Common but not ordinary

 

Sometimes because particular species of flowers are in abundance my eyes can drift over them because I'm looking for the exotic. 

But this morning after night rain for some reason my eyes were drawn to Tibouchina, Camellia and Crucifix Orchid flowers. Diving in close showed that because of their abundance these flowers could appear to be common; but up close individual blossoms radiated such beauty.

I hope you enjoy the extraordinary beauty in the opening and following images.

And a succulent flower blossoming on a plant of a wall!!!

'Ordinary' beauty can remind us of hope - and at the moment with all the madness of men we need as many fragments of kindness, joy and hope we can get.

Repurposing salvaged objects

 

Many moons ago I had removed the bowl sections off a few vintage champagne coupes - yes there are such things - certainly a thing in days gone by. They were wider and shallower goblets!!

Anyway I digress. I thought if hammered the bowls to create a deeper shape and planish the back surface, the coupe sections would make good deep ladle bowl sections.

As you can see from the opening photo I have made three deeper ladles. These can be used for ladling hot soup, or stews or ladling jams or sauces into jars - very versatile!!! The handles are a bit longer than usual so one can keep one's hands away from hot or boiling liquids.

A few of the process photos follow: forming handles, formed bowls before planishing, the planishing process and back and front of the bowls after planishing and polishing.

A few more images of the finished ladles. I have used 2mm thick copper rivets on these ladles - cut down copper nails.

These ladles have been put into my online shop under the Culinary Metal category 

Big milestone

 

I have a contract to repair and restore a piece of public art that is made up of 10 footpath art panels with inset metal elements.

Quite a number of the metal elements were missing - a few had been rescued. I had to cut the missing elements from stainless steel with my side grinder as no metal fabricator would take the fiddly job on. An image of some of the pieces I fabricated follows. 

I was not able to glue earlier as there was rain and moisture on the path concrete for three weeks straight - frustrating.

But the exciting news is that after three weeks of being ready to glue the pieces into place I managed to do the glueing yesterday afternoon and went back and  finished in the early hours of this morning. One of the repaired sections with newly glued element appears in the early morning sunlight in the opening photo.

Some of the other glued elements can be seen in the following photos. There is a bit of excess glue in some places but this will be removed in the next stage.

If the weather is fine next week I will return to do repairs on cracked and chipped cement - this is the third stage. The four stages are: fabrication, glueing, cement repair, and paint touch up and clean. 

You can see why I was super excited to get the glueing done and why I saw it as real milestone!!

Indoor and outdoor beauty

 

We have had a prolonged rain period which has curtailed outdoor walks. The danger is that it can be a bit depressing - but bringing some beauty inside, such as in the opening and following images, can remind one of joy and better times.

I'm very grateful that we have had a couple of fine days so I was able to walk this morning and be uplifted by the following beauty.

Even the small and most ordinary bits of beauty can be enough to lift one up.

Progressing art on various fronts

 

Those who read my blog will are aware that I tend to progress various aspects of my art work in a reasonably structured way each week!! 

I attend an art group on Thursday mornings when I can because the group inspires me and Megan is there to provide professional advice. I also tend to work in the workshop a few times a weeks to either make things for my online shop or on exhibition projects such as my recent work on two artists' books for the Narratives exhibition. When I can I work on larger sculptural projects such as the contract to repair a piece of public art. Or I work on my poetry writing at Biblio on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

This blog is about finishing 4 postcard sized watercolours - two to exhibit and two to gift; and starting two more of buildings in the Scottish highlands.

See the opening photo and those following for the finished 4 watercolours.

Below are a couple of photos of the start of the two new watercolours.

I know my art practice sounds quite structured - and in the main it is - though there is flexibility and opportunities to grab other moments in the workshop or home studios. It works for me - a sense of satisfaction in the processes and joy in what is achieved.

Leaf Cycle - trio of metal booklets

 

My second artists' book for the upcoming Narratives Constellation of Stories exhibition at The Little Red Cottage is titled Leaf Cycle. 

The book is in fact an installation of 3 small (10cmx6.5cm) patinated copper booklets. Each has one of the three stanzas my original poem stamped in it. 

The opening photo gives a sneak peek of the installation.

The following photos are some process-progress stages - particularly the stamping of the covers, the middle page and initials on the back page (first photo). 

The booklets are made from naturally patinated copper plate cut from an antique gifted laundry boiler. After stamping the pages they are riveted down the spine with tiny brass rivets. Once trimmed and grinding sharp edges off the booklets are opened. The leaf form in the opening photo has the title of the poem stamped on it.

As you can see from the last photo the metal cut from the boiler has not been hammered straight - this gives the pages a paper like quality - at least that is what I think. 

I'm pleased how Leaf Cycle has come to fruition. Over the next couple of months the stamped ares should become more integrated-softened. I might leave them out in the weather to re-patina!!!