Friday, September 29, 2017

Working with what you find

©2017 Barry Smith - Tiny hammered funnel shape on rust
I was not greatly motivated today to do creative work - there has been a lot on over the last little while; Fiona and I have both been a little ill; and it was extremely hot.

But a look around my metal hammering bench revealed a number of bits and pieces I had sweated off various objects. I kept them because I thought they would make interesting funnel shapes when hammered.

©2017 Barry Smith - Not pretty
©2017 Barry Smith - Not pretty but lots of potential
The metal, hammer and stake called me so  I decided to give them a go by working at the bench inside the garage-studio with the fan on. They hammered up well.

©2017 Barry Smith - Hammered shapes
The beauty however is drawn forth on the grinding polishing bench. Against the rust of the rust bench the true beauty of the shapes, silver-plate and the hammer marks show forth.

©2017 Barry Smith - The beauty of silver-plate on rust
©2017 Barry Smith - Beautiful collection
©2017 Barry Smith - Hammer marks
I think a cold glass of something white is required tonight.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Mainly about moisture and crucifix orchids

©2017 Barry Smith - Pristine - pure droplets and new Gardenia blossom 
Whilst we did not have rain overnight we did have something between a heavy dew and a mizzle.

We woke to a whiteout in the valley.

©2017 Barry Smith - White out from the top of the driveway
The morning walk revealed how much the blossoms revelled in the the moisture and collected droplets.

©2017 Barry Smith - New growth on the Peace Tree with droplets
©2017 Barry Smith - Clear chains of water 'crystals' on a new web
©2017 Barry Smith - Miniature pink crucifix orchid with droplets
©2017 Barry Smith - Orange  crucifix orchid with droplets
©2017 Barry Smith - Pale crucifix orchid
©2017 Barry Smith - Pristine white crucifix orchid with droplets and webs
©2017 Barry Smith - Standard pink crucifix orchid with droplets
©2017 Barry Smith - Red crucifix orchid with droplets
©2017 Barry Smith - Droplets on mini Agapanthus
Great to have even small amounts of refreshment for the trees and blossoms given our current dry.

A rusty gate hinge on a weathered post - part of a new installation of posts on our block - more on that when we have added more rust to the posts - Fiona says we need a rust playday.

©2017 Barry Smith - Rust and wood

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Words to focus the day

©2017 Barry Smith - Hammered bowl with rusted sprocket
Over the weekend I managed to finish 4 sets of Daily Leaf Words. The motivation was that I had sold my last set.

Many folk are aware that these sets started out as a mini version of Fiona and my daily exercise of each drawing out an inspiration word out of forty that Fiona has written in calligraphy on decorated light card rectangles.

Initially I made sets that had seven inspirational words stamped on small flat rectangular pieces of silver-plated EPNS or copper. These were presented in a shallow hammered silver-plated bowl. But my Peace Leaves inspired me to stamp the words onto metal blanks and turn them into small leaves. The seven leaves in and around the small hammered bowl looks a little more sculptural; and I think attractive. So Daily Word sets became Daily Leaf Word sets. The current set of words are: love, wonder, peace, hope, shine dream and joy.

The sets have turned out well - similar but unique.

©2017 Barry Smith - Fine concentric circles
©2017 Barry Smith - Reverse side of the hammered bowl
©2017 Barry Smith - Fine concentric circles
©2017 Barry Smith - Very worn silver-plate - quite a bit of copper showing through
A few photos of the process.

©2017 Barry Smith - Metal cut for Daily Leaf Words, Peace Leaves and Leaf Spoons
©2017 Barry Smith - The bench with bowls and leaves in progress
©2017 Barry Smith - Assorted hammers on the bench
©2017 Barry Smith - Twenty eight leaf words - each leaf os 7cm-7.5cm long
The sets are now ready to go to new homes.

©2017 Barry Smith
A few small hammer bowls made from silver-plated copper offcuts.

©2017 Barry Smith - Four small hammered bowls on stone


Thursday, September 21, 2017

Imagine Peace - International Peace Day

©2017 Barry Smith - 'Peace Tree' at the top mom the block with Peace Weather-grams and Peace Doves

International Peace Day has arrived - another annual opportunity to pause and imagine peace.

This year the world just seems to be in need of a lot more of it to counteract what seems to be an outbreak of mad threats and intolerance.

©2017 Barry Smith - I loved the small new green shoot that is in the foreground of one of
Fiona's Peace Weather-grams - a symbol of hope and small beginnings



At our place on the mountain we will just pause a few times today to wish, hope and imagine peace.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Desperately dry

©2017 Barry Smith - The weave and colour of an unfolding grevillea
It seems that we are in drought on the mountain - so many people are having to get water trucked to fill their tanks; the grass and plants are all struggling; as are the birds and animals. This is the first year that the nectarine crop was wiped out by bats whilst very green; and orchids and green bananas seems to be fodder for possums.

Even so nature seems to be able to persist and offer colour and texture as can be seen from a few shots from my walk this morning.

©2017 Barry Smith
©2017 Barry Smith
©2017 Barry Smith - Like snow in spring
©2017 Barry Smith - Delicate perfection
©2017 Barry Smith - Contrast
©2017 Barry Smith - Unfurling
©2017 Barry Smith - A scatter of colour on the road
©2017 Barry Smith - Upside down Lorikeet
©2017 Barry Smith
©2017 Barry Smith 
©2017 Barry Smith - Gorgeous tiny trio
©2017 Barry Smith - Contrast of flowers, dried fungi and wood
Still I hope that over the coming weekend we get a little rain to wash off the dust and give the plants and animals a refresh.

Sunday, September 17, 2017

Picking up the threads

It is a period we all go through - having a lot of commitments; creating havoc in our studio space; and needing to clean up to enable us to start again.

Well that happened to me over the weekend; and after cleaning the surfaces I discovered a number of projects I needed to finish including: Peace Doves (sort of doves!!!) for our peace tree; Peace Leaves for Fiona's dad to take to his meditation group; big copper leaves for the next in the Bending series; and bowls and leaves for a few sets of Daily Leaf Words.

The priority was the Peace Doves - I needed to make 10 new doves to add to the five that were still in in the tree from last year and the ones that had fallen out of the tree to make up 21 for International Peace Day.

©2017 Barry Smith 
I got them done and as Fiona was hanging her Peace Weathergrams I hung the Peace Birds.





I managed to finish the 10 Peace Leaves for Fiona's dad to hand out before International Peace Day.


And I roughly cut out the silver-plated blanks for the Daily Leaf Words sets.


So all in all I feel I have reclaimed my garage-studio and am doing things I want to do - get feeling.


I ended this post with a lovely bit of patina just because it is beautiful.