Rustnstuff

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Cascading impacts and other bits including a new technique

I intended to create quite a bit of my Found and Formed earrings and pendants over the weekend; but the universe had other ideas.

Fiona and I discovered a bad smell in my garage-studio. We tracked the smell down to mould that was growing on the wall and books that had become wet. So this meant shifting a few biggish bits of equipment and a heap of metal and timber away from the wall. The problem seems to be caused by a blocked air conditioner drain pipe that is built into the wall. The problem provided the opportunity not only to clean the wall and dry the floor covering; but also to sort the metal and timber and to build a book wall from the books that had become wet.

As you can see from the photo below the books have created a new feature on one of the shady terraces below the house. We ended up doing a host of other sorting clean and fixing tasks but they are way too boring.

©2017 Barry Smith - Red section of the small book wall with mini-agapanthus that will gradually grow over the books - books are held in place by the gravel and the occasional iron rod hammered into the ground through the spine of the books

Another impact on the Found and Formed earring and pendant plan was a new request. I have been asked to convert a couple of blank silver rings into 'stylish time related rings' by adding copper and brass rod into the rings and also inserting watch cogs. Inlaying metal rod into silver is a job I have never done. I decided to practice on a bit of ring sized silver plated tubing I cut from a small candle holder. Using a small and sharp metal chisel I cut an s shaped groove into tubing. I then used a very small riveting hammer to hammer copper wire into the groove (inlaying); and then folded in the burred edges. I also drilled into the tubing and set a small cog at the end of the inlaid copper. I think I have a identified a technique I can practice a couple more times before attempting the real thing.

©2017 Barry Smith - Ring with inlaid copper and watch cog - bit hard to see the copper as it was hard to photograph the ring because of light reflections. The width of the silver-plated brass tubing is about 6mm

I made a bit of a start on the Found and Formed jewellery by cutting and drilling quite a stash of silver-plated tea spoons and other bits I discovered as part of the recent cull and clean.

There is still quite a bit of grinding and polishing to be done; but at least I have made a start; and the spoons etc just won't be hanging around.

Friday, February 10, 2017

Making product and creating by-products

I was making a few pair of resin cuff links and watch earrings as stock for Entangle Living Art shop-gallery.

I always find that the process of making often results in other bits which I call process by-products.

The earrings started with watch bodies.

These needed to be drilled and have posts and crystals attached before polishing and attaching earwires. Five pair of watch earrings emerged. Some of the photos are a bit blurred - too much rushing.

The cufflinks started with old cuff links and a selection of watch cogs.

After pouring resin, sanding the pieces to shape and then polishing I managed to achieve 4 pair.

Left over resin created a few pendants.

Resin also went into creating a few watch pendants for three sisters to remember a father by.

Now of course there is the paper work and posting to be done. But it was good to achieve these outcomes today.

We will have bubbles tonight as Fiona completed another commission - adding story words to one of the large wall art pieces in our local IGA.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

After a mist of rain

Whilst the other side of the globe has been blanketed in snow on the mountain we have been hot and dry. So dry that I have noticed that the Magpies seem to be divesting themselves of under-feathers such as the one caught on one of our rusty sculptures on the block.

But last night we got a light misting of rain (2mm) that seemed to wash the dust off many of the plants and gave them a fresh look; and of course many held droplets.

I'm glad I got out to photograph the Aquarian moon two nights ago. Though scudding clouds darkened the sky the moon features were strong.

This afternoon there was a little more rain - for the plants and birds sake let us hope that there will be a little more. Even for the pumpkins that are taking over the coffee patch despite the lack of rain.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Hope and Peace giveaway

At the moment there is quite a bit of despairing sadness that seems to be swirling around all of us. I thought a hope and peace giveaway could just add a little to the ledger side of hope and peace.

So I have decided to have a giveaway of ten pendants - mainly resin and watch part pendants. The photos are not great - bit of a rush and only took one photo of each.

I will send a pendant to the first 10 folk who leave a brief hope and/or peace statement or saying on my blog (not Facebook). So go for it - send a bit go hope and peace out there by mindfully adding you hope and peace statement. If you are interested in a particular pendant just add the number to corresponding to the piece to your statement.

Thanks for adding your voice to hope and peace.

Friday, February 3, 2017

Recycle and resin

I'm just finishing the sorting phase of the year so hopefully will get to the first of my art projects over the weekend.

The bench was still littered with bits and pieces that need to be sorted including: giving a bit of new life to brass and steel ring objects; and I had to salvage some of the resin works done by the school children. Fortunately there was left over resin from the children's work which I had fun making a few pieces.

First the brass and still rings. After drilling out rivets and removing excess metal the bits were ready for polishing. They came up well.

I needed to salvage some of the children's resin work as we had a batch that did not harden. In the flurry of activity on the day we probably just did not measure and mix part A and part B properly. Bit of a mess as you can see below.

So I decided to redo 10 glasses and 10 bags of rubbish and resin. I know it does not replace the children's unique work but I just did not want them to feel that did not have a reminder from the workshop.

With the leftover resin I was able to set in resin: a slightly badly formed silver-brass metal heart; some convict nails; brass offcuts and a silver-plated starburst bowl; and finished the layers of watch cogs piece I have gradually built up from excess resin.

©2017 Barry Smith - Layers of watch cogs - probably 10 layers - using up left over resin over the past year - set in hammered silver-plated bowl made from a goblet base. About 6-7cm in diameter and about 12-15mm deep.