Rustnstuff

Friday, March 15, 2013

Rust feast

One of the positive outcomes of the continuous rain on the mountain is that rust is curing all over the place. Some of it on the rust bank, some on bits of 'art' that have been left out to cure, and others on gardening implements.

I just could not resist wandering around taking a few quick photos as I think they are a feast for the eyes.

No wonder we as artists try to capture the brilliant variety of the colours of rust and transfer it to: wood; paper; and fabric - it is such a great mark maker.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Valley and mountain panoramas

The light and mood of the valley below us is always changing as are the sunsets in the valley and to the west.

Thought I'd share a few panoramas I have taken with the iPhone over the last month using the Autostitch app on the iPhone.

And there are a few I manipulated using PhotoStudio app..

I never get tired of the valley view or the sunsets in the west. Nature offers an ever changing canvas.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Bit of a production line

I had to get into a bit of production over the weekend as my stock is a little short on a few items including: silver-plated leaf forms; leaf form letter openers; and raised bowls.

I'm always surprised that in the early stages of the bowl raising process the bowls can look so battered. I sometimes wonder if they are going to come together. Most times they do turn out right - but occasionally they do collapse under the strain of my hammering - sometimes I push them too hard too fast. The bunch below are shown in their early stages on the annealing pit.

In the rough the leaf forms have a certain beauty - but they also look a little worn.

After many more annealing and hammering episodes the bowls-pods get their shape.

And the leaf forms and leaf form letter openers get their smoothness and shine from the polishing wheels.

Quite a productive weekend. The highly polished silver-plate is quite hard to photograph - even without direct light or flash the high shine reflects lots of light and picks up the colour of surrounding objects.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Friday art has many forms

Today just demonstrated to me that art practice has so many facets and forms. Today I went shopping for 400 nuts, bolts and washers for the 50m placemaking pathway sculpture thingy; Fiona and I attended a planning meeting for the art-culture exchange to Tatebayashi in Japan in late May; we repainted our photo curve for a artists book photo shoot of the next couple of days; we also repainted some display pedestals for Susan's works for the Printmaking exhibition at Easter; and I photographed Shards and Leaf Litter - pieces that I finished yesterday - they are to go into rural exhibitions -competitions in April and May. So it is not just all about doing the art work then???

First some photos of the stains the timber and rusted iron from Shards have left on the cement outside The Shed - the results of rain and the curing process.

Some photos of the Shard in the small gravelled area outside the Shed where I tend to show my larger works. The Shard pieces now have their heavy rusted metal bases - tends to finish them off and they can be staked into the ground or bolted to a concrete slab.

And some photos of Leaf Litter - a triptych of larger rusted 3mm plate steel. They have now been bent to form and have holes drilled in them for staking to the ground or bolting to a wall or concrete slab. Fiona helped me bend the leaf forms by hand over a pipe in the outside vice.

Shards and Leaf Litter both need to do a bit more curing in the open before heading off to the exhibitions. The photos were taken late in the day with fading light and a little bit of precipitation. Off now to have a red wine and a casual dinner with Fiona's folks.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

On my walk & orchids

Even though we continue to have lots of rain showers, Fiona and I are trying our best to get out and do our walks and exercise. Today was Fiona's early morning circuit workout with her women's group. I walk and do my own exercise routine. I take a few iPhone photos, such as those below, as I cruise along on my Wednesday walks.

Because everything is saturated the fungi is popping up in all sorts of places.

And plenty of water collecting in bowls, buckets and wheel barrows.

G2013 Barry Smith - Floating leaf and fern reflection on our rusty fire pit bowl

The moist warm weather has been good for Fiona's dad's orchids - he has quite a few in bloom most of the time.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

A little shine on Sunday

We have had another day of rain, mist and cloud - quite depressing dim light and not a scrap of sunshine to be had. The choices were to sit and read or to continue a little art - the later won out - after all reading can be done at night I hear you say.

On friday 22 Feb I started raising a couple of silver-plate EPNS bowls. So I decided to finish them today. Amazing that I could use the outdoor work bench as it was sheltered enough not to be in the rain - just the occasional drift of mist. When I started annealing the two silver-plate formed bowls I noticed on the bench there were a couple of narrow bowl forms from a couple of copper goblets that I had disassembled - so I thought I'd add them into the metal beating mix. I find it is often just as easy to be working on several pieces when I'm doing constant annealing and beating as one needs to do for raising curved in (podish) bowls.

Anyway - after many annealings and much beating I had the four raised bowls below in the formed but unpolished stage.

Though it was was still raining I managed to bring a small polishing bench under the shelter of the shed-studio and give the four a polish. The high polished finish made it a little difficult to photograph. Then again the contrast of the highly silver-plate and copper, reflections and low light do make for a little mystery.

I rather like the two wee copper pods - you can see how small they are in comparison to my hand.

Not a bad outcome for a rainy afternoon. Now it is time to a glass of wine and a book.

Friday, March 1, 2013

A hint of Steampunk on Friday

I was really fortunate to get into the garage-studio before lunch today; and was able to do a few hours after lunch - still got time to get out and do weed cutting late in the day before the rain set in again.

As you can see from the photo above and those below I got to play with the collection of bits I talked about in Wednesday's post. And I have decided to create a small Steampunkish series. The series will include: pendants; earrings; and Light Catchers. I will create what I can from the collection. Each piece will be unique as I use up the bits. As indicated in the earlier post the series will be called Time and Light as each will include clock-watch parts and at least one crystal from a vintage chandelier.

Today I pushed myself to create a pendant; a set of earrings; and a light catcher. The Light Catcher has an additional feature - it includes three tuned rods that when struck give a beautiful sound. The Light and Time earrings have movement - two of the pieces are on chains.

The pieces still need a bit of final polishing and tweaking - but in all it was a good outcome. The pieces will migrate into my shop in the next little while