The hard work of an installation on the block

Sculpture on the edge of the 'rock river' - the sculpture stands 2m tall

I roped in neighbours and a fellow artist to help with the task of installing the big (and heavy) post assemblage-sculpture in the photo above. A bit of a scruffy, generous and willing team.

The challenge was to take the sculpture from outside the studio-garage, down a steep flight of rural stairs and along two further terraces before lifting it into place. Fiona guided the team, gave a lift and push here and there, gave advice on orientation and straightness, and took most of the photos.

I had dug the hole in the cool cloud of an early morning.

The following photos show some aspects of the low-tech installation process.

Of course one needs  a photo of the detail

And a couple more of the sculpture from a couple of different parts of the house

The circle of peace

What a wonderful surprise came in the post a couple of days ago. Luthien of Altered Alchemy sent me a stash of gorgeous and intricate Bookmarks for Peace for gifting on to other folk to promote peace.

I had sent Luthien a stash of Peace Leaves to be distributed for peace. Her beautiful response was not only to distribute the Peace Leaves; but also to make the stash of Bookmarks for peace.

These Bookmarks for Peace are part of the important circle of peace - they will just keep the peace ripples going.

Small shallow vessels

I was meant to be making 'product' (Leaf Spoons and Leaf Pate Knives) for Maleny Additions and Entangle in Dayboro. But then I realised I needed to make a few bowls for gifts. So I made the vessels first. I did make a good start on the 'product' as well.

Metal for small bowls usually comes from the bases of silver plated objects like goblets or small round trays; or sections of small silver-plated trays. Bases of the objects can often look pretty bad before hammering and polishing.

In the end I made six small bowls that I refer to as Star Bursts or Fungi depending on the shape of edge of the vessels.

An a gorgeous couple of small bowls from copper offcuts - I polished the copper bowls with a brass wheel which transferred a film of brass onto the copper.

I made three very recycled looking shallow bowls from the bases.

I have enough bowls to choose the three gifts I want.

Post assemblage-sculpture for the block

©2017 Barry Smith  - Reversed 2 soldering iron - patina and greyed timber

I got time today to finish the largish post sculpture that will be set up near the 'rock river' down the back of the block.

The sculpture is made from: a 2.5m long piece of 20cm square hardwood; a set of brass branding irons (numbers) that were gifted to me; and about 30 copper soldering irons that were also gifted to me; and a square piece of brass plate. It will be a very structured piece; but I think the timber, copper and brass will work well in the rock river setting.

©2017 Barry Smith - Setting out branding irons and soldering irons on the front face of the assemblage-sculpture

©2017 Barry Smith  - Branding iron O and soldering irons for the back face

©2017 Barry Smith - Soldering irons for the side faces

©2017 Barry Smith  - A few of the back to front numbers and soldering irons in place

©2017 Barry Smith  - A few of the back to front numbers and soldering irons in place

©2017 Barry Smith  - Patina and greyed timber

©2017 Barry Smith  - Patina and greyed timber

©2017 Barry Smith  - The completed work - does not photograph well on the horizontal

The assemblage-sculpture is very heavy. I need to dig quite a large hole for it to be concreted into. We will need four people to get it into place. Probably do it sometime next week - maybe.

Morning after rain

This morning's walk was in the mist - both going and coming home.

Lots of gorgeous fresh droplets of mist water.

Tiny spider webs accentuated by a slight covering of mist.

The fire pit has been totally filled - that will be appreciated by the birds.

The good news is that we have had quite a lot of rain; but it has been relatively gentle; and our tanks are once again full.

Sculpture on the block

©2017 Barry Smith - Patinated copper soldering iron head on timber

Over the last week I have been inspired to start using up some of the timber and found objects that I have been collecting. I want to make a few assemblage-sculpture installation pieces for our block: one by the small garden shed; a couple out the front near the entry path; and one bigger one for down the back near the rock river.

I roughly sketched out a couple of pieces that were going to incorporate greyed timber and vintage solid copper soldering irons - I have a fairly massive stash of soldering irons.

©2017 Barry Smith 

First one of the sculptures for out front. I have taken a nice twisted, eroded and greyed piece of hardwood Fiona and I picked up by a roadside months and months ago; and I have added cylindrical copper soldering irons I had in my stash. The timber is about 1m-1.2m long and about .35m wide.

I worked  out the placement of the soldering irons (below).

©2017 Barry Smith  - Working out the placement of the copper soldering irons

I cut the handles off and drilled holes that neatly fitted the shafts of the soldering irons; and then put them in place. The Fiona and I discussed the potential location of the piece - we decided to place the piece on right hand side of the path as you are looking out the kitchen window.

©2017 Barry Smith - Initial placement of the sculptural piece

©2017 Fiona Dempster - Good curves and lines after playing with placement of the piece

©2017 Fiona Dempster  - Part of the garden setting 

Some additional detail photos.

©2017 Barry Smith

©2017 Fiona Dempster 

©2017 Fiona Dempster 

In Wednesday's blog post I referred to the sculpture-installation I put in place over near the small garden shed outside Fiona's shed-studio. I have simply taken some very old, eroded and greyed posts that were formally part of a cattle yard ;and have used the existing shapes to make an interesting installation. This installation will need additional rusty bits to be added.

©2017 Fiona Dempster - Cattle yard post installation in progress

©2017 Barry Smith - Catt;e yard post installation - just in need of more rusty bits

I have started on the big post assemblage-sculpture for down the back - but more on that another day. I'm very pleased that the block is getting a few additions that will make it looked loved.