Gathering rust - literally

 

Fiona and I hope to complete a sculptural post together before we head to Scotland. The post itself is cut, routed, inked and sanded - see below. It now needs rust embellishments such the pieces that together will form the cap for the post - to stop water entering the end-grain of the post. The cap piece is about 15-16cm square. The post is about1-5-1.6m high - very heavy rose gum hardwood.

Following are a few photos of rust I gathering from my stash and cutting over the weekend.

The photo below shows quite a good pile if rusty bits cut from pieces in the first two photos. I really appreciate the fact that my bench top guillotine can cut through 1.5-2mm thick steel including rusty circular saw blades.

The pieces have yet to be drilled so we can attach them with nails. I also need to rust some clouts with acid in preparation for the assembling work which I hope will occur towards the end of the week.

Title page

 

Some will be aware that I have made an unbound artists' book (see photo below) with seven brass sail shaped pages with the lines of a seven line prose poem stamped on the pages. The poem is titled Betrayal - it refers to people from the highland Clearances forced to become fisherfolk. 

See poem at the end of the blog post. 

On my to do list I had a task to make a title page for the book so that it could be displayed in the exhibition in the Strathnaver Museum's annexe with the title page facing upwards and downwards so that visitors can see how the pages are formed and see the stamped word betrayal. The opening photo shows how the pages will be displayed.

Following are a few process photos from today.

And a couple more photos of the very highly polished pages follow.

I was pleased with getting this little task ticked off my to do list. 

The words of the poem follow.

Betrayal

coerced by an inhumane experiment

farmers unaccustomed to the sea 

tried to draw subsistence from a destructive sea 

on a rocky and perilous shore

forced to purchase unsafe boats

served a deadly apprenticeship to the sea

a multitude found a watery grave

Monotremes and marsupials in our backyard!!!!

 

Fiona and I were reflecting on the fact that in the space of a week we have been fortunate to enjoy the beauty the the only two 'groups' of monotremes (egg laying mammals) and two beautiful marsupials (young carried in the pouch). And these beautiful creatures are in our backyard or within walking distance of our home.

The echidna in the opening photos was there to welcome us when we went to check our veggies and G's orchids.

We have now seen platypus quite a number of times in a pool (see photos of a very still reflective pool above) along one of our walks. The photo of the platypus below was taken after it raced away from feeding along the bank just below our feet.

The little pademelon was seen in the remnant rainforest at Mary Cairncross park; and the wallaby with joey in pouch in the area just below our house. The photo further away using my iPhone was taken by Fiona.

How fortunate indeed - we must work hard to support and future such special creatures.

Creativity went into the garden

 

Fiona and I put in quite a few hours over the last few days reworking some garden spaces; adding a bit of art; and relocating orchids for G.

The photo above shows what the walk down beside our townhouse now looks like after we removed bushes that have failed to thrive; creating a garden edge out of tree surround blocks; and planting heaps of violets from G's place. A few more images follow.

We also relocated a bench seat so folk can pause in the garden walk below our house.; and added a couple more cubes to the three we had installed along the walk below our home. The new cubes will grey off over time to match the others - there could be more fiddling with the placement yet!!! We plan to make and install a post in the area behind the bench.

Following are photos of the orchids we relocated for G. He had planted then at Deckled Edge Press but they couldn't be appreciated by folk - so now they are in nooks near his townhouse.

We like this bird feeder we purchased - it is good for offering fruit to the birds.

It is very satisfying to put one's energy into a little gardening creativity.

Finishing

 

I have finished off two artist's proof copies of my It Wont Dismantle Itself artists' book on patriarchy. The main thing I needed to do was to reinforce the pages with light weight black card so that they can be bound. Detail of the embossed front cover is in the photo above.

The photos in this blog post are simply about the process of doing that reinforcing work. The paper that reinforces the edges is attached to the pages using acid free double side tape on both sides of the pages  - a tedious process but well worth it if I can get another couple of copies of this book out into the works.

The finished books, plus Uninvited Hands, packed in cello bags to take to the binder.

Below the unique original that will soon go into a public collection - with Fiona's excellent single page binding with waxed linen thread..