Peace Post for 2011 - International Day of Peace

Today (21 September) is International Day of Peace. Fiona and I have this day highlighted in our diary for I'm sure it could float by unless we had a reminder. We usually mark it in some way: gonging our Japanese temple bell with the kanji script for peace inscribed on it; sending messages to people; making cards or cranes etc.

This year we started the day remembering the dedication of this world day; and we will gong the peace bell at sunset and spend a bit of time in reflective silence.

But a strange thing happened in the studio-garage on Sunday. I was finishing off my work for ALAW 2011. I had routed  the alphabet into an old square fence post but had done the letters in such a way that they created some words on four faces using the vowels once. The words were: Mindful, Pax, Joy and Be. I used the rest of the letters and a few decorative routed hatched squares to create a block border around the four sides of  the base.

I then embellished each face with bits of rust from 'the rust bank' to create four individual but connected faces. When it was time to take a few photos for posting on the ALAW 2011 blog I realised I had taken the photo below. As you can see on the two faces I had chosen randomly first were the words Be and Pax - be peace - a little bit spooky but such serendipity given that International Day of Peace was only a couple of days away.

So the post became Peace Post for 2011. The post is about 1400mm high and 150mm square.

Barry Smith © Peace Post for 2011 - be peace

Below are a few more photos of the Peace Post for 2011.

Barry Smith © Rust - Peace Post for 2011

Barry Smith © Peace Post for 2011 - be joy

Barry Smith © Rust - Peace Post for 2011

Barry Smith © Peace Post for 2011 - mindful joy

Barry Smith © Rust - Peace Post for 2011

Barry Smith © Peace Post for 2011 - mindful peace

Barry Smith © Rust - Peace Post for 2011

Wishing us all peace in our lives; may we join in continuing to send peace vibes when we can; and continue to stumble along on our peace journeys.

Coffee harvest

Over the weekend Fiona and I have been doing a few catchup chores on the block - weeding, dead-heading the agapanthus, pruning the camellias, spraying the broad-weeds with weed and feed etc. Our coffee plantation (only 30 bushes) needed attention on a number of front including getting ripe coffee cherries off. As you can see from the photo below we have two colours of coffee cherries even though they are both dwarf forms of arabica robusta.

Barry Smith © Bowl of coffee cherries

We had lots of red cherries last year but few this year - but an abundance of yellow cherries.

Barry Smith © Coffee cherries on the bush

We picked two large bowls of cherries in about half an hour.

Barry Smith © Bowl of cherries 2

The next stage  is to pulp the cherries to get the outer fruit pulp off. We have invested in a hand operated pulper from South America; and it worked a treat. Pulping the two bowls of cherries with fingers would have taken about 4 hours - we did it in 15 minutes.

Barry Smith © Hand operated pulper

Barry Smith © Freshly pulped beans 

Barry Smith © Pulp

The beans are now soaking for a couple of days to get the rest of the slimy fruit layer off; and then they will be ready for drying.

Barry Smith © Soaking coffee beans

Barry Smith © Soaking beans

But that is not the end - we will then remove the dry outer chaff-shell; and the inner green bean will be ready for roasting and then grinding. A long way from bush to cup. And given the amount of cherries on the bushes we think there will a few more batches yet. But we know where they came from and how they were grown and harvested etc.

Sharing a few pics on Friday

Fiona and I have been going a bit flat out recently so we decided to take a few days away. We decided to head to sea as we have beautiful mountain views and knew the sound and sight of the sea would be relaxing.

We managed daily or twice daily walks on the beach. As usual took a few photos of things with the iPhone - so thought I'd share a few.

Barry Smith © Leaf with sand

Barry Smith © Abandoned bedspring in the sand

Barry Smith © Black pebble in the sand

Barry Smith © Yellow pebble in the sand

Barry Smith © Leaching coloured sands 1 

Barry Smith © Tree root

Barry Smith © Leaching coloured sands 2

Some sand and objects lend themselves  to manipulation with the iPhone apps so here are a couple of before and after photos.

Barry Smith © Dog visits abandoned bedsprings in the sand

Barry Smith © Dog print enhanced

Barry Smith © Patterns in the sand

Barry Smith © Patterns manipulated

And we did return refreshed and are back into it - a full program of work-work and art that will take us up to Christmas.

Sunset via bathroom door

Over the last week or so we have been experiencing some rich sunsets through the trees as the sun begins its migration to the south-west for our summer.

A couple of days ago Fiona drew my attention to the fact that the sun must be a ball of fire - how did she know as the western blinds were down - she could see the distorted image below through the pixelated privacy glass in the bathroom door that opens onto the western deck. Why we have a bathroom door that opens onto our western deck is another story.

Barry Smith © Bathroom view of sunset -1.

The actual sunset looked like that in the photo below.

Barry Smith © Sunset through the trees

Following are a sequence of photos of the sunset through the bathroom door as it fades to nothing.

Barry Smith © Bathroom view of sunset- 2.

Barry Smith © Bathroom view of sunset - 3.

Barry Smith © Bathroom view of sunset - 4.

And with these shots I didn't even need to use an iPhone app.

Hand Held gets closer

On the 6 October Fiona and I will have the opening of our small joint exhibition titled Light and Lines at the Hand Held Gallery in Melbourne. We will exhibit 10- 12 pieces each.  All of my pieces will be small assemblages - in the main my light catchers; or light related assemblages. Whilst I have created enough pieces I want a couple of extras so I can choose those that resonate best and therefore I would want to show.

