Rustnstuff

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Production with a twist

I'm in a bit of production mode at the moment - making bits for the Food Festival; product for Open Studios; few replacement things for the shop; and couple of requests.

Over the weekend I got some time to make a few 'leafspoons'; a couple of silver leaves; finished the copper ladle; and made a quirky "pinky talon" (more on that later).

The photo below is a shot of some beaten leaf forms and leaf spoons before second annealing and opening - I just thought together they looked a bit flowerlike.

I made a number of leaf spoons out of an old serving tray that had ornate pattern on it. Though I have severely beaten the metal the pattern has held up as you can see from the photo below. The spoon part of these leaf spoons is about 25mm long and the leaf about 80mm.

A fellow friend and artist Helen wanted a silver leaf as a gift for a 'baby gift' - so I made two from a small quality silver-plated EPNS cake-biscuit tray. Both leaves are about 130-140mm long and about 24mm wide.

The copper-silverplated ladle bowl got a recycled handle from a badly moulded brass salad serving set bought from a junk shop. I chopped the handle off and trimmed and polished it. It has come up well and has been riveted to the bowl with small hand formed copper rivets.

And just for something different. Susan B dropped in to talk with Fiona about their next book. I had finished forming, but not polishing, leaves and leaf spoons. I dropped into the shed studio to say hi and show the bits in the rough. Susan said wouldn't it be neat to have a leaf that you could wear to parties on your pinky finger - as a sort of talking point. Can't let a challenge like that go by - so the "pinky leaf talon" was created - copper prototype. Fiona has hand modelled it. The cylinder that goes over the finger is about 40-50mm long and adjustable; the leaf form is about 60mm long.

So you can see the weekend had lots of twists in it - twisted leaves, spoons and pinky leaf talon that is. Fiona and I managed to get quite a bit of work done on the block in preparation for the wedding on 1 September; and Open Studios. We finally moved my big timber stack to the back of the shed studio - so studio 601 mvr is looking good from the outside.

Friday, August 3, 2012

The new Friday

Usually I try to do a bit of creative stuff on Friday - as well as other days of course. But today I have had Drs' appointments in 'the city'. Hopefully giving me a clean bill of health after 'the incident'. Knowing we would be away Fiona and I declared that for this week Thursday was the new Friday - hence we had a morning coffee in town and both managed to do some creative stuff in the afternoon. I had four things on my list: make another ladle; make a few small bowls for Daily Words; cut blanks for daily words; and cut and anneal a stash of brass and copper bits for a friend.

Well I didn't get the ladle made; but I did beat the bowl below that will become the bowl part of the ladle. This bowl is about 6.5cm wide and 4.5cm deep.

The bowl is made from a cutdown rather steep sided goblet - copper lined with silver-plate. The test for me was to stretch the cutdown goblet into a more open shape. After a few beatings and interchange of stakes I did manage a pretty reasonable shape - still more goblet-like than ladle bowl - but then some of us like deeper ladles - helps to avoid spillage. I'm loving the texture that I'm getting on the insides of these smaller bowl shapes.

I managed two new Daily Words bowls; and re-cut and polished one I had beaten earlier but was not happy with the shape. A closer inspection shows that each bowl has its own texture: one fully hammered from the front with a ball peen hammer; one with an un-hammered rim; and the third lightly hammered from the back. The Daily Words bowls are about 9cm in diameter and 1cm deep.

©2012 Barry Smith - Daily Words bowls

The daily words blanks got cut as you can see from the photo below. But they did not get their edges sanded ready for stamping - another day!!! There are about 24 blanks each roughly 3-3.5cm long and 1-1.5cm wide. They are cut from scrap silver-plated EPNS tray offcuts.

And the stash of brass and copper is ready - cut, annealed and lightly cleaned with a scourer wheel.

So all in all a good Friday on Thursday.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Bits from the beach getaway

I had kept a few shots of the beach getaway on the iPhone so I could play with them So here are a few naked shots that I took with the iPhone. The first two photos are fragments of a sculpture by Hew Chee Fong titled "landscapes of my mind, sense of place" (FOMM).

And here are the same shots I played with.

I'm still not bored with iPhoneography as a small creative outlet when I only have a few minutes to play. And I still love the grainy look of some of the photos when I have used the 'telephoto lens' of the iPhone camera. The night and fish shots are examples of the grainy look. Fiona thought the altered Sand ripples and water 1 - looked a bit like edges of pages of a book - we all look at things through different eyes.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Sidetracked on Saturday and Sunday

I had a few things on my list for the weekend including finishing the piece for the COMA food festival exhibition. But I also wanted to repaint the front steps and the entry decking. A few small jobs that offered balance and diversity.

