Rustnstuff

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Things that catch one's eye

At times photographs fall into natural themes and groups; and whilst there are a couple of small groupings in this post - the post is mainly an overview of some of the things that caught my eye during the week. All photos taken with the iPhone excepted where stated.

Such as half a moon setting in a navy sky.

Power poles

Birds (and power poles?)

Refracted light

Dark morning light - still quiet dark when I start the morning walk

And morning light imitating a sunset

Oh - and a hare on the way home this morning

All make me smile.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

More metal

I had a couple of jobs to do that involved using my guillotine to cut up recycled metal objects - a stainless steel stove range hood flue and a chrome over brass serving tray. But I thought while I was at it I might as well cut up other silver-plated trays and round placemats for other tasks I have on my mental list.

First the chrome over brass job - making small leaf forms to be handed out to family members to mark the anniversary of the death of a parent.

And then the stainless steel flue - creating covers for the signage posts for the Peace in the Trees Sculptural walk - to protect the wood from the damage of rain getting into the end grain of the posts.

And then select piles of silver-plated EPNS for: Leaf Spoons; Peace Leaves for sale; small peace leaves for giveaway; Daily Word Leaves; and giveaway inspirational words.

And left over is the pile of hard to use bits which will be cut into much smaller pieces for smelting.

A good cutting and recycling episode.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Hammered - prints from the anvil

I have been intrigued by the marks my hammers have made on my bigger anvil over the last 6 years. They never really remain the same - new marks overlay and push old marks aside.

I thought I might have a go at printing the anvil surface as it currently is - treating the surface like a printing plate that had been created by drypoint and scraping. Anyway I called on my resident local print person (Fiona) to give me a hand to lift some prints from the anvil.

Fiona cut and soaked the paper whilst I cleaned the anvil of gunk.

We set up a couple of rulers on the bench as a guide to help us with 'registration' - didn't really work.

We applied Payne's Grey water based etching ink to the anvil plate; and started to print.

The first few prints were a bit disappointing.

But towards the end we got the inking about right; dampness of the paper about right; pressure with a hand roller about right; and registration by eye about right. So in all we had 9 attempts hanging up to dry.

I think we have about 3 we could call an edition; and a couple of artist's proofs.

I think it was a mad idea to attempt to do prints of the anvil surface on the workbench; but I think it was worth having a go at it.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Magnificent mood of this morning's moon set

I know I go on about the moon - yet I think the display it provided over the last 24-48 hours reinforces why I do go on about it.

This morning we rose early for Fiona's Wednesday exercise group - I thought the moon had set - but as we gazed out of the window when we selected our daily words I was amazed to see the setting moon pop out from behind a thick bank of clouds close to the horizon.

I thought I would share a few photos of the moon setting behind the second bank of clouds on the horizon.

Obviously given this was to be a full moon I did keep an eye out and captured a few images a couple nights ago - or should I say mornings ago.

And then last night as it rose and a little later in the night.

I guess you can have too many moon photos - but not sure when I will reach that point.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Flying Funky Fish

Until I was doing the pack up to bring my stuff home I had forgotten that I had put some of my Funky Fish (FF) into Jo St Baker's gallery.

They had lost a bit of their lustre so I decided to give them a new lease of life.

I had started two other bits of work: making a couple of smaller (in scale and number) sets of my timber and aluminium mountain forms; and making word leaves for Lorraine. I was cutting up my remaining offcuts of red cedar timber as you can see from the photo below.

Along the way I decided that I would turn three of the FF into a small sculptural installation that included timber and brass tube stands.

I think the final installation has worked out well. I consulted Fiona about the lengths of brass tube - I wanted to give the fish air and movement - I think we achieved that through the varied length of the tubing.

I thought the stamped healing and nurturing words Lorraine selected made for an inspirational photo. They will be formed into inspiration leaves.

I'm always amazed where the metal and the wood takes me.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Beginnings and endings

A day full of art - but just so varied.

2016 Barry Smith - Transforming the concept sketch to production drawings - love my pencil

Most of the day was spent doing detailed drawings of a planned public sculpture. I had submitted a concept drawing for the sculpture and was selected to do further development. The plan being that the additional development work will lead to funding and then fabrication and installation - it will all take time. The sculpture is a stylistic representation of a buttress root of a large tree. The piece of work will be about 3.5m long and 2.1m high. Made from three 10mm brushed aluminium metal sheets (1.2mX2.4m).

As you can compare the photo below and the one above, you can see that the concept drawing did not have the technical measurements and engineering proposal required for the next step - so some careful calculations. I have discussed the drawings with the fabricators and engineers - so it is all looking doable. Detailed drawings now complete.

Today saw an ending but a joyous one - Lorraine who commissioned me to turn a few family trays into smaller pieces for the family came to collect the work. She was delighted; and commissioned a couple of other small bits.

On another ending note - yesterday I went to Redcliffe to pick up my work (including Artisan Lamps and watch part jewellery) from Jo St Baker's Studio-Gallery. Jo has decided to close the gallery part of her space - so I decided to bring my work home and work it out from there. Thanks Jo for carrying and promoting my work. Maybe the pieces will join my other work in Entangle gallery-shop.

And the big stash of stuff below has much potential for other creations - so another beginning. I gave a friend, who is moving house soon, a bit of a hand to clean out part of her shed. In return I got to cart away some useful bits. I spent this afternoon sorting out the useful from not so useful; and also a pile that can go to another friend. I'm always amazed how things can move around and be given a new life. The photos below show about half the stash - took a bit of sorting.

The dark has come in, it is raining and a thick mist also shrouds our mountain - so I think it is time to bunker down and drink a warming glass of red.