So I'm in the process of finishing and polishing some of the pieces I have posted on over the last few months including Moonlight- moon-gate and Starlight - star-gate.

As you can see from the photos below these two pieces got their last polish etc today and are ready to be shown.

Barry Smith © Moonlight- moon-gate

Barry Smith © Moonlight- moon-gate - photo from the top

Barry Smith ˙ Starlight - star-gate

Barry Smith © Starlight - star-gate photo from the top

Moonlight - moon-gate is about 200mm high and 170mm wide. It is made from a weaving shuttle, the chipped lens from a magnifying glass and a three pointed length of brass that appeared in a box of bits given to me. Starlight - star-gate (about 150mm high and wide), as I mentioned in an earlier post, is made from some form of hardened bits heads (jack hammer?), some thick brass plate from a sign off a building and a crystal from a vintage chandelier.

Finished on Friday

He who must be obeyed and our esteemed COMA leader (aka Ken Munsie) invited a few of the folk who exhibited pieces in the Library weed exhibition (Maleny Image 9 - Introduced) to create new pieces for the transition of the exhibition to the Up-Front Club next Tuesday. Those with red dots got the nod. The Up-Front Club exhibition will run for 4 weeks.

So today I have been working on another piece that focuses on Ageratina riparia (also known as Mistflower and creeping crofton weed) - it is a garden escapee. The photo below shows some of the leaves and 'flowers' ready for polishing and installing on the piece.

Barry Smith © Leaves and 'flowers' in the rough

And the piece titled Introduced 2 (10x12 inches) is finished and ready for delivery to Ken. Most of the leaves are quite small - the smallest new shoots are in fact about 1cm long - bit of a challenge to create.

Barry Smith © Introduced 2 - Ageratina riparia

Couple of detailed shots.

Barry Smith © Detail Introduced 2

Barry Smith © Detail - Introduced 2

Introduced 2 better reflects the weed theme than the earlier piece in that the background metal (rusted flat galvanised sheeting) came from a roadside collection at one of the original farms in the Maleny area; and the reddish plate is painted copper and brass cut from an old weed knapsack sprayer. The 'flowers' are made from copper recycled from an old laundry copper; and the leaves from an anodised aluminium canister.

From the fire

During the Open Studios Fiona and I received a couple of small commissions. One of mine included making a plain but slightly deeper bowl than I normally beat. I had the impression from the person requesting the deeper bowl that until they see it they won't really know if it is what they want. What is the obvious solution - make several bowls in different metals and in slightly varying sizes; and give the person a choice from four bowls.

Barry Smith © From the fire and in the rough - a stash of bowls

In the photo below you can see the bowls in the rough - metal cut, annealed and first beating in a hardwood form with a nylon hammer, and in the case of the brass one on the left - a second beating on the anvil with a metal ball hammer.

Barry Smith © Four in the rough

Barry Smith © Bowls in the rough

At this stage the texture is rough; and there is still the evidence of the annealing with the gas blow torch-burner.

Barry Smith © Stretched copper

Barry Smith © Beaten brass

What next? All will be beaten on the anvil; maybe annealed again; then beaten on a metal stake to smooth the bowls out; and then trim and polish. What to do with the three that are not 'wanted' - well I'm sure they will eventually find a home - probably after I have embellished them a bit. All the bowls are made from recycled metal (jardinieres and a copper hot water tank).

Starlight - light catcher

Another small (150mm X 150mm) light catcher in the making. This one is called Starlight - a small star portal.

Barry Smith © Starlight - star portal

As you can see from the photo below it still requires quite a bit of cleaning and polishing but the construction work in the main is complete including cutting 5mm thick brass plate (a recycled name plate off a building), drilling and tapping into the base of the uprights and drilling and cutting the brass rod.  I think the two uprights are hardened drill or jack-hammer tips - they came to me in a box of tool junk. The brass bas will contrast nicely with the steel uprights. The crystal needs to be fixed - just testing it out in these shots

Barry Smith © Starlight - polishing yet to be done

I was working quickly on this piece so the tools just kept building up.

Barry Smith © Messy bench???

Some people think they have layers - but what about the layers of tools on the bench

Barry Smith © Layers!!!

The good thing about work spaces they can be restored to neat and tidy reasonably quickly - whereas creativity just needs its moment.

Moods of our mountains

The weather in many parts of the world seems a bit crazy this year. We have been watching the storms in the US that have moved through to Canada and beyond; and been thinking of folk we know over that way hoping they are safe.

Over the last week I have captured a few of the moods of our mountains with the trusty iPhone.  Moods changing from threatening black storm clouds, through beautiful morning lights, to the valley filled with soft puddles of clouds.

Barry Smith © Threatening storm clouds approach - inverted image (iPhone app)

Barry Smith © The approaching storm

Barry Smith © Like ragged torn black cloth the storm approaches

The storm floats across the valley towards us - the ragged black clouds like torn black cloth drifting at the same level as our house.

Barry Smith © Ribbon of gold - mist filled gullies

Barry Smith © First rays through darkened trees

The thread of gold in the morning; and glinting through the still dark trees.

Barry Smith © Puddles of cloud in the valley below

Barry Smith © Land clouds-sky clouds

And the valley filled with puddles of cloud that push against the Glass House Mountains in the valley floor.

The changing vista never ceases to amaze me.