When a metal worker makes a book

 

I have started making a couple of artists' books for the upcoming Narratives exhibition at the little Red Cottage in Maleny. Unfortunately we will be in Scotland when the exhibition opens so we need to get our pieces done well before heading overseas.

One of my books is based on my prose poem on the important and multiple roles of river trees. A you can see from the opening photo the book will be unbound and each book leaf will be in the form of a metal leaf.

A few images of font tests on the flat metal and stamping the pages follow.

Once the book leaves were ground and polished they were annealed and then formed into the curved leaves.

The back of the formed leaves were then hammered on a metal stake to take and wrinkles out of the metal and give the leaves a faceted look.

The leaf forms need to be be given another grind and polish and the curves tweaked.My artists' book Mighty River Trees will then be ready for photographing and for the exhibition.

History - four small watercolours

 

Each of the four watercolours I have just started captures a little bit of Scottish history - a couple of building in the village we stay in when over there and a couple of ruins from the area. See the opening photo for where I got to on Thursday - and the following for some process photos.

I did finish and sign-stamp my two boat and two ruin photos as you can see below.

I'm building a body of watercolours that I plan to show in a pop-up art show in Armadale later in the year and maybe a small pop-up art show in Maleny.

Droplets

 

I never tire of seeing droplets on flower after rain. Most often the flowers seem so refreshed and vibrant and the droplets cling to them like tiny jewels. The flower in the opening image is about 25mm in diameter - so vibrant and delicate.

This blog simply celebrates the beauty of droplets.

And of course droplets on webs!!!!!

I hope that we can all pause to take in and be calmed by the simple fragments of beauty including droplets.

The vagaries and beauty of metal

 

Using salvaged metal comes with is rewards and sometimes unwanted surprises. More on the unwanted surprise later. Image of the furnace at 925 degrees follows.

Some more images of hearts and stars from two different metal melts. One produced stars and hearts with rainbow fire colour as you can see from the opening image and those below. The melt was mainly pewter but with a touch of vintage silver plated copper.

The more silvery melt was pewter with a touch of what was supposed to be sterling silver.

Now about that unwanted surprise. I did a melt at 925 degrees of metal from a vintage silver hand held mirror that was supposedly sterling silver. The metal melted and poured into the sheet metal form as you can see below; but when I came to cut the metal so I could roll it thinner the sheet simply shattered. So there was obviously something suspect about the original claim about the metal - who knows what impurities were in it.

I will remelt the shattered bits and add some pewter and i will pour more giveaway hearts and stars.

The metal used in the bowls and leaf words below was more predictable - a salvaged silver-plated placemat and several small silver-plated trays. The bowls ended up so shiny that they reflected the ceiling of the workshop!!! The leaf words are part of a commission.

The ongoing lesson for me regarding salvaged metal is that it offered mainly beauty but occasionally unwanted surprises!!! 

Solution from a friend

 

I have been mulling over how I might present-publish my small Scotland photo inspired poems - and then out of the blue Fiona received the gift of a small booklet from her friend Annwyn - I was immediately attracted to the clever layered design.

The possible presentation of a photo and poem might look something like the  opening photo - booklet size A7. Annwyn gave me permission to base my booklet on her design - much appreciated.

As you can see from the photos below I had sketched and worked out the measurements for my booklet during one of my biblio sessions.

Then I did the cutting, printing, typing on the old typewriter and stitching - with Fiona's guidance regarding needle, sequence and thread size. Photos of the process below.

The closure I settled on was my design - a wee toggle made from silver-plate; and at Fiona's suggestion a typed end page.

The mock up has given me the chance to do a practical test of the design - there will be a few refinements.

It is likely that I will not get to publish any of the poems until later in the year - too many things to do before we head to Scotland.