The word that came to mind as I walked this morning was profusion - there just seemed to be so many clumps of flowers - so instead of taking detailed photos of blossoms I thought I'd share a few of the profusions.
We have had a few little visitors below our home.
The morning was soft; and I enjoyed the layers of clouds.
G's orchid house offered beauty.
A joy filled morning
Fiona's cousin J (optometrist) - asked if we could have a go at mounting some vintage glasses she had collected. It was bit of a challenge given we were dealing with different styles and shapes. I think the photo above indicates we achieved a pretty good outcome.
The glasses are mounted on reinforced card-paper (300gsm bone coloured paper taped on card); tying the glasses in place using fine copper and coloured wire that matched the glasses. The adjustable binocular type glasses needed to be mounted in a repurposed frame we had. A few set up photos follow.
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It was a job that was made easier with two sets of hands to hold glasses and thread wire. We attached the glasses cases by filing a small notch into the lower section of the cases which meant the wire was almost invisible when the case was closed.
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As I said at the beginning, the outcome was pretty good - the pieces will now go into J's optometrist shop display.
No jumping around it is not about testing new dance moves; but rather testing a few ideas in the workshop. One included finding a more dynamic way of displaying my proposed fleet of fishing boats for an exhibition. My previous idea was to have each boast on its own piece of timber but this was just too rigid.
After I discussion with Fiona I decided to test creating waves out of galvanised mesh - as you see from the opening photo I think this will work - though it will need to be on a much larger scale - about 4.5m long, .6m high and .6 m wide. I worked out a way to use the rod for the mast to protrude through the hull and clip to the mesh - see below - simple and strong.
I was also testing some air dry clay to see if it can be used to cast metal. The upside is you can get good definition of objects to cast; but the downside is that there must be some setting chemical and even after almost a week some residual moisture that resulted in slight bubbling and therefore a poor moulded product.
I have a third of a bag of cement that is going off so I'm using it up to create 100mm cubes with embedded rusty bits. I need to remove some of the surface cement to expose the rusty bits better.
I 'encouraged' the rusting of some screws by treating them with hydrochloric acid - these are to be used to install the large leaf sculpture.
Sometimes progressing art is just about jumping from one thing to another testing ideas.
We have been having some pretty ferocious hot weather - I really couldn't see many upsides to it; but the proliferation of roses in the neighbourhood suggested they were liking the hot drier weather.
We had a trace of rain over night - some of the blossoms were looking refreshed and encrusted with droplets.
A few other bits of colour and bee action on the walk.
G's orchid house offered a couple of new blossoms - many buds showing - a bigger showing next week.
I think this morning's colour would be a contrast to our Scottish Highland friends who have had snow, ice, wind and more ice and wind. Hopefully the blossoms in the blog might bring a bit of cheer.
I decided to finish printing my Daily Words Concertina Booklet today. As you know this has been a bit of an unsuccessful experiment as I'm printing each side of the concertina in one go - but the issue is that I'm printing on a concertina book that has already been folded by the manufacturer. Still more on that later.
Much more fun was had playing with the left over ink to see if I could print on stainless steel fabric that I rediscovered as part of sorting through some art materials yesterday. The opening photo shows it can be done - very dreamlike!! A few more photos of the play process.
Now back to the printing of the second side of the concertina book. I did manage to print the sheets but as said to Fiona these booklets are not of saleable quality.
Also with left over ink I decided to set and print 'go gently' on business card size offcuts. I mixed the leftover gold and copper-gold ink together. I particularly like the ink on the coloured paper.
Though printing the concertina book was a bit disappointing I'm sure some folk will enjoy having them in their pocket. I will leave the ink on the stainless steel fabric to dry for a few weeks before touching it. If it dries I think there is a bit of potential there for an artists' book.
