Go gently hearts

 

One of Fiona and my sayings for 2023 is "go gently" - encouraging ourselves and others to be kind to ourselves, kind to our minds and move through the world more slowly, quietly without judging ourselves too much.

I made probably about 15-20 metal metal hearts with "go gently" stamped on the back. These have been gifted to folk over the last few months.

I decided that I would make another stash to have in reserve as give aways particularly when we return home from Scotland.

I tend to do a metal (pewter) melt when I'm in the workshop doing other tasks. Each time I get to pour about 4-5 hearts of two sizes. 

By adding a few brass offcuts to the mix I fluke it sometimes and get a pour that has a gold sheen and even a purple dot where the pour is finished. This blog post just shares some images from a few of those pours.

Whilst I have quite a few hearts in the tool box draw I will make s few more over the next week.

The hearts will get stamped with "go gently" when I return from Scotland.

Darkish morning and bits of beauty

 

It is official - it was darkish this morning when we rose - the village lights were still on as you can see from then photo above. But by the time I got to walk the morning light  was creeping in so I could see many bits of beauty.

Though we are into autumn it has still been warm enough for plants to think there is still time to bloom - including orchids in G's orchid house.

I always hope that sharing the colour in our neighbourhood might bring a little joy to those folk who are caught in an ongoing winter.

Progressing sails and hulls; and testing new fixing arrangement

 

As I have said in an earlier blog post doing multiples in metal can be tedious and time consuming. I am making process with the sails - a stack of 100 cut and ground blanks above.

I have started to drill holes in the blanks for the mast to go through - see below. I'm doing this before I anneal and form (hammer) the sails.

I also wanted to test a new more stable but detachable way of fixing the boats to mesh - photos below. As you can see the new design clips around one strand of mesh and over the adjacent strand.

Because I got bored and my arm got tired  with drilling holes for masts I made a start on folding the metal for the hulls. I have worked out that I can use a groove in my aluminium vase jaws to bend the blanks in half - saves a lot of hammering on the anvil.

The copper patina on some of the hull blanks is gorgeous.

Done and off to the framers

 

As you can see from the photo above I have completed the 5 small assemblages made from a few collections of bits. 

A few photos of the process follow - stitching the metal collection on to Khadi paper (300gsm) with copper wire; and attaching the pencils with double sided art tape.

A few photos of completed metal pieces.

The pieces are now with James Frames to mount them on a dark green-grey mount board. 

Touched by the sun

 

One of the positives of the changes in the season (from summer to autumn) is that the mornings appear darker and the sun is rising just a bit later. It means when I go for a walk the angle of the sun appears to be a bit lower and catching flowers etc at a different angle. Now that might be all scientifically wrong; but I was fascinated by the sunlit blossoms, birds and webs this morning.  I particularly liked the web on a crucifix orchid plant above - you can see the wee spider hiding; and the orange blossoms below.

Of course there were many more - some shared below.

Birds catching  the early light.

The sun was not filtering into G's orchid house; but there was beauty to behold.

Autumn mornings and autumn light appear softer and a delight.