Rustnstuff

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

The colours of storms

Last week was a very unsettled time - weatherise that is. One of the advantages of living where we live is the ability to watch storms.

What has amazed us is the colour and intensity of these storms as you can see from the photos below - all taken with the old iPhone 5s - so some nice graininess to some of the photos.

I find I enjoy watching the storms but also get joy capturing and sharing the drama of them.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Twin lights

In the decision making process for the current series of Artisan Lamps I decided to make a couple of pairs. These could be bedside or couch side table lamps.

I'm pleased with the results.

The first were built around a couple of old brass garden taps and fittings, the adjusting screws from an old washing mangle, recycled timber and solid copper balls.

The second utilised brass door plates, keys, door knobs, plates from an old clock, recycled timber and solid copper balls.

As well as the couple of one off lamps (square wood block with neon cross globe and the carburettor lamp) I shared sometime ago, I have completed another couple of one offs. One made from plumbing bits; and the other from an old paraffin blow lamp.

This means I have completed 8 new Artisan Lamps. These will be added to the couple I made for the Coolum Jewellery and Art Expo and travel to Jo St Baker's Studio and Gallery for December display and sales.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Wedding cake knives

Quite some time ago I cut metal and made handles for 3 decorative silver plated wedding cake knives as I was commissioned to make one knife that was ordered through Maleny Additions.

Well that one sold but I had not got around to completing the other two. Anyway I'm pleased that I made the completion of them a priority as the metal was sitting around on one of my garage-Studio tables. The main things needing to be done were drilling and riveting and final grind and polish.

Some photos of the completed pair follow.

It means I can now complete the Artisan Lamps. Friday night - ahhhh!!! - time to relax and have a glass of red.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Blossoms on the block

Sometimes the best walks you can have are on one's own block. Our block is about 1.25 acres - so a little bit of room to ramble. I did just that on Monday and discovered some amazing little flowers around the house - not even any need to go down the back.

One of my favourites of course is a flower with a heavily laden bee - talk about head down and backside up.

Whilst a number are ornamental.

Others are productive - herbs and other foods.

One of my favourite herb flowers is the very, very small bouquets of flowers on the Yarrow.

Beauty in one's own backyard.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Metal magic happens

Over the last few days much of our time has been taken up with events surrounding Fiona and Susan's gorgeous exhibition in the Noosa Regional Gallery. This has included having some good friends of ours - visiting and celebrating the art and life.

However, if one is visiting the home of artists one can expect to be offered or dragged into spending some time creating. Yesterday afternoon Fiona and Susan were involved all afternoon running a collaborative artists book making workshop in Noosa Regional Gallery. So I invited three friends to do assemblage and metal work stuff for the afternoon. I found that I had three people who just wanted to do as much as they could in one afternoon. As you can see from the photo below they achieved magical things.

There was a lot of hammering, heating, beating, cutting, sawing, grinding and polishing right up to last light.

Polishing and grinding as sun sets - squeezing every bit out of the afternoon

Some photos of work tools and the 'artists' at work.

Forming leaves

Planishing a bowl

Making posts for a small sculpture trilogy

Annealing leaf forms

Opening leaf forms

Painting his leaves with patina solution

And some more photos of their creations.

We were pushing the limits with the patina solution - ended up having to dry it with a heat gun so we could put a coat of varnish over the patina and grind the sharp edges off. I think we were all amazed what was achieved - good example of working with motivated people - I demonstrated as they went through the stages but they did all the work themselves.