On the razor's edge?

I enjoy listening to ACDC's music when I am working in the yard or in the garage. It seems right when I am doing heavy stuff. Seems to make moving gravel or beating metal that bit easier. The title of one of their tracks refers to living on the razor's edge. That title came to mind when I saw the blade of an old rusted wheat scythe in a junk shop. The blade is about 800mm long. I always wanted to create a stark simple piece using the blade. To me living on the razor's edge can, amongst other things, refer to being at a turning point in one's life - on the edge - able to go one way or another.

I reforged the blade's handle attachments so that they were at right angles to the blade. As you can see from the photos below I have attached the modified blade to a block of Huon Pine (850mm high,160mm square).

Barry Smith © Razor's edge

Barry Smith © Razor's edge 

Barry Smith © Razor's edge

Barry Smith © Razor's edge

As usual on a Friday my art work tends to be done after lunch and therefore photos of pieces are often taken outside towards dusk. Today the sky was quite menacing with low dark clouds. Unusual light - almost makes the shots look black and white. And whilst I have said it reminds me of the ACDC track the blade also reminds me of half a feather or a crinkled leaf.

Stolen minutes in the studio

It has been a bit of a full on day today. We have done such a mix of things the day just seemed topsy-turvy.  We have had over 700mm in 4 days; have done the library lift; and now many of the buildings along the OBI Obi , including the library, have been sand-bagged. We were making calls to see that family and friends were Ok in the flood; getting calls to see we were OK; buying extra rations as the town was already isolated; dehumidifying moist rooms; hanging up a bucket to catch the drips of water going in on my computer (it worked a treat); and doing a repair job in the storage area under the stairs where water was seeping in. And of course there was the work-work to be done. I'm already feeling tired just writing about it all. But honestly we are only inconvenienced in comparison to the people in Toowoomba and surrounding area - so many deaths and so many missing.

However Fiona and I decided that we would still try to do our bit of time in the studio.   I have started another small personal shrine (270mm high & 210mm wide). As the photo below shows this will be a very simple but classic shrine filled with historical energy and human connections.  The centre piece will be a rectangular crystal with an inspirational word under it - I experimented with the 'openness' to test how the crystal would fracture the word.

Barry Smith © Ages past shrine

Barry Smith © Fractured word

The shrine is based on the leather cover  (over board) of a destroyed 1888 photo album - pretty special given the age and so many memories that have been carried in the album but are now gone.

The threat of flooding

The rain over the last two days has been torrential and relentless. We have had 250mm (10inches) from 9am-6pm alone today.

The house is dry and to this point the terraces and retaining walls are working. But as you can see from the photos there is a lot of water. We have never before had water flowing down our rock river but we have today: and the water is literally spraying out of the retaining wall in front of our house.

The local river, the Obi Obi, is now rising fast and pushing up against the bridge that crosses the river near our library. Fiona and I were called out tonight to join a bunch of other people (about 20) to get all the lower books,  furniture, computer etc onto tables out of harms way.

The dark photos show the water pushing against the sides on the bridge and submerging a sign that is normally beside a walkway under the bridge (2m high); and also over the small trees that are on the banks of the river.

Fiona's phone shots -tree

Fiona's phone shots bridge and sign

The water is lapping the bottom of the walkway outside the library. Hoping the rain eases tonight and the library gets a reprieve. Of course we are not suffering the flooding that so many are experiencing in our State. An area the size of France and Germany combined is now badly flooded. Very strange weather pattern.

Leaves to hold

In the world I'm sure there are other people like myself who like to hold and touch the texture and energy of things. On my desk I have quite an array of bits including slumped glass, small clay tablets, carved bone, small saki cups etc to hold and generally fiddle with.

I thought that some people might relate to foldformed leaves that also enfold some focus or inspirational words. I had done a prototype in the past but wanted to do a series. Well I tried that on Friday and the silver plated brass just collapsed. So on Saturday I tried it again with a different piece of silver plate and some brass from a reclaimed jardiniere.

As you can see from the above it worked reasonably well - but the question is would people want to hold such pieces and use them as energy or focal pieces.

I also experimented with a longer (150mm) romero fold leaf but added to the design by retaining some of the centre fold to create a leaf stem.

And you can't do chopping and cutting of metal without thinking Bazola. So some pieces are silver plate and some are zinc coated brass. You might note that one of the broken leaves from Friday has resurfaced as Bazola bits - maybe a set of earrings?

The little known bin dance.

