Hearts, stars and leaf butter knives

 

A good day in the workshop working on melting, moulding and stamping metal - hearts and stars; and making leaf butter knives.

Opening photo shows a stash of stamped hearts that will be gifted to those you need them. The hearts are stamped with: go gently, hope, love and care. 

Following are some stars that will also be gifted to remind each of us that in our own way we are stars.

When I was sorting metal to melt I came across a bunch of larger brass and copper hearts - I gave them a polish as you can see below. They will probably make their way to Scotland and be offered for sale as paperweights.

A couple of other melted metal images follow.

For the Pop Up Art Show I wanted to make some leaf butter knives from salvaged silver-plated brass. In the past I called these leaf forms-objects pate knives - but in reality they have many uses - including spreading butter, cutting soft cheese, spreading pate, spreading jam.  I made five as you can see from the photo below.

A couple of process photos follow.

So all in all a good use of time - good outcomes.

Mindful metal - hearts and stars

 

There was not a lot of time for making this weekend as Fiona and I have been sorting and sifting stuff, purchasing storage boxes and making up Ikea as part of our transition from our public studio-shop.

I did make some time to melt some metal to make some hearts and stars as you can see from the opening and following photo. 

You might ask why I have used the term mindful metal in the title of this blog post. In a recent conversation with Fiona it came to me that one of the aspects of my metal work was making bits that supported quietness, a focus for daily living or just wishing folk gentleness in their lives. 

The metal work I sell takes the form of Daily Leaf Word sets; trios of silver-plated leave with inspirational words stamped on them, Meditation-Insense Bowls, Memory Keeper Bowls. However, I also have mindful metal I give away - metal hearts with go gently stamped on the back and stars. 

Recently there has been a bit more of a need to give more hearts and stars away so I was glad to get a bit of time to replenish my stash. Progress photos follow.

Go gently hearts are a simple way to wish people well; and stars to remind us all to shine.

A giveaway, progressing posts and cutting metal

 

Recently I reprinted a couple of my patriarchy posters and associated tea towels (aka domestic posters). I still have a few of the tea towels that are grammatically incorrect - apostrophes where they should not be. So instead of throwing them away I decided I would give them away - with the offending apostrophe crossed out as you will see from the photo above and below.

If you want one of these tea towels leave a comment on the blog; and tell me which tea towel you want. I will give the tea towels to the first four folk to leave a comment.

I took delivery of some big timbers - 200mm square by 3m long cypress logs. I'm cutting the logs into posts for a three post sculpture installation. I have cut the three posts I need - enough timber left for another installation.

I have also started accumulating rusted stuff for the posts - still out in the rain curing (rusting) nicely.

I have been asked to make some daily leaf words with specific words - so today I cut up silver-plated placemats for three sets of daily word leaves. Whilst I was doing that I decided to cut silver-plated 'pages' for nine small metal books - see below. I kept the engraved section to give back to the person who donated the placemats to me.

A good feeling when one progresses a few projects.

Progressing product and giveaway draw

©2019 Barry Smith - Leaf Pate Knives and Leafspoons ready for the final polish and tweaking

I managed to get back on track with silver-plated product production over the weekend. As you can see from the photo above I managed to get 15 items to the ground and wire brush polished stage. Now I need to do the final polish before adding swing tags and sending them off to Maleny Additions.

A few process photos follow.

©2019 Barry Smith - Gorgeous detail on this metal cut from a huge heavy silver-plated nickel silver - pieces will become Leaf Pate Knives - pattern will be on the reverse side

©2019 Barry Smith - Pate knives hammered and ready for bending and twisting

©2019 Barry Smith - Metal trimmed from the leaf spoon blanks.

©2019 Barry Smith - On the work bench

I also committed to drawing the recipient of the giveaway today. I did it the old fashioned way - put 9 names in a bowl and draw out the winner - and the winner is Bridgette - so a set of Daily Leaf Words will be packed and sent to her in the next couple of days.

©2019 Barry Smith - And the recipient of the giveaway is Bridgette G-M

Thanks to all the who checked out the post on ten years of blogging. Thanks also to people who still visit and leave comments - that takes time in this click and swipe age - so the effort and support is appreciated.

Small reflective pools

©2018 Barry Smith - Tree of Life symbol seen through clear glass resin on the buffed surface of the recycled metal from the old serving tray - reflecting the light and colours in the studio-garage

I did get time over the weekend to complete 50 tree of life small bowls.

