Creativity went into the garden

 

Fiona and I put in quite a few hours over the last few days reworking some garden spaces; adding a bit of art; and relocating orchids for G.

The photo above shows what the walk down beside our townhouse now looks like after we removed bushes that have failed to thrive; creating a garden edge out of tree surround blocks; and planting heaps of violets from G's place. A few more images follow.

We also relocated a bench seat so folk can pause in the garden walk below our house.; and added a couple more cubes to the three we had installed along the walk below our home. The new cubes will grey off over time to match the others - there could be more fiddling with the placement yet!!! We plan to make and install a post in the area behind the bench.

Following are photos of the orchids we relocated for G. He had planted then at Deckled Edge Press but they couldn't be appreciated by folk - so now they are in nooks near his townhouse.

We like this bird feeder we purchased - it is good for offering fruit to the birds.

It is very satisfying to put one's energy into a little gardening creativity.

Preparations for sculptural post and cubes

 

Fiona and I have agreed that we should use up the materials we have around before buying more art materials. I decided to get into my wood pile and cut up some of what was there to make a couple of posts and as many cubes as the timber allowed. 

As you can see from the opening photo I have prepared a good post and 7 cubes for turning into yard art. Process photos follow - timber hauled to the cutting area; and the cut pieces. The post is about 1.5m tall and the cubes are 17-18cm.

After giving all the cut timber a sand with coarse sandpaper in the belt sander, I selected the post and the 7 cubes to rout before Fiona and I add rust to them. 

Routing process photos follow - cubes marked up and post routed.

The next stage is to ink up the routed grooves - I got time top ink the post's routed lines.

Talking of using up materials - I decided to treat the remaining square washers and some screws with acid to encourage them to rust.

The preparations is close to being finished - Fiona and I will make time to add rust to the post and cubes.

A cement request

 

A friend asked if I could make some cement cubes that could be used for display purpose similar to the arrangements above. 

I have been mixing up a few basins of pure grey cement and pouring them into silicone moulds as you can see from the photos below.

You might also notice in the photos above  a few random pieces such as  hearts, coasters  and candle burners in the mix. All the pieces need to be finished by sanding off the rough edges. Making the cement objects is a bit messy but also fun. 

Below are three sets of cement blocks plus a couple of circles sanded and ready to be delivered.

Jumping from one thing to another

 

This blog post shows how my art related work can jump around. The three projects I was working on was a bench seat 'commissioned or whatever' by Graham; a post to hold a hose reel for a friend; and production of cement objects and letters for the 13 March open studio at Deckled Edge Press. 

The bench is in the photo above - the cube below is a by-product from making the simple bench. The timbers in the top of the bench are 160mm square - took quite bit of cutting. The timber is milled from trees knocked down in a storm. 

The plank for the friend was cut from a 2m long and 50mm thick slab of salvaged rose gum timber - cut with my battery operated saw. A meandering stream embellishment was routed into the timber and coloured with Japanese black ink to create a bit of interest.

Moulding cement bits was a production line.

Quite a bit achieved over the couple of days