time, maybe 2-5 years, will quietly breakdown and once again become part of the forest floor.

It must be Friday

Well what a great day - the sun shone and there was no rain. It must be Friday because after getting the "work-work" at the computer out of the way in the morning it meant I could spend the afternoon on art and garden maintenance (that is a euphemism for weeding).

I have finished a couple of letters for ALaW; and I started doing three book stacks for the Lucas Parklands Open Garden exhibition in June.

The photos show K and L created using the foldforming approach. I think this time I got the folds to stop with out crossing so as to create crisper letters.

I have also taken a cluster shot of all the letters I have done to date.

I hope to complete the book stack over the weekend and so post on them on Sunday.

For those waiting for another pumpkin update one is one the way. We have some very creative pumpkins on the way including the "hanging pumpkin of the not so great wall of Maleny" and the "old rocking pumpkin" - hmmmm!!!

And the give-away winner is

As you know I have organised a give-away to celebrate the fact that I had reached the milestone of 100 blog posts. I offered a small beaten metal meditation-reflection bowl as a give-away.

I asked those interested in being included in the give-away offer to post a comment on stillness-quietness. If you check the blog 10 comments were received. I used a random number generator to decide who would get the meditation-reflection bowl that was on offer.

And the person whose number came up is Wendy van der Drift - congratulations Wendy. Wendy's winning quote was :

in quietness
and in confidence
shall be your strength

Thanks to those who participated.