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.

Very chilly morning with pops of beauty

 

As you can see from the photo below we were up early and it was dark and it was chilly - though the clear mornings do lend themselves to some great dawn colours. By the time I walked it was light and there were a few pops of beauty, such as the rose above, even though many of the plants and flowers are in hibernation.

A few more fragments from the morning walk - including a couple of feathered friends collecting 'who knows what' from the roadside.

Even G's orchid house is a bit sparse from a blossom perspective but there are a few promises.

I'm hoping that these few fragments may bring a bit of joy and hope in tough times.

Bouncing around

Saturday and Sunday was about fitting in what I could when I could creative wise. I melted metal; ground daily words leaves; did a bit more work on the posts for the grief garden in town; cut inner and outer covers for my Daily Words booklet and tested the de-bossing on the cover; and sliced some melted metal for earrings.

In fact I did two metal melts one of which resulted in the gorgeous rainbow effect on the boat hull form above - someone said I might have mixed a bit of aluminium in the metal mix - not sure but will see if I can replicate it. The metal is extremely crystalline - almost like glass - can't be drilled without fracturing. Some more photos of the melted metal below- including the wrecked boat hull I finished; and the sliced melted metal.

Photo of the 5 posts for the grief garden - another coat of bitumen on the base.

Some photos follow on the paper and de-bossing for the Daily Words booklet. I need to finish the covers next week and begin stitching the booklets.

All in all a few good outcomes.

Three more metal workers

 

I spent about 4 hours today working with a mother and two daughters testing out their skills at metal work. They had seen my work in the DEP gallery-shop and were keen to have a go themselves. We decided to make a pair of leaf earrings, a leaf pendant each and a small bowl for sacred bits each.

As you can see from the photo above the earring and pendant outcomes were great. I added the jump rings, ear wires and rubber necklace thingy. One pair of earrings has clips as the youngest young woman didn't have pierced ears.  

A few process shots follow - not a lot as it takes quite a bit of attention when working with three novices with tools and metal that can do harm. Each decided on the length and shape of their leaf forms. The youngest decided to make the smallest leaves - quite a challenge but she was up to the challenge.

I didn't get photos of the finished three bowls but you can see one being hammered and polished below.

A very satisfactory day - giving time and seeing joy when people achieve beyond what they think is possible.