Stitched metal...

 

I'm making an effort to finish off some metal work before heading to the cottage in Scotland. I planned to make 7 Daily Leaf Word sets. I have all but finished the sets of leaves; but had hardly made a start on the bowls - today was the day as you can see from the photos in this blog post. 

But working with metal can have its challenges. I was using metal cut from different silver-plated trays - some silver over copper and silver over brass. However I discovered that one larger tray I cut up was in fact silver over brass that had nickel added to it - makes it more silvery.  In past blogs I have reported that depending on the amount of nickel the metal can't really be annealed and can be prone to split. The metal on two of the bowls split. As you can see from the opening photo one split badly. Rather than scrap the bowl I decided to finish hammering it into shape and stitching across the split with 1mm brass rod. I like the outcome.

Before I show some process photos, below are few more photos of the two split bowls - including a spiral patterned bowl - the only ones I completed today. The shiny metal was reflecting the painting on the wall - I rather like it.

And as promised some process photos.

I hope to finish the other 5 bowls over the weekend.

Mainly looking down

 

It was a cold morning made bitter by a biting breeze. A couple of photos of the cold dark clear morning light follow.

My hoodie was up so my eyes were mainly looking down at the ground hugging blossoms - but there were a couple of glimpses of the big blue sky as in the opening photo and the one below.

On to those looking down photos.

A walk to G's orchid house offered some morning smiles - unusual bi-coloured crucifix orchid.

Even on a bitter breeze day there are fragments of pre spring beauty.

Small scribed and etched cube

 

It has been a very busy weekend looking after visitors and getting parcels ready to send to Scotland. But I did need a little creative hit so I decided to make a small cube ( 62mm cube) using one of the aluminium plates with etched circles and to create a counter point I carved lines into another plate that had not been etched. Completed cube above.

I cut a 55mm wooden cube; and as you can see I have clad it in aluminium plate using solid brass nails. Some process photo follow.

And of course the cube from a couple of different angles. Each of the six faces is different.

What am I going to do with it I hear you ask - at this stage I have no idea - just created because I thought it would look grand.

Etched words and hearts for the grief garden

 

I have etched the plates for the five posts that are to be erected in the MNC grief garden. Each post will have an etched plate with a word on the front face and a heart symbol (such as the above) on the top.

The aluminium plates were etched with a mixture of copper sulphate and table salt. Below - mixing the  potion, bubbling brew and copper residue floating to the top. The face of hearts and words sit about .3-.4mm above the etched metal - see the L towards the end of the blog post.

The paint used to stop the hearts and words being etched away was removed with nail polish remover when the plates were etched, and cleaned.

Some photos of the finished plates.

I need to drill some holes in the plates so they can be attached to the posts.  

Glorious morning - so much promise of spring

 

The morning started dark (see photo below) and cold; but as soon a the sun was up the birds and wildlife told a story of hope and abundance. And at breakfast time rainbows were invading the house - see above rainbows on a curtain and a painting.

So many birds feeding on nectar- see photos below of a tiny brown honey eater and others.  

Many blossoms were touched with refreshing droplets from a light shower of rain overnight.

And others just showing promises of colour.

G's orchid house is also offering joy.

An uplifting morning.