Fire, rust and flowers

 

Fiona and I did a trip to the east to check out the art and studios of a few Scottish artists including Helen Moore an artists whose work we really like. 

We came across Mick O'Donnell - a blacksmith-sculpture along the trail. Whilst he is a very fine wood turner- more recently he has been dabbling in making art and metal pieces primarily out of salvaged materials.  We enjoyed a yarn, enjoyed a demo of his furnace and bought a small piece. An image of the fire in his furnace is above and below as well some of the rusty bits follow. Mick makes many of the tools and moulds he uses in his workshop.

We continue to enjoy the blossoms - though they are reducing in number - some images of blossom brought into the cottage and played with photographically follow.

Much joy to be found in the work of fellow artists and nature.

Three finished and one to go - watercolours that is.

 

I have finished the commission I was given after the Pop Up Art Show - see image  of white cottage in the opening photo.

I have about one more session on the other commission I was given before leaving Maleny - a cottage and barn belonging to the father of an art friend - see image below.

I found working on the widow alcove provided good natural light and good for the posture - see images below. And a good view as well!!!

Some progress-process photos follow.

I have also finished doing the touch up work on the other two cottages I had painted when last over here but was not happy with the detail - happier now with the paintings - see images below.

With the community art commitments complete I feel the next few weeks will involve a bit more gentle creating-making.

Saw piercing and inlaying metal in stones

It was grand to get time in the Wee Workshop (aka garden shed) today so I could experiment with jewellery saw piercing on a few pendants. Piercing is a fiddly technique where you cut the design into the metal using a very fine saw blade and a starter hole in the piece of metal. In my case I intend to use recycled silver that I have melted, formed in moulds and flattened by putting it through a hand operated roller mill. 

The opening photo is a close up of one of the pieces from today - a dandelion seed head on a stem that grew out of a piece of stoney soil. I was using the hole and organic formed edges of the metal created in the rolling process. I have yet to drill a hole for a jump ring and give the pendant a good clean and polish. The pendant is about 50mm long and 20mm wide - 1mm thick metal

Some process photos follow. The sawing is time consuming as one has to be careful of breaking fine blades.

I had time to use a diamond blade in the angle grinder to cut grooves in two small pebble from the cove. I have glued solid brass rod into the grooves. Both pebbles will require sand and then oiling to bring out the colour. Final photo is oft two pebbles and two pendants in the rough.

An enjoyable day in the Wee Workshop out of the cold and breeze.

Rust and a wee rabbit

 

On Monday Fiona and I went to a neighbouring village to pick up a couple of things from the local store; and to have a takeaway coffee sitting down at the local slipway. After coffee we headed back to the store but detoured when we saw a sign saying "pier" - so we investigated to see the difference between a slipway and a pier. Turns out the pier is quite historic; and a long structure that jutted out into the sea that the fishing boats tied up alongside.

Anyway I digress. What caught my eye was all the beautiful rust around what is now a quasi abandoned structure. In this blog post I share but a few of the images of rust. I like the opening photo of the ladder leading down in to the sea. Other bits of rust beauty follow.

When we were walking to the pier we came across a wee rabbit that had made it's home under some slabs of stone surrounded by good camo grass.

And we spied a boat that may be painted in the future.

Sometimes the unplanned trips offer much joy.

Happy but weary

 

Fiona and I held a salvaged silver-plate metal jewellery workshop today in Armadale Village Hall. It was limited to 8 people but we had 9 including a younger girl. The opening photo of me, by Fiona, shows me introducing the day, goals and an introduction to processes, designs and tools.

We set the hall up yesterday afternoon for a midmorning start today. Photos of the setup follow.

As you can see from the couple of photos following participants were very engaged and productive. All participant made 4 or more pieces.

It was a grand and successful day. I could not have done it without Fiona's assistance - she knows so much about the tools and processes - it meant we could give participant individual attention. As I said in the title were are very happy with the outcome but we are also weary - hence the brevity of this blog post.

New workspace in full swing

 

Yesterday I got to have a really good watercolour art time at my new wee work desk in the second bedroom of the cottage. As you can see from the opening photo I can be progressing and finishing several pieces of work.

Following are some progress photos of the two commissions I've have started.

Whilst the sky background and grass foreground washes of the watercolours were drying I went back into a few other watercolours I almost finished here last time - see below.

The stone cottage ruin is now all but complete - a bit of final pen work to do.

What I love of course is that I can leave all the work out and come back at a later time when I can grab a few moments. That is not likely to happen as today (Friday) I'm packing up the tools and doing the final planning for the jewellery workshop I (with Fiona's assistance) will be holding on Sunday.