Rustnstuff

Friday, July 20, 2012

Leaf spoons and ladle

I'm still playing with some forms and functional objects for the food festival. In comments on an earlier post some folk suggested that the bent handles of the salt-pepper spoons looked a bit like leaves. I had intended to try a couple of prototype teaspoons with leaves.

The spoons below are the results of the experiment. The brass spoon is made from brass from a jardiniere; and the copper from a small recycled water tank.

Fiona suggested that a ladle might be useful. The ladle below was made from a recycled four fold fold formed copper bowl and the handle off an old plumbers soldering iron. After a bit of reworking; sanding; polishing; and riveting the ladle came together quite well. The ladle gives one an idea of the size of the teaspoons.

The playing has indicated that there are a number of food related objects that I could create for the food festival stall. It was suggested that the objects I make might need to be made from copper or pewter. The copper certainly worked well and the public generally accept it for use with food.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Moonset, inkblots and other matters

I was cleaning up my iPhone memory and came across a number of photos I had altered and thought I might share them. Interesting that there is a mix of light and darkness.

The alteration of the moonset simply shows the flip side of the morning light - but I think it shows another dimension of the the morning light.

The shots I refer to as light and dark angel are alterations of a couple of photos of ink blots. Fiona's exercise program got wet and the purple ink seeped nicely down the fold of the paper - though Fiona was not impressed I thought it resulted in some interesting shapes and colour.

I took a photo of a drain in a pond with leaves and rubbish being washed down it - a murky shot - yet when flipped the light and contrast turns it into something altogether different.

And how could one resist the light shining though a small glass of red wine.

I still find it is an interesting challenge to see if the iPhone shots I take can be seen in a different light.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Form and function

This weekend has been pretty busy with visitors and it looked like there would be no time for getting down into the studio-garage. However a fellow artist dropped in to see if I was interested in joining her in creating functional objects for a stall at a food festival in a couple of months time. She thought I might join her (a ceramicist), fine wood worker and textile artist. My objects would be related to the presentation and serving of food; and be beaten metal.

Today between visitors Fiona and I found we had a couple of hours to spend on art so I thought I'd have a go at a few prototype objects such as the small salt-pepper spoons above; and a larger serving spoon. The starting point was the piece of brass from a jardiniere, a rusted iron rod and a couple of offcuts from an EPNS tray. All pieces were cold formed. The salt-pepper spoons are about 7cm long.

The larger serving spoon shown below has turned out quite well. The spoon is about 32cm long overall; and the spoon form is about 8.5cm long and 6.5cm wide and 1.2cm deep. The spoon form is riveted to the handle with 3 small copper rivets. Not sure of the ergonomics yet.

I guess this effort indicates it is possible to make such functional pieces - now the thing is finding the energy and time to do this amidst our preparations for the Open Studios and Creative Spaces 2012. Well at least it will keep me off the street.

Friday, July 13, 2012

A fling with rings on Friday

In early May I had a go at making a ring from a section of brass tubing and a slither of anodised aluminium. That prototype turned out reasonably well. So today, Friday - art day, I set myself the task of making one or more rings if time permitted. In the end, over a couple of sessions, I did make three rings as you can see from the image below; but I would not say they are a resounding success.

As you can see from the photo below the brass tubing, from a recycled fuel camping stove, does not look pretty when annealed and roughly beaten several times.

But in the end the rings have turned out ok. And you can see I experimented with a few different designs. The simple anodised aluminium; copper wire with stirling silver beads; and 14 gauge stirling silver wire.

So what went wrong? Well over the last couple of months I had forgotten: which hammers I used when; that I needed to file and polish the inside edge of the piece I fold over (can't file and plush the inside edge after it is folded over wire or anodised aluminium); and the lengths of tubing were a little too short to give me a decent grip when creating the initial fold. And of course I think I might have tried to do too much too quickly - but I think I was driven by the fact that Saturday and Sunday are given over to visitors so no art.

Still it was good to get back into the fine motor skills part of metal beating. The rings will still be ok when I sand the inside finger area to get rid of the irregular shape and give them a final file and polish.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Soft valley morning and other bits

Today Fiona and I were heading to the city for the morning to do some business and pick up a few supplies. It meant getting up 'earlyish' to have breakfast and head down the hill to catch the train at 8am for the 1.5 hour trip to Brisbane. The morning and the valley greeted us with an amazing soft cloud filled morning as you can see from the grainy iPhone telephoto shots below; but beautiful soft greys and blues.

Of course the scene did not remain static - the clouds flowed and rolled across the hills and valley covering the mountains and eventually 'whiting' out the valley completely. There was not a lot of time in the city for sight seeing as we were scheduled to catch the return train at 1pm. But walking down the CBD mall we were amazed to see a installation (partial photograph below) on one of the store complex's front facade - about 50m long by 10m high. The work depicted trees, leaves, butterflies etc - very soft nature focussed but created from what appeared to be hard flat sheet metal with many layers.

