Secret lives of spiders

One of the unexpected outcomes of our recent rain has been that many spiders' webs have become obvious. Without the raindrops clinging to the webs they just blend with the background. The following early morning photos just show a few of the very very many small webs that infest the bushes and plants on the block.

Barry Smith © Webs after rain 1

Barry Smith © Webs after rain 2

Barry Smith © Webs after rain 3

Barry Smith © Webs after rain 4

Barry Smith © Webs after rain 5

And given that I had taken the photos with the iPhone I couldn't resist altering a couple of photos.

Barry Smith © Web of jewels

Barry Smith © Web silhouette

The spider, a Funnel Web Spider,  photographed below was a little less welcome. After one wet night it had wandered into the tiled area downstairs.

Barry Smith © Funnel Web Spider

It is venomous so was not welcome in the house.

Light catchers go to Brighton

Over the last few weeks I have read in the blog posts of fellow bloggers about how their works have been accepted or rejected for this or that exhibition or award event.  This occurred at the time that the deadline for getting notification for an exhibition I applied to enter came and went. I thought  - well you've got to give it a go and if it doesn't come off it is just not my time.


It made me think - why do we do this? Why do we accept invitations to enter; or apply to enter? And where and what do we enter in? For me, in the first instance, it is about sharing what I am doing; and attempting to lift the profile of my art. Whilst it would be good to win an award or be purchased - the main thing is just letting people know who I am and what I do.

After my initial thoughts that my application to be in the Adelaide Airport Brighton Jetty Classic Sculptures Exhibition had not been accepted I got a belated notice that my three small light catchers below had been accepted.

Barry Smith © Light catcher series

These are not new works but before this they had only been shown in Fiona and my small personal exhibition in Handheld Gallery in Melbourne. I have entered the three pieces into the Exhibitions small indoor sculpture section as a cluster; and also in the environment exhibition given they are all made from assembled reclaimed-recycled objects and materials.

Barry Smith © Star Light - star gate

Barry Smith © Moon Light - moon gate

Barry Smith © Light Shuttle

I entered these three pieces as I felt there is a theme of timber, brass, lens and navigation by the stars-moon running through them that could connect with the clipper ships that served Adelaide in the past and sailed in the waters off Brighton. The pieces have been packed and posted to Adelaide and will be delivered to the exhibition on the 23 January.

An outrageous bowl for Friday

Though it has been a hectic day with varied stuff I did keep to my aspiration of getting into the studio for a little creativity on Friday. In the main I was cutting and annealing metal for a series of 'leaf letter openers' etc. But I also wanted to test if I could make a bowl with eight leaf forms incorporated into it.  As you can see from the photo below I was able to do it.

Barry Smith © Eight leaf foldformed bowl

The foldforming of the 'leaves' required 4 separate annealings. And the rough and burnt bowl has its beauty. It almost looks like a big single dead leaf curling at the edges.

Barry Smith © Eight leaf bowl in the rough - in the fire pit

However, I did polished the rough edges off; and then polished the whole bowl with a brass wire wheel. The brass wheel deposited brass on the copper as it polished so the bowl has hints of copper and brass.

Barry Smith © Eight leaf foldformed bowl - side on 

Barry Smith © Eight leaf foldformed bowl - top view

Barry Smith © Eight leaf foldformed bowl -nestled in the rusted bower

I was not able to beat the bowl to the level of beaten finish I wanted as I don't have a long necked stake that can go up inside a bowl that curves inwards.  The bowl was made from a recycled copper plate that was given to me. The finished bowl is about 125mm in diameter and about 50mm high.

Helping nature do it's thing on the block

We are in the middle of summer and over the last couple of weeks the sky has been blue and the sun intense. Whilst the heat can make us humans wilt many of the veggies love it - as long as they get a bit of water from time to time.

A couple of months ago we had transplanted some pumpkin seedlings from our and Fiona's folks gardens where they had grown out of the compost. They just sat there and didn't do much - grew slowly. Over the last few weeks they have gone ballistic; and are producing much leaf and some of the biggest  (175-200mm diameter) brightest flowers I have seen - such as those below.

Barry Smith © Female pumpkin flower 

Barry Smith © Male pumpkin flower 

The pumpkin plants are over at 'the shed' and not surrounded by too many other flowers so not a lot of bees visiting. Fiona has been playing matchmaker by pollinating the female flowers with the male flower pollen.

Barry Smith © Pollination by Fiona

Barry Smith © Remnant of male flower becomes beetle fodder

And she seems to be achieving some good results given the fact that we are now starting to get a crop of pumpkins growing.

Barry Smith © Female flower a day after pollination

Barry Smith © Three days after pollination

We don't think we will achieve the numbers we did last year - but who knows as the vines begin to take over the art work including Fiona's calligraphic posts; and are already heading down amongst the coffee bushes.

Barry Smith © Vines rambling through Fiona's Sentinel Posts

I know some people are 'really riveted' by this pumpkin news - so I will give a periodic update.

