Worth revisiting

 

On most of our stays at the cottage Fiona and I take a trip to Orkney - it is one of those places that simply speak to us. On a few occasions we have revisited Gurness - an iron age broch village. We visited Gurness again yesterday and were fortunate to get great sunshine between rain showers. The broch and surrounding buildings sat on the very edge of the coast as you can see from the opening photo.

It has been estimated that the broch was built somewhere between 500 and 200 BC. Information says the broth was about 10m in height and probably took 20 people over 6 months to build by hand.

As you can see from the following photos the village was an amazing solid complex that would have supported a sizeable number of people.

Further photos show some of the homely and complex aspects of the broch including the double walls - there were steps and passage ways between the walls. Most inner walls and storage spaces are stone.

It is just amazing what the builders achieved such a long time ago. The last photo is from the Gurness shoreline looking across to another broch village on the island of Rassay.

Wee stones for the hand

 

I have grabbed another couple of moments to go to the Wee Workshop to make a stash of quite small stones with metal. The opening photo shows one of the finished stones in Fiona's hand. The photo below shows me holding the smallest stone - about 2.5cm - on a leather pad in preparation for a one pass cut with the diamond blade.

A few more process-progress photos follow. The first one shows a stash of stones on the bench beside the side grinder and green diamond blade.

The final photo shows two completed stones in the palm of Fiona's hand.

Fascinated by light

 

Over the last week or so we have had such light early morning light shows. Some reach wide and deep such as the opening photo and a couple following. In the second photo below you can see the Orkney Islands!!!!

Some colour the bay and beach.

Some create amazing sky-sea vistas.

And the morning moon has its own charm.

I  am grateful for such beauty.

Metal and stone

 

There hasn't been much time for making over the last couple of weeks. I have grabbed an hour here and there. Today I grabbed a couple of hours to finish off some small stones with inlaid metal; and sawed a pair of earrings.

Four completed stones can be seen in the first and last photos in this blog post. I say they are small stones because the longest is about 4cm. They are comfort or memory stones to be carried in one's pocket or bag. They fit comfortably in one's hand and quickly take on the warmth of the person holding them. A couple of the stones were requested by a friend in Australia; and I hope to make enough for sale at our Pop Up Art Show in the Little Red Cottage in Maleny at the end of November.

Some process photos follow. The grooves in the stones are freehand cut with a diamond blade in my side grinder - a task done carefully and quickly - one quick and light pass of the rotating blade.

A few photos of the pierced jewellery process and rough cut pieces follow. I intend to take the rough cut pieces back to Maleny and finish them before the Pop Up Art Show. The earrings and pendants are being made from salvaged metal - a mix of brass and silver.

As I said at the beginning a final photo of the four stones - arranged by Fiona on a drink coaster!!!

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.