However in the process of finishing the 'condiment' bowls (bit more beating, trimming and re-polishing) a couple of other bits of metal whispered to me - a couple of silver-plated goblets I had cut down and some 6 gauge (about 3mm thick) copper wire I had bought in NYC. The section of the goblet was re-beaten into a small bowl; and the copper wire became the handle (see below) of another ladle. But more on that later.

As you can see from the photo below I made a small shelf from a camphor laurel slab and attached it to the 12X12inch canvas I had painted black. I made small indentations in the timber for the bowls to sit in; and cut a hole in the canvas to hold the fourth bowl. I might add a few pepper seeds to give the impression they are spilling out of the bowl imbedded in the canvas. The bowl will need to be tilted a bit more - it is only held in with blutack so it can be moved around.

Back to the ladle. This one is finer and more finished than earlier examples. I hammer hardened the copper shaft of the handle on the anvil - it has some lovely beaten marks on it. The bowl for the ladle is beaten in a textured hammered pattern on the outside but it results in lively texture inside where it has been beaten on the panel beater's form. The bowl is attached to the handle with three small copper rivets made from 1/16inch thick copper nails. The ladle bowl is about 7.5cm wide and 1.5 cm deep. The handle is about 20cm long.

When I measured the length of the handle I found I needed to cut off about 7cm of the copper wire. So as not to waste it I thought I would see if I could make a small salt spoon from the off cut. I think it worked out ok. The little spoon handle is about 5.5cm long; the spoon bowl is about 1.5cm long and 1cm wide.

The photo below shows the contrast in size between the ladle and the salt spoon.

I did manage to get the steps and deck done. I was able to beat and polish metal when the different coats of paint were drying.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Four bowls for Friday

There are times when I know that I am a little crazy. Who in their right minds would attempt to cut, beat and polish four small bowls in an afternoon? Anyway that is the goal I had set myself for my Friday art afternoon.

Fiona is off to spend the weekend with her friend Sue in Melbourne. I drove her to the airport late this morning. I thought I'd be home by about 2pm - but got stuck in the mother of all rain storms - so arrived home at 3pm instead. I stuck to the idea that I would attempt the four small bowls. As you can see from the photo below I did manage to produce them; but will need do a little more work on them to finish them over the weekend.

The reason I'm doing four small bowls (about 5cm wide and high) relates to Ken's most recent COMA challenge - create something that is connected to food to celebrate the Food Festival that will be held in Maleny on 8-9 September. COMA will have an exhibition in a coffee shop in our main street. My bowls are 'condiment bowls' for pepper, mustard etc. We have to produce pieces that are 12X12 inches square and be able to be hung on a wall. I will build a small shelf onto my canvas. Three bowls will sit on the shelf and one will be imbedded in the canvas - watch this space???

When I'm beating different sized bowls I use different sized stakes. You can see from the photo below that my stakes for these bowls are a chrome car tow ball; and a panel beater's handheld form. Cheap and they work.

A former work colleague died recently and was buried today. Fiona and I could not attend the funeral so we agreed to 'gong' the peace bell. I gonged the bell at sunset.

The light in the sky was intense and beautiful - may the spirit of Val soar.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Restoring body and spirit

Fiona and I went AWOL - headed to the beach about 45 minutes drive from the mountain. It was an opportunity to take a few days out to: sleep, read, walk, coffee and take in the beauty of the river, sea and sand.

Though we captured much with our eyes and minds, the iPhone was used to take in a few images to share.

And as you can see often it was about the texture.

Or prints in the sand.

Reflected light.

And I altered a small number of the shots.

The break away has refreshed us in both body and spirit - we are back on our beautiful mountain and back into the full flow of life.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

All silver is not the same

In the past I have used some silver plated drink coasters to make shallow bowls for my Daily Words series. And if one looked at the photo below you might say the bowls all look pretty much the same.

But a closer inspection of the drink coaster on the left of the photo shows that it is rhodium over steel. Beating the coaster resulted in fractures in the 'silver' plate and after a little time the metal under the plating begins to rust or as in the photo turn black. So that little bowl will not be for sale.

The outcome for me is that I need to be a little more careful in my inspection of coasters. In they case of the shallow bowl below I have cut a circle of metal out of an tray that is actual silver plated over brass; as are the daily words.