Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Like a suspended curtain of pink light

When we woke this morning the sky looked quite nondescript - a bit cloudy and grey. I thought I would be walking out into a winter type morning - but nature had other ideas. Over a period of about 15-20 minutes the sky turned pink with fragments of cloud suspended in the the sky.

©2016 Barry Smith - A pink curtain of cloud
©2016 Barry Smith 
And it didn't look too bad on Monday morning either.

©2016 Barry Smith
The light poured through the breaks in the cloud in the east as I walked Treehaven way.

©2016 Barry Smith 
And of course there are a few things that catch the eye as one walks along.

©2016 Barry Smith  - Moss against a soft grey section of the sky
©2016 Barry Smith  - The promise of even more colour
©2016 Barry Smith  - Bent but beautiful
©2016 Barry Smith  - Never give up?
©2016 Barry Smith  - The promise of an orange crop?
And strangely enough the sunlight was flooding in through the kitchen window as we prepared breakfast - lighting up the orchid on the sink and hypericum berries Fiona brought home from Melbourne so we can dry them and see if we can grow them

©2016 Barry Smith  - Jewel orchid given to us by Fiona's dad
©2016 Barry Smith  - Hypericum berries on the kitchen widow ledge
With starts to the day like that one has to kick into it with a smile.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Highway haul

©2016 Barry Smith - Quite a lovely lineup go worn blowtorches
I went for a one full day road trip with Fiona's dad. yesterday. She is away for friends and business so I thought it was a good opportunity to go to a market and a few country towns in our region to check out and buy stuff for lamps and silver-plate. There was about 5.5hours driving involved; but as you can see from the photos below the road trip was worth it.

©2016 Barry Smith - Hand pumps used in the past for pumping fuel out of 200litre fuel drums
©2016 Barry Smith - Stirrup pumps - already partially disassembled
©2016 Barry Smith - Very slender hand pumps
©2016 Barry Smith - Vintage gas welding piece
©2016 Barry Smith - Brass hand pumped fire extinguisher
©2016 Barry Smith - Pair of geared hand drills
©2016 Barry Smith - Slender solid fuel sobering iron
©2016 Barry Smith - Different view of those blowtorches
Quite a few lamps in that lot; and shiny stuff from the seven trays below.

©2016 Barry Smith - Some very l;argue sit;ver-plated trays in this stash
I think I now have enough blow torches for the moment; and my silver-plate bank is maintained.

Friday, August 26, 2016

Preparing for Japan

©2016 Barry Smith - Tiny tags
Fiona and I are joining a fews of our artist friends (N, C & M) in a Sunshine Coast Council sister city art exchange in Tatebayashi Japan in October. The exchange will, amongst other things, include a one week group art exhibition; and a one day citizen's festival.

At the festival the group will work with festival participants to create an environmental themed art piece that could include: a hand made book; a print; a handmade brush; brush art works on paper; a stamped metal leaf; and a string and metal tag to hold it all together..

I have been cutting 100 pieces of metal for flat leaf forms; and 100 small tags with punched holes.

©2016 Barry Smith - Leaves in the rough
©2016 Barry Smith - Lots of leaf offcuts
©2016 Barry Smith - Tags in the rough
©2016 Barry Smith - How the leaves started
©2016 Barry Smith - 100 brass leaf forms cut from an old brass jardiniere 
Today I started the process of polishing the bits - mainly tags today.

©2016 Barry Smith - 100 polish small (from 12mm square to 15mm by 20mm) brass metal tags 
I have also been testing the stamps with different hammers and different surfaces under the metal.

©2016 Barry Smith - Peace, hearts, tree of life, footprints - surely these are all linked to the environment!!!!
I came to the conclusion that a 1kg hammer and the end grain of a hardwood block would work best. Now I'm off too have a Friday night glass or two of red.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

The usual impacts of grey skies

We are still officially in winter so I should not be surprised that there are grey skies when we wake early.

The moon setting in grey sky can produce some unusual colours - I love how the background to the moon almost becomes purple or grey-purple.

©2016 Barry Smith - Pastel  moonset
©2016 Barry Smith - Contrast strengthens as the moon gets closer to the horizon and as I zoom in
©2016 Barry Smith - A pale gold moon in a purple sky - impact of zoom?
The grey sky also impacts on the final stages of the moonset - the moon just seems to fade away.

©2016 Barry Smith - A fading morning moon
©2016 Barry Smith - A fading morning moon - sinking
The valley this morning was full of rushing clouds.



The sky over Treehaven Way was pale grey-blue which made for some nice wire and bird on the wire contrasts.



There are signs of spring - new flowers are beginning to appear.



©2016 Barry Smith - Nectar feeders had chewed these blooms off - they were scattered on the ground (weeds) below
Good that when I begin my walks the sun is now up - a real bonus.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

A new direction in resin

At the official opening of Entangle Living Art's gallery-shop in Dayboro one of the owners Nola asked if I would make some resin cufflinks and key-rings to complement the resin jewellery I had taken down for the opening.

©2016 Barry Smith - Resin and watch part cufflinks
I have made 6 pairs of the cufflinks and made a few resin brass circles for the key-rings. I started the cuff link process using flat and square or rectangular cufflinks that Fiona's dad had bequeathed to me. Small watch parts were set in the resin. I taped a small frame around each cufflink to hold the resin. After letting them to dry for a day and a half I sanded them into shape. A few photos of the individual pairs follow.

©2016 Barry Smith - Resin and watch part cufflinks
©2016 Barry Smith - Resin and watch part cufflinks


©2016 Barry Smith - Resin and watch part cufflinks

And a photo of the brass circles also with resin and with parts.

©2016 Barry Smith - Resin and watch part key-ring parts
Whilst the resin dried I did some preparation for the citizen's festival we will participate in when we go to Japan for the exhibition in October. I'm making 100 flat brass leaf blanks for metal stamping and 100 small brass tags. But more on that another time