After grinding and polishing the stamped and formed small squared bowls were ready for a pool of clear glass resin.

©2018 Barry Smith  - Fifty small squared bowl forms on the grinding-polishing workbench

©2018 Barry Smith  - Ready for resin on a studio-garage workbench

The glass resin adds another dimension to the wee gifts - it looks like they are not only holding water but each piece is like a small reflective pool. When held in the hand it is like looking through a layer of water at the stamped tree of life symbol below.

©2018 Barry Smith  - Giving new beginnings in life

©2018 Barry Smith  - Layers 

©2018 Barry Smith  - Looking out from the studio-garage to the trees

©2018 Barry Smith  - Small reflective pools - some reflecting the colour of the trees outside the studio-garage

There are multiple layers to these small pieces: metal that is being given a new role and meaning; the micro bowls reflect alms bowls; the stamped tree of life symbol is linked to new beginnings; and the clear resin is linked to clear water one of the important elements of life.

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.

©2017 Barry Smith - Silver-plated brass tags about 3cm long and 2.5cm wide) with peace and tree of life symbols

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

©2017 Barry Smith - Old "Peace Flags" from a few years ago - they have aged well.

©2017 Barry Smith - Old "Peace Flags" from a few years ago - they have aged well.

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.

©2017 Barry Smith - A pretty grungy looking heap of cut, marked and stamped meal - but I'm sure they will make beautiful peace leaves (about 9cm long)

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

Hope and Peace giveaway

At the moment there is quite a bit of despairing sadness that seems to be swirling around all of us. I thought a hope and peace giveaway could just add a little to the ledger side of hope and peace.

So I have decided to have a giveaway of ten pendants - mainly resin and watch part pendants. The photos are not great - bit of a rush and only took one photo of each.

I will send a pendant to the first 10 folk who leave a brief hope and/or peace statement or saying on my blog (not Facebook). So go for it - send a bit go hope and peace out there by mindfully adding you hope and peace statement. If you are interested in a particular pendant just add the number to corresponding to the piece to your statement.

©2017 Barry Smith - 1. Cascade of hearts

©2017 Barry Smith  - 2. Pearls and bubbles

©2017 Barry Smith  - 3. Beauty of brass

©2017 Barry Smith  4. Molten

©2017 Barry Smith - 5. Holding water

©2017 Barry Smith - 6. Brass and resin

©2017 Barry Smith - 7. Looking through

©2017 Barry Smith 8. Wheels within

©2017 Barry Smith - 9. Buffalo horn

©2017 Barry Smith - 10. Time will tell

Thanks for adding your voice to hope and peace.

Something old, something new and a giveaway

I have been working flat out over the weekend making stock for Maleny Additions after I was informed they were running out of ladles; and would also like something new in the leaf line to add to stock for December.

And I'm having a small giveaway to celebrate the fact that I have passed 1000 posts - see the bottom of this post.

But first the ladles. Beautiful handles and bowl forms - a new shape for ladles - quite a conical bowl for some.

©2015 Barry Smith - Ladle handles - formed, drilled and polished

©2015 Barry Smith - Ladle bowls hammered and polished

In the end I had 14 ladles - a couple with a small flaw.

©2015 Barry Smith - Handles attached with copper and brass rivets

I got Fiona to help with the selection of seven to go to Maleny Additions - tagged with Fiona's calligraphic tags - lucky me.

©2015 Barry Smith - The chosen ones - tagged and ready to go to Maleny Additions tomorrow

Six of the remaining seven will go into the studio-gallery for the open studio event on Friday and Saturday (4&5 Dec). And one will go into our cutlery draw - the one at the extreme right-top.

©2015 Barry Smith - Destined for our studio-gallery shop

I also made 9 Leaf Pate Knives - Fiona selected 7 - and they were tagged.

©2015 Barry Smith - Leaf form Pate knives - variation of the Leafspoon design

©2015 Barry Smith - Seven Pate knives tagged and one lonely Leaf Letteropener

I made a start on some Leafspoons but did not finish them - something for later this week.

©2015 Barry Smith

And about the giveaway - I will post one of the small peace doves that have hung on our 'peace' at the front of the block but have fluttered to earth to three folk who leave a comment on this blog.

I will draw the name of the 'winner' out of the Tibetan singing bowl next Sunday; and post the names on the post next Sunday.

©2015 Barry Smith - A trio of peace messengers - naturally patinated copper

Well that wraps up a busy weekend.