We recently had our friend Jeff stay with us to catch up but also sort out some stuff we are storing for him. We got a collapsable 3cubic metre skip for the heaps of cardboard, paper etc that needed to be disposed of.

Well  it was getting pretty full so after a night of rain I decided to do a little dance on it to pack it down. It worked - we fitted a lot more stuff in. Note the clouds and misty rain in the background.

Fiona took the above candid photo of me doing my dance. I thought it was pretty funny so thought I'd share it. And of course I was dressed in sartorial splendour for the occassion!!!!

Unpredictability of recycled metal

My Friday aim was to mage a second larger bowl out of the zinc coated brass from the spray backpack; and to make some fold formed leaves with inspirational words inside.

As you can see from the photo below for some reason the silver plated brass I was using for the leaves just did not take to being annealed and worked.  The metal seemed to become brittle and just snapped. As i have indicated on earlier posts the metal that has been used over the years as the base for the silver plate varied greatly in quality and it is hard to tell the difference until it is being worked.

On the other hand the zinc plated brass worked a treat. This bowl is about 250-300mm wide and 50mm deep. It is quite thin metal so I line it with a second heavier bowl to give it strength. The end result is the soft rippled edges - almost like paper or the petals of poppies.

Barry Smith © Zinc plated brass bowl with spiral

I also like the great contrast and highlights I got using this metal - but alas the big pieces are used now. Smaller pieces can be used for small bowls and Bazola bits.

One of the larger bowls will be part of an outside font; and the other an inside font or offering bowl. Both will go into the March exhibition.

Smile for rust lovers

Fiona's dad keeps an eye out for bits of rust and metal for me; but also rusted related things of interest. He dropped in this gem of a cartoon by Leunig that was published in the Sydney Morning Herald Weekend Edition Jan 1-2 P.21. Thought the rust lovers out there might get a smile out of it. Should we just leave the rust alone - that is the big question?

Fiona has started this cleaning program which went underground today - down into the studios. I felt compelled to follow suit this afternoon. Mind you given the state of my work bench I just had no choice.

Still the bench is clear for a bit of beating of metal tomorrow.

The 30kg anvil is one of my favourite pieces of equipment. I managed to give most of my metal working hammers a bit of a buff as well- so I am all good to go.

Shiny days

My time in the studio over the last couple of days has been spent on making bits for Bazola; and polishing bowls and leaves. The Bazola bits have gone Noela's way so that she could make a commissioned pendant.

Barry Smith © Bazola Pendant bits

The bowls  will become  part of incense or offering bowls for our March exhibition.

Barry Smith © Incense & meditation

Barry Smith © Foldformed bowls

And the leaves are there just because I enjoy doing them.

Barry Smith © Copper foldformed leaves

It is good to be able to play with shiny stuff given the number or grey and rainy days we are having at the moment.

A little time doing art

Fiona shared with me that she had read that no matter what artists should spend a little time with their art each day. It means more than just reading about art or someone else's art. It means going to the studio and either starting, continuing or even just planning something - getting the creative juices going. I am going to see if I can do that in 2011.

For Fiona and my joint exhibition in Studio 4 Gallery in March one of the series I am working on is offering and incense bowls. Yesterday and today I have worked on the small incense bowl below. It deviates from my normal round bowl - it is oblong in shape. Again it is not big it is meant to be a niche or window ledge piece. It is about 100mm high and 150mm long.

Barry Smith © Incense Bowl - Japanese Temple

I wanted it to have a bit more of a Japanese Temple influence look about it.  Fiona took a photo of me holding it to show how small it is; but also to show that it has the look of a Japanese Temple gate look about it. It was a bit dull and stormy outside when the photos were taken.

Barry Smith © Incense Bowl - Japanese Temple

As usual it is really strong as I used my new diamond drill to drill through the stone and the bolts that hold it together are glued into the based rock.

A flight of letters?

I have completed my A Letter a Week 2010 (ALaW) art challenge; and have now signed up for ALaW 2011. I turned my second alphabet into a flock of birds.

Barry Smith © Flight of Letters

Barry Smith © The whole flight

The birds were created by bending each of the 7cm squares of rusted metal on the diagonal; bending some wings tips upwards; and creating a head by bending the tip of the diagonal bed downwards. Each bird is drilled in the centre of the diagonal bend; a piece of recycled wire coat hanger was flatted at the tip to allow the 'bird' to stay in place without sliding down the wire and pivot and be taken off for transportation; and the wires are placed in holes drilled into old rusted wood splitting wedges.