Rustnstuff: 04/17

Sunday, April 30, 2017

Ladles and vessels

I did manage to finish eight ladles and trio of cone shaped vessels I started on Friday. I also completed a set of salad servers (below) for a friend.

Ladles - first some progress shots

And the finished products

I love the contrast of the shiny silver-plated vessels against the rust on the rusting table.

©2017 Barry Smith - Trio of cone shaped silver-plated vessels - the largest at the back is about 4-5cm in diameter and 5cm deep - note the finer hammer marks on these vessels compared to those in the photo below.

Now I need to create a price-product list of seven of the ladles. Only seven will go to Maleny Additions as one ladle had a corrosion flaw on the inside of the cone shaped bowl (below) so it has now made its way into the kitchen draw.

Friday, April 28, 2017

Beautiful beginnings

There have been two beautiful beginnings in my art today: finally getting into hammering vessels again; and the delivery of the cut aluminium plate for routing the poems.

I spent this afternoon doing the first round of hammering on the vessels - I forget how much I enjoy working with the metal - pushing it in the directions and shapes I wanted.

Over the weekend I hope to finish these off.

I spent part of the morning with the firm (Miles Plastics) that will be responsible for routing the poetry on the Buttress Root sculpture metal. The 3 sheets of metal had been cut to their flat shapes by the fabrication shop (FreeForm Sheet Metal) and delivered for routing. I needed to work with the owner and CNC router operator to specifically measure out the sections for the poetry.

A good day of Friday art - first time for a long time that I have been able to spend most of the day on art. Fiona is cooking up something exotic so it is just about time to raise a glass and celebrate the day, life, togetherness, art and peace.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Dark and the moon; dark morning light; magnificent camellias; and other matters

At times the Wednesday photographic blog post is a bit of a mixed bag. This week I have really begun to notice that the mornings are getting darker when we rise - not surprising I hear you say as we head into deep autumn on the way to winter.

I was particularly taken by the dark sky and contrast of a sliver of moon when we arrived home on Tuesday morning after the ANZAC dawn service - looking to the east.

The lights of the Port of Brisbane were still visible when I wandered out to the kitchen after our early exercise morning rise.

I took a couple of strolls on the terraces this week - how could one not given the huge amount of Camellia blossom and masses on petals on the gravel like big snow flakes.

I loved the bee action at such an early hour of the morning - seems they were collecting dew, honey and pollen.

And a small home in one of the maple tree near the rock river and camellia bushes.

Every season surprises me.

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Pieces for peace

Over the weekend I progressed the work on the 210 peace leaves for International Peace Day (21 September). In the main I was: marking the fold line on the metal blank; and stamping the word peace on each blank.

But this can be a receptive job so I went off on a couple of tangents. First when looking at a piece of tray I had cut down I suddenly decided I would make about 30 peace-tags to give away. I was inspired by Liz A's generous giveaway of imagine peace pins; Fiona's giveaway of inspirational letter press words; and Mary-Jane D's inspirational stamped metal.

I thought this giveaway might just help to keep the conversation and ripple of peace going.

If you want one of these tags for yourself or to give away to inspire someone else to think about peace - let me know by email (including your address).

I also came across some of my old metal peace flags from a few years ago as I rummaged around looking for metal - I thought these could get another outing in some form in the future

But of course I got back to the marking and stamping of my peace leaf blanks - over 220 in the pile. I always make a few extra to deal with metal failure in the folding and unfolding stages.

Now all that is left to do is: folding; cutting of leaf shapes; unfolding; and grinding and polishing. I'm well on the way.

Friday, April 21, 2017

Fabrication and installation - simple little words

When making art to-do lists we can get into the habit of reducing much work into a couple of simple headings to ensure the list is clean and concise. But of course when we come to-do the actual tasks one finds that there are many to-do dot-points under the simple heading. This is the case with my public art Buttress Root poetry trail sculpture that has been funded; and I'm now implementing (fabrication and installation).

Who would have thought that one of the to-do dot points was to go to the metal workshop and approve the computer drawings that will drive the water jet laser cutting machine. The laser will cut the flat 10mm which aluminium sheets before they are sent off for routing and rolling. At this stage there is not a lot to show except for the computer images of the drawings I signed off on. Quite large pieces of metal in reality but on a smallish computer screen.

And of course as mentioned above there are quite a number of steps involved in fabrication. The following dot points give you some idea of the process over the next month:

Meeting with the metal fabricator (Kawana) yesterday (Wednesday 19 April) to view and approve sheet metal cutting drawings.

Finalise welding, grinding and sanding approaches. Remember the finish of the sculpture is brushed not polished.

Agree the footing arrangements for the sculpture - the footings need to be able to sit on and be bolted into the concrete slab from the first pour; and then the second pour of concrete incorporates the footings and about 100mm of the sculpture into the slab of the second pour.

The sheets are to be cut with a water jet laser cutter by 21 April (today????).

The cut sheets will be transported to the workshop (Caloundra) that will use a CNC router next week (week beginning 24 April) for the routing of the poetry. Delivery and routing process is likely to take a week depending on the company's work schedule.

Send the routing instructions (agreed with the poets) to the routing company (yesterday). When the sheets arrive at the workshop meet with the owner to mark out the sections for routing.

Visually check and sign-off on routed poetry.

The cut and routed sheets will then be transported to Brisbane for rolling in the week beginning 1 May. It is anticipated that rolling will take a week depending on the mill’s work schedule.

The cut, routed and rolled sheets will be transported back to the metal fabricator (Kawana) in the week beginning 8 May for welding, grinding and sanding.

Allowing for delays in routing, rolling and welding it is anticipated that the sculpture should be completed by the week ending 26 May.

So you can see even the simple word fabrication can include quite a number of steps, over a number of locations and over a fair amount of time.

But hopefully it will be ready for installation in early June. Installation - another simple word with many steps!!!!

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Moon on the water and other fragments

A few days ago Fiona and I were standing in our quiet corner choosing our words for the day and enjoying the beauty of the valley in the early morning light. I noticed the setting moon being rejected in the still water of the rusty fire-pit. I thought I would try to go outside on the decks and take a photo. To my amazement the reflection could only be seen through the window of the quiet corner and no where else. I took a couple of photos of this early morning beauty through the window glass.

Such an ephemeral thing - only for that brief time, in that small body of water and from that one spot.

The soft early morning autumn valley light.

A focus on white on the morning walk.

Sun fringed clouds and blazing sun peaking from behind the cloud bank - along Treehaven Way.

The autumn light is now beginning to dip into the house in the morning at a very low angle creating pools of refracted light and rainbows

The morning had a decided chill about it this morning - we are moving closer to winter.

I thought I'd share the photos below from our local community neighbourhood centre. One of the women (Barb) on our gardening group mended a split wheel barrow creating such a great stitched pattern