Moon rising and setting, sunrise and iPhone magic

 

As the title suggests this blog post is a mixed bag of moon, sun and blossoms. The opening and following photos are the moon rising - not quite full. The setting sun adding a glow to the tree branches.

The moon setting this morning.

The sun colouring the sky this morning. Two different time periods - one earlier front the front door and later on my walk along tamarind Street.

And me playing with the camera on the iPhone to capture the beauty of a few blossoms.

Pausing to soak in and record beauty lifts my spirit.

More for the Pop Up Art Show

 

A mixed bag this week. I managed to start two new watercolours; finished one watercolour; and made two sets of fungi forms.

First the new watercolours - you can see in the photo below I first did the outlines and the opening photo shows I got to setting down glazes.

The following photo shows the finished watercolour of the rusty shed at Kirtomy cove.

And the following images are of the second set of fungi forms I completed yesterday. 

The fungi form bowls are based on fungi that grow on fallen logs in the forest areas around our town

Back on the hammer and stake

 

It was good to get time in the workshed today to make a set of fungi form bowls - you can see the outcome in the opening and following photos

As is often the case there are many steps in creating these small forms - turning the disks of metal into small bowls; putting an indent into the indoor centre ; and systematically hammering the bowl on my 'finger' shaped stake.

A couple of process photos follow.

A photo of my handmade stake (made by a blacksmith in Portland Oregon: and my hand made Japanese metal working hammer  follow.

Photos by Fiona of me hammering.

A good session in the workshop!!!!

Inside and out

 

As you can see from the last couple of photos in this blog post this morning was dark and misty - ok for walking initially not so good for iPhoneography. 

So before heading out I took some photos of a few of the little art installations Fiona puts together in our kitchen, dining and lounge room. I played with the iPhone settings to create some staged slightly arty images.

By the time I walked I could take a few photos; but again using the setting I used for the indoor photos - I quite like how they turned out.

And as I promised at the start of the post - here are a couple of images of the dark and misty morning.

Beauty takes quite a few different forms!!!

This and that

 

In the lead up to our upcoming trip to the cottage in Scotland I'm busily making product for the Pop Up Art Show in the Armadale village hall (29 and 30 August). 

I want to take a set or two of my fungi form bowls with me. These would be similar to the trio in the opening image. However, I sold the last set this week - so back to the workshop to start making another couple of sets.

As you can see from the photos below I have selected, marked up and cut circles - a good start made. I'm using salvaged silver-plated brass metal from round placemats.

Scotland inspired postcard sized watercolours will also feature in the Pop Up Art Show. On Thursday I managed to finish a couple as you can see from the photos below. 

The barn in the first watercolour is located in Strathy and at the time I took the photo for the watercolour the barn was surrounded by gorse in full bloom hence the rich yellow!!!

I know that jumping from one task to another will be a feature of my art making over the next few weeks - but it is good to be creating and also have a purpose in mind.

Preparation for jewellery making in Scotland

 

When at the cottage Scotland I hope to make some pendants and earrings from the rolled recycled silver that I rescued from one of my batches of melting silver offcuts and objects that folk had given to me for recycling. See this blog post about melting the salvaged and gifted silver.

As you can see from the photo below of a couple of pages of my journal I had sketched out some ideas for making saw pierced jewellery. 

And as you can see from the opening photo I have scribed images onto the metal and drilled the starter holes at relevant points through which the saw blade will be threaded. I also gave the metal a bit of a trim and ground the sharp edges off. You can see the rough metal in the image below.

So the plan is that I should be able to saw the image lines either in the micro Scotland workshop (aka garden shed); or if it is too cold the work might get done at the kitchen table. At least I have prepared the metal to give this idea a go.

Stars, blossoms and moon in the morning.

One of the pleasures of a clear cold winter morning is the stars glowing in the low morning light as you can see from the photo above and below.

On my morning walk I was a bit surprised to see that there are still quite a few beautiful blossoms despite the winter.

On Monday morning I was surprised to see a beautiful saucer moon fragment before and during early sunrise.

Yes there are still fragments of beauty to shine a little hope and joy on this broken world.