It makes me smile to see insects going about their business and enhancing the beauty of the flowers as you can see in the opening and following photo.
In this blog post there are other fragments from the week including: rainbow around the moon, sunrise and sunset beauty, cormorant and platypus by and in the creek and a single feather that drifted down
Rainbow around the moon
Sunrise and sunset
Drifting feather
Such a variety of beauty to enhance the days.
I say big achievement - but what I really mean is that it is a big achievement for me. As you can see from the 'poetry in your pocket' booklets (What Remains, Farewelling the Light, and Flow Country ).
Each of these A7 booklets contains 6 original photos and 4 original fragmentary poems by me. Each of the poems is a response to 4 of my photos.
The booklets are printed on double sided matte finish 220gsm photographic paper. I have used the photographic paper to ensure the printed images are really crisp. The paper had to be printed back to back - feeding from the back tray one sheet at a time!!! This however created a challenge. Because the paper is heavy and has a photographic finish it was almost impossible for Fiona to sew through the 4 layers of paper - and as you can see from the following image the end result was not attractive.
The solution was to get Fiona to teach me again how to hand stitch the books. Process photos follow.
At the beginning I said I had'bound' the books - what I really meant is that each of the booklets are held closed with a band of photographic paper with a small image that repeats a key photo from the booklet.
All in all I'm pleased with the achievement - from original photos, to original wee poems right through to the printing, cutting, sewing and binding. These will be heading to Scotland for the Pop Up Art Show.
I set out to make 5-6 pairs of silver-plated leaf earrings to take to Scotland for the Pop Up Art Show; but as you can see from the photo above I ended up making 8 pairs.
Four pairs are longer and slender - ranging from about 4-6cm.
Four pairs are smaller and some are wider - ranging from about 2.5-3.5cm
The photo below highlights the difference size between the smallest and largest.
Following are some process photos that show some of the many steps that go into the making of a pair of leaf earrings - from cutting metal through to adding the jump-rings and earring hooks seen in the completed earrings.
The other thing about making leaf earrings is that the cutting and grinding is quite fiddlybut the outcome is worth it.
The morning moon lingered in the western sky taking its time to set.
I saw it in many settings such as through the mesh fence and tree seen above; but also in cloud, in dark sky as you can see below.
The sun had not yet risen in the east and the stars made their presence felt; but light began to seep into the sky until it glowed orange.
The recent rain has created the opportunity for fungi to flourish and to create tiny eco-systems such as those below.
We were fortunate this morning to have the sunlight slanting in through the eastern window to briefly highlight Fiona's tiny white flower arrangement.
I am grateful for the many moments and fragments of beauty.
Fiona and I spent time with the letterpress yesterday printing our peace weather grams to send out for International Day of Peace in September. Why so early I hear you ask? Well we needed to get them printed, dry and posted before we head off to Scotland.
I really like the opening and following photo because they demonstrate the ephemeral nature of weather grams; but also seem to speak of the fragility of peace. On Ken's sculptural chair you can see worn weather grams from a few different years that have fluttered to the ground out of our magnolia tree.
This year I have chosen to print - "don't give up on peace". Given all the wars created by weak bully boys it would be easy to just say we can't do anything - but we can - individually and collectively we need to push for peace through our individual efforts and by pushing our own politicians.
Following are a few images of the printing process and outcomes.
And a couple of Fiona and I at work in our micro but very functional printing space.
May we all continue to push for peace.