And a few days ago the sun was streaming into the kitchen and creating gems of light by reflection off shiny surfaces. Very transitory - but captured with the trusty iPhone.

On the train on the way home I altered a few of the shots.

The altered shot of the installation on the building facade almost looks like a linocut print of a city grid - fairly appropriate given it was in the CBD. As they say in the classics you are never without an artistic opportunity when you have your iPhone.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Artists' Peace Book

As part of our response to Mary-Jane's International Day of Peace 2012 challenge Ken, Noela, Fiona and I have agreed to create an artists' book each to be on show in a display cabinet at our local Maleny Library from 10-29 September 2012. The idea is to complement our peace flag making efforts and draw more public attention to International Peace Day on 21 September.

Given the number of things happening in our art world I thought I had better make a start. I would like to create a peace book in the style of a prayer wheel - but horizontal not vertical. I hunted through my brass objects stash and came up with the cylinder below. In a former life this object had been attached to the outside of a very old and non functional zinc-brass backpack sprayer.

My plan was to cut the various attachment off the cylinder so that it could sit on the feet (formerly the brackets for attaching the cylinder to the sprayer). I also removed an internal valve. So I was left will a reasonable 'clean' brass cylinder with lots of age and patina. I then cut a half semi-circular piece out of the body of the cylinder so this could act as a hinged cover.

A length of 25mm timber dowel and a couple of brass decorations (off some old brass lights Noela bequeathed to me and I had disassembled) will become the core of the rod that will hold six 'pages' of the book. The decorative ends will be used to turn the pages.

There is still long way to go with this artists' book. The wooden rod will need to be longer and I think thinner; and the prayer pages will need to be the full length of the rod not just the three quarters in the center. I tested anodised aluminium pages but the stamped words did not stand out - so I will probably use brass. I have yet to find some small hinges I have 'put away safely'; and I would like some form of catch at the front. And of course there will be the final polish - but you can see I have left a lot of the patina on. The patina and dents give it an aged used look - which is what I'm going for.

I'm seeking short one line peace prayers - so any favourites are welcome.

Friday, July 6, 2012

A Friday Light Catcher

For some time I have walked past an old set of callipers that have sat on a table in the garage for months just waiting to be included in an assemblage. The callipers were bought from a market - they appeared to be in working order but in fact the screw mechanism was split and worn and they wouldn't really function as a measuring tool - but had potential for an assemblage. Still being on light duties today I decided to turn the callipers into a simple small Light Catcher.

The small Light Catcher that emerged is called Holding Light. The crystal is from Christine Elcoate's mum's chandelier; the brass base is cut from a recycled 5mm thick brass name plate off a building; the crystal is held in place with new stirling silver pins; and the brass base is held together with small new brass bolts.

To hold the stirling silver wire in place I cut a couple of grooves into the calliper 'wings'. The calliper is held onto the brass base by a brass bolt and the ball on the calliper winder is seated into a drilled out hollow in the base. Superglue was used to hold the broken parts of the calliper firm and to attach the ball into the base hollow. The whole piece is about 160mm long, 50mm wide and 120mm high.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

An art(ist) filled day

Today started with the soft beauty of the setting moon; followed by a peaceful walk in Treehaven Way.

Then the day was given over to art and artists. First a meeting with an architect and business owner about a large piece of placemaking art; followed by the rescue of two large historic stumps from under a local building undergoing refurbishment; a visit by Jo Murray who dropped off a stash of goodies and purchased some bits; a visit by Penny Crompton and family to check out the block and studios and buy some goodies; and to top it off a visit from Ken M to pick up a kiln a neighbour up the road had donated to artists and have a yarn and coffee. A very satisfying art filled day - but a tad tiring as well.

I thought I'd like to share a few photos of a passing reflection on the stone kitchen bench of the sun on the side of our stainless steel plunger 'tea pot'. The 'event' occurred a couple of days ago and lasted about 15 minutes. The reflections reminded me of subtle brush strokes on a dark canvass.

Hoping 4 July celebrations go well for folk in the US.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Inspirational words and other matters

One of the things I love about salvaging and recycling metal objects including EPNS trays. EPNS trays offer so much - not only bowls from the centre, leaf forms from the sides, found jewellery from handles and decorations but the left overs can often be turned into inspirational words. From these offcuts I have continued to produce sets of seven inspirational Daily Words such as those in the beaten EPNS bowl below.

And I make single words as part of Inspirational in Your Pocket such as those requested below. One exciting little thing was that the request included three words in Italian - I thought that was exciting to think that these scraps might end in the pocket or purse of someone in Italy and be a point of inspiration or reflection.

I did get to polish the Friday fiddle bits over the weekend. As you can see from the photos below I have tried to both polish and preserve. Polish the rough and sharp edges off but where possible retain the patina and fire colours as is the case with the bowl and the foldformed leaf forms. I polished the spiral with a brass wheel and it transferred a little brass to the copper.

We have had some glorious sunshine over the weekend - makes one come alive and Fiona and I even got out in the garden to do a little weeding. So given all the achievements and experiences it has been a good weekend.