Back to basics

 

Over the weekend I got back into metal work. This blog is about a couple of basic vessels - bowls - photos above and below. The bigger bowl is 13.5cm in diameter and about 4.5cm deep; and the smaller one is 12.5cm in diameter and 3.5 cm deep.

Following are a few process photos including metal marking and cutting, planishing the smaller bowl on a metal stake, the completed but unpolished smaller bowl and the polished smaller bowl.

The bowls will make their way into DEP gallery-shop. It is a good feeling to be hammering and forming metal. I also cut quite a bit of metal for leaf-spoons, tea caddy spoons; and melted offcuts and poured hulls for small boats - but that is all for another blog.

Back to metal - some shiny - some not

 

I have sold a few bits and pieces of my hammered metal lately so it is time for a restock. Today I managed to get a few more Starburst Vessels (above and below) into the shop at Deckled Edge Press studio-gallery. The vessels in the opening photo are made from good silver over copper; whereas the two sets below are made from more worn metal.

I also got a bit of time to cut copper plate - some shiny and some not so shiny. These pieces of copper will become larger patinated copper leaves. The shiny ones will become indoor pieces. The grungy piece with a bit of patina will become outdoor pieces - most likely as part of my Bending Series. The shiny copper blanks are 180mm long; and the others are about 210mm long.

It was good to be back to cutting and hammering metal; but also using up more of the resources in the workshop.

Patinated copper bowl on post

 

I have completed the last element of the rusted large three leaf sculptural work. The whole work is made up of three large (1.4m to 1.8m) rusted Corten steel leaf forms to be attached to a slat wall and a large hand formed copper bowl on a 20cm square post with routed and inked line.

The opening photo shows the patinated bowl and top section of the routed and inked post; and the last photo shows the whole post and bowl.

Following are some bowl forming photos. To get a smoother finish I used the metal stake as a hammer and hammered onto the anvil from the inside - rocking the bowl back and forth.

I washed the bowl and then applied a patina solution - really a diluted acid. The bowl has been given a light coat of matt varnish to stop the patination process.

A meandering line was routed on to the post and inked with black Japanese ink. Do you like my ink pot - a silver-plated pepper dish in a former life.

The finished piece stands strong.

I think the combination of the rusted leaf forms and patinated bowl will look special.

Large copper bowl

 

As part of a commission I'm forming a large (about 450-500mm in diameter) copper bowl out of an old clothes boiler that someone had flattened the bottom of and been using it in the garden. The bowl is coming along reasonably well as you can see from the opening photo. I quite like to fire colour in the photo above - it was taken after annealing and quenching.

After cutting the boiler down I started to 'sink' the base to create bowl shape.

A few rounds of annealing and quenching took place.

As you can see from the photo below the bowl needs a few more rounds of annealing and hammering to improve the shape and to get some of the wrinkles out.

I hope to do a bit more work on it tomorrow. I can only do an hour or two at a time as it is quite a noisy process - and there are neighbours close to my workshop. It is a bit of a challenge to handle a bowl of this size when hammering on the anvil or stake. I'm mainly using a largish Japanese wooden hammer for the first stages of the work.

Studio sale - 25% off all items

 

Our 25% off studio sale at Deckled Edge Press studio-gallery is on tomorrow (Saturday 19 Nov 10am-4pm); so today was all about setting up.

The sale will include some of my sculptural work (see photo above and below), new works (including small metal boats and the sculptural form Poised), and some old favourites like my pendants and earrings, leaf forms, Daily Leaf Word sets, vessels and cement pieces.

Photos of some of the sculptural pieces that will be for sale, including a new cube and an Artisan Lamp, can be seen below.

A couple of the new pieces.

Some of the old favourites.

And Daily Leaf Word sets and silver-plated bowls.

Everything in the online shop is also for sale at 25% off on the sale day; but not everything in the physical shop is online. To get your 25% discount on the online shop items enter the coupon code STUDIOSALE22 at checkout.

Hoping friends and supporters can pick up a pre Christmas bargain.

We are also doing a fund raiser for Maleny Neighbourhood Centre (MNC) - all framed items and paper sample packs on our special fundraiser table will be 50% off - all proceeds from the sale of these table items will be donated to MNC. Another chance to pick up a bargain; and at the same time support this great local service.

Weekend fragments

 

My time over the weekend was a bit fragmented - spent some of Saturday at DEP and all of today. So the outcome,e was a bit of metal and a bit of letterpress as you will see from the blog post.

I did get to polish the bowl (about 15-17cm in diameter) above. I liked the heavy hammer marks so rather than smoothing those away I decided to leave the bowl as it is. Made from a vintage silver-plated placemat.

I finished the bowls and leaves for the three Daily Leaf Word sets.

I spent quite a bit of time proofing and adjusting the middle pages of my daily words poem book. I wanted to get it right so that I can repeat the layout and lock up for the remaining pages. I will attempt to do an edition of 20-25.

In response to the decision of governments regarding omicron I decided to print a nano-poster (20 copies ) simply reflecting the fact that countries require healthy people if the are to have healthy economies. Seems sensible to me that you can't produce and deliver if you don't have a workforce to do that. Beautiful vintage 72 point wood type - love the grain and old ink staining some of the timber.

So a very bibs and bobs weekend really.