Tiny challenge - leaf pendant earrings

On Friday I posted on some tiny leaves (25-30mm long) I formed to use in making earrings. Other fellow metal working artists including Stregata and  Mairedodd , who are talented makers of art jewellery, make foldformed leaves as components for their pieces. Mairedodd indicated that she has formed leaves as small as about 15-18mm (3/4 inch). I thought I had to give that a go - so this afternoon I took myself back down to the 'garage-studio' to cut, beat and polish some micro leaves. As you can see from the photo below when compared to Smarties (M&Ms) they are quite tiny and yet have maintained the leaf form.

Fiona Dempster © Tiny leaves and Smarties

You can see from the photo of my thumb nail and a leaf in the process of being beaten my fingers were slightly at risk.

Barry Smith © Tiny leaf being formed

Barry Smith © A litter of tiny formed leaves

But about eleven tiny ones emerged; and were unfolded ready for polishing.

Barry Smith © Leaves opened ready for polishing

And a tiny shiny stash of leaves appeared after polishing.

Barry Smith © Stash of micro leaves

Barry Smith © Stash of micro leaves

I thought it would be good to see how they worked as earring pieces. Using some chain recycled from older earrings of Fiona's I made a set of pendant earrings. They looked good on the blue glass; but look even better on Fiona who was forced to model them after a hard afternoon of creativity in the shed studio. Fiona said it was like wearing her own personal wind chimes as the leaves are so light they tinkle together.

Barry Smith © Micro leaf earrings for Fiona

Barry Smith © Micro leaf earrings modeled by Fiona

I think I could be over the actual obsession with creating micro leaves for a little while - but will return to them when I have a little more time as they have heaps of potential.

Handful of tiny leaves

OK! So I get a little obsessed at times. Recently I have set myself the challenge of forming tiny leaves that could become earrings. Over the last few months I have been progressively reducing the size - seeing if I could keep the shape and detail without ending up with beaten fingers etc.

I made my smallest pair when demonstrating leaf making with Jeff. Today (being Friday and all) I used time this afternoon to cut, beat, drill and polish another 5 pairs of tiny leaves. In the photo below you can see the 12 leaves fit very easily in the palm of my hand. All the leaves are 25-30mm in length.

Barry Smith © A handfull of tiny metal leaf forms

Fiona took photos of the six pairs of leaves whilst I got the risotto going in the rice cooker - she caught the afternoon setting sun so the photos have a lovely warm aged look about them.

Barry Smith © Tiny curled copper leaves

Barry Smith © Tiny extra curled copper leaves

Barry Smith © Tiny simple brass leaves 

Barry Smith © Tiny brass ans zinc leaves

Barry Smith © Extra thin brass leaves - fractured and torn

Barry Smith © Demo for Jeff leaves - brass - drilled and polished

I did not have the time to add jump rings and wires to the leaves - maybe I will post later on how they look as finished earrings.

A creative start to 2012

Fiona and I have had our friend Jeff and his wife Evi visiting with us for the last five days. Lots of catching up was done, good food eaten and good wine and single malt consumed - so a good time was had by all.

I had promised Jeff that I would guide him through the process of creating a pair of leaf earrings for Evi. So yesterday after we had got some sorting and packing tasks out of the way we headed down to the garage studio. You can see from the photo below Jeff's final product was great.

Barry Smith © Hands of the creator- jeff's leaf earrings

In the following series of photos you can see the folded and cut annealed recycled brass; the leaf forms on the anvil (two sets - small ones are mine); the leaf forms being beaten; leaves unfolded and being polished; and the finished earrings being modelled by Evi. 

Barry Smith © Metal - folded and cut

Barry Smith © Brass on the anvil

Barry Smith © Jeff forming the leaf

Barry Smith © Jeff polishing the leaf

Barry Smith © Evi models an earring

I demonstrated each step of the process by creating a small pair of leaves. As you can see from the photo below these leaves are about 30mm long and are quite delicate.

Barry Smith © Small formed leaves

Barry Smith © Small formed leaves

It gave me a buzz to take my friend through this creative process; to see his pride in the completed product; and to see Evi's joy in receiving his gift. Good way to start the creativity of 2012.

2012 - a new year of possibilities

Today is the the first day of 2012 - may 2012 be a year filled with creativity, peace, joy, opportunities connections and art sales for all our fellow bloggers and artists.

Fiona and I are not good at sending out Christmas cards - so we have accommodated this by developing a household tradition - sending out new year cards with a focus on wishes and hopes for the year ahead. I decided that my new year card for 2012 would reflect  my leaf and iPhoneography - two themes I will continue to develop over the next 12 months.

I did six app variations of an iPhone photo of beaten recycled anodised aluminium leaves and pods on a white cardboard background. The original leaf installation on cardboard was about 200mm high X500mm long. I put the photos to the vote - Fiona, myself and Fiona's  folks; and interestingly enough two options got two votes each. So I have gone with both.

Barry Smith © 2012 cards - leaves of peace 

Barry Smith © 2012 cards - leaves of peace 

Barry Smith © 2012 cards - rainbow leaves of peace

Barry Smith © 2012 cards - rainbow leaves of peace 

As you can see one photo has a a stronger three dimensional element; and the other a peace rainbow overlay. Now 'all I have to do' is write on the cards and get them in the mail.

Go well in 2012.