Dawn light and a few blossoms

 

The morning started chilly and dark - a canopy of stars were still out when I ventured out the front door  for a look.

The photos of the dawn light are presented in sequence staring with the opening photo at 5.23am and finishing with the photos at 6.20am

By 6.20am it was light enough to walk - though cold and windy. The grevilleas are starting open and the rainbow lorikeets are enjoying the nectar at dawn. A few other hardy blossoms create colourful moments.

Generally orchids seems to be waiting for the warmth of spring; but some crucifix orchids seems to blossom all year round.

You have probably picked up that I'm a bit enthralled by the winter light on cold clear mornings.

Unbound metal book - Betrayal

 

I spent Saturday progressing my unbound metal book for the Vessel exhibition.  The photo above shows metal cut: stamped for 7 pages of the book; 7 incense burner bowls; and 4 pairs of earring - all with the sail form.

The title of the book is Betrayal as it tells the story of how Scottish Highlands farmers in the Sutherland shire were driven off their land and coerced to become fisherman - many died. 

Donald McLeod, an eye witness to the clearances, reported that in one year in the northern sea of Scotland over 100 boats were wrecked and a multitude of people died.The pages of the book are in the form of sails; and the 7 lines of the story are stamped on the metal as you can see from the photo below.

Stamping metal does not always go smoothly as you can see from several false starts and mistakes in the metal below.

But the following photos show that I have made good progress - including the 7 pages neatly fitting into each other.

I hope finish the work during the week and add the other 6 pages into the stand to accompany the single finished page as you can see below.

Brooch pins and other gorgeous bits

 

Most of the day was spent with Fiona doing curtain stuff for her dad. But I did grab a bit of time this afternoon to turn some of the beautiful bits of metal below into jewellery including the brooch pins above. These pins can be used to pin a scarf or simply as a decoration on one's coat. Fiona tested the prototype and pinned it on the lower side part of her coat. The brass pins are 50mm across.

Some of the components became earrings as you can see below.

I did add a jump ring and a rubber neck piece to a lovely textured melted metal rectangle to make a pendant. The rectangle of metal is about 50mm long and 25mm wide.

There are still more melted metal components to be assembled; but that is for another day. 

Mist, mizzle and gorgeous wallabies

 

It is a very dreich day today - it started dark and full of mizzle and mist as you can see from the photos below. But that did not seem to discourage the local wallabies. Not only did they come out in the weather but came within 10m of our back deck. I took the photo above by sneaking out and hiding behind a deck post. More wallaby photos at the end of the blog.

Now for the dark and misty shots.

Some photos of the wallabies in the mist and below the deck.

And I finish with a photo of one of G's orchids at the studio where we worked today out of the weather. Taken in a break in the rain.

Even on dreich days there are beautiful surprises.

Latest publication

 

Today I started the final task of stitching the Daily Words 'poetry' booklet. The photo above shows a few of the booklets standing strong.

This publication (25 copies) has been quite a long time in the making including the writing of the words - see the photos at the end of the blog for the words on: love, hope, peace, joy, wonder, dream and shine. This booklet can be used to complement the Daily Leaf Words sets I make; or can stand alone.

A couple of photos of the original mock up of the booklet - it has been well used and written on as a record of the publication.

I'm pleased with the outcome of this booklet on both the words. and publication fronts.

The original words for each of the daily words 

The first of these booklets sold today - hot off the press.

All but ready

 

I received a message that said the group behind the development of the community grief garden-journey of life garden want to install 5 posts and the 'rest, reflect, renew' bench seat next week. That means I needed to have the bench seat finished this weekend. Yesterday afternoon was dedicated to glueing and screwing the bits together as you can see from the photos below.

Today was all about routing the words "rest - reflect - renew" into the front edge of the bench. I got up to the stage of inking the routed words as you can see in the opening photo. A light sand tomorrow to get rid of excess ink stain and the seat is ready for pick up and installation.

Fiona prepared a template of the words for me to copy onto the timber and then rout. Photos of the words, carbon paper etc follow.

And then it was on to the routing - not a professional job - still I think the slightly freehand  look might add to the experience of those using the seat. Pretty cute ink pot???

All a bit of a rush but we are getting there.