Another full Friday

I always have good art intentions for Friday - in fact I look forward to signing off after lunch and heading for the studio/garage.  It was not to be as intended. My word for the day was "abundance"; and I think that meant an abundance of different things.

I had a community meeting; we packed Fiona's 5 works for the presentation to 5 nuns and arranged to have them couriered to Melbourne; we entered a heap of work-work research data; had a catch-up afternoon tea with Fiona's folks; and then I managed to get down to the studio.

But joy oh joy - I managed to make a cuff-bracelet as I planned it (see photo below).

Barry Smith © A hint of brass and blue - cuff/bracelet

The inspiration came strangely enough from the fact that I was shortening a belt to fit me and ended up with a nice length of black leather - which suggested the inside of the cuff. So with the addition of a piece of blue anodised aluminium, a piece of annealed brass from a spirit stove and a few copper nails for rivets, the cuff was created.

Barry Smith © A hint of brass and blue - cuff/bracelet - before bending

Barry Smith © A hint of brass and blue - cuff/bracelet

Fiona modeled the cuff-bracelet - it is soft against the skin and because of the two metals riveted to the leather it is pliable and can adjust to the arm-wrist.

Barry Smith © A hint of brass and blue - cuff/bracelet

Barry Smith © A hint of brass and blue - cuff/bracelet

I feel good after the creative time. It is good to be home and able to get into the studio again - I have missed it - thank goodness the work-work travel is over for quite a while.

Rust and words

Every now and then a theme emerges from photo taking. A couple of months ago on a bush-walk at Rainbow Beach Fiona and I encountered the following rusted words that were part of a sign about a great coastal walk.

Barry Smith © Rusted word 1 - Rainbow Beach

Barry Smith © Rusted word 2 - Rainbow Beach

When we were in Perth a couple of weeks ago we came upon a fairly formal bronze statue but the base was a magical combination of reconstituted stone and rusted Corten steel. Messages about the progress of WA under the esteemed leader were spelt out in cutout words. I selected a few.

Barry Smith © Rusted word 3 - Perth

Barry Smith © Rusted word 4 - Perth

Barry Smith © Rusted word 5 - Perth

Barry Smith © Rusted word 6 - Perth

Barry Smith © Rusted word with shoe print - Perth

Barry Smith © Rusted word 7 - Perth

All photos were taken with iPhone - I never cease to be amazed that some different colours appear without manipulation. But I do find that rust and cutouts and edges make for some good iPhonegraphy manipulation. So I couldn't resist sharing a few of the photos that have been given different treatments.

Barry Smith © Manipulating words 1

Barry Smith © Manipulating words 2

Barry Smith © Manipulating words 3

Barry Smith © Manipulating words 4

Barry Smith © Manipulating words 5

Usually I try a few approaches before I save the changes I want - the pattern and colour etc of the original dictates what works best.

Public art we saw in Perth

Whilst in Perth Fiona and I continued out early morning ramblings in search of coffee, exercise and the art of the city in the soft light and peace of early morning. Though the light is not always good for clear photos.

We came across some fairly major and large pieces of work including: the large red ribbon (my title for it); a group of people; and a group of kangaroos.

Barry Smith © People in the morning light and shadows

Barry Smith © Now I call that a red ribbon of steel

Barry Smith © Kangaroos in iron

But what I liked best was a group of 10 smaller bronze works tucked away between buildings.  Below are some fragments of the detail of the works.

Barry Smith © Bronzes between the buildings

Barry Smith © Magical  bronze apple

Barry Smith © Apple stork 

Barry Smith © Flying dog on the apple

Barry Smith © Inquisitive bird?

Barry Smith © Small bird in the branches

Barry Smith © Tree against the blue

Barry Smith © Pod?

I also liked this drain cover.

Barry Smith © Drain

We discovered a formal sculptural work that was mounted on a marble and Corten steel base - beautiful rust - but that will have to wait until later. All photos were taken with the iPhone.

"Five golden rings"

Our Collaboration of Maleny Artists (COMA) Coordinator-in-Chief, Ken Munsie, has given us another art challenge: to create a piece of art on a 12x12inch canvas representing in some way some aspect of the rhyme 12 Days of Christmas.

In most of the other 11 parts of the rhyme there is just too much drawing and painting required; so I thought I might be able to present the "Five Golden Rings" by beating a piece of brass cut to fit the canvas. For this challenge I have had to use new material as I did not have recycled brass that size. I had copper but the words were not five copper rings!!!  As you can see from the photo below the work is finished - apart from mounting on the canvas, signing and a little more polish.

Barry Smith © Five Golden Rings

The 'rings' were beaten from the back to create rings in relief. The front was beaten to sharpen the edges and to give a patterned texture. The work took a few annealings as the metal wanted to twist and warp as the circles intersected etc. But the annealing created some good colour - mainly on the back.

Barry Smith © Lovely annealing rainbows

I wanted to give the piece an aged look. I wanted to use Ferric nitrate but had none; but we had some Ferric sulphate. I brushed a mixture on to the heated finished piece; and then left it out in the open while we went to Perth - the photo below shows the rather scaly and rusty-crusty result.

Barry Smith © Beauty below the surface

But it polished off well with very fine steel wool and left some lovely patina behind; and then the edges and the high points were given a polish on the buffing-polishing wheels.

Barry Smith © Five Golden Rings - completed and polished

So I think I'm ready ahead of time with this piece - ready to hang later this month.

Learning new skills

A month or so ago attending a day of jewellery making seemed like a good idea. As it got closer and the work-work and travel started to bite Fiona and I questioned our sanity. On Sunday we attended the course (10am-3pm) and throughly enjoyed ourselves. It was like a circuit breaker. We were away from home so we could not do any work-work or work in the yard. We were participating in something where we did not have to perform or deliver. We could just immerse ourselves in learning.

The course taught by Christine O'Rielly focussed on creating jewellery from aluminium and perspex. The thing that attracted me was the opportunity to combine foldforming, the moulding of perspex and riveting.

Though I did a couple of other bits my main focus was on a prototype cuff that used recycled red anodised aluminium from a saucepan lid, black perspex and hand formed copper rivets. The finished product turned out well - rich and stark

Barry Smith © Cuff bracelet - aluminium, perspex and copper rivets

Barry Smith © Cuff bracelet 

Barry Smith © Cuff bracelet 

The perspex was shaped by heating the rectangular piece in a kiln to about 180 degrees; and then rolling it onto a piece of bamboo which was the diameter I was looking for.

Barry Smith © Perspex and bamboo

Barry Smith © Cuff bracelet 

Fiona really got into it and created some great earrings; and bits for other creations. The colour of the photo of Fiona's bits is a bit distorted - not sure where the pieces picked up the blue reflection.

Barry Smith © Fiona's creations

Check out Fiona's post for her view of and pics from the course.

Image catchers

Whilst I enjoy capturing and altering images with my iPhone I never count myself as a photographer - yep metal worker and sculptor but not a photographer in the league of many of the people I admire in our blog community.

Fiona and I have been fortunate to buy a couple of images captured by Suzi Smith of Lone Crow Photos.  I just loved Suzi's ability to capture the mystery of the flight of a crow and different moods of the moon. The photos arrived on Friday when we arrived home from Perth.

Barry Smith © Lone Crow Photos

Barry Smith © Lone Crow Photos

Of course in taking a couple of closeups of the photos for this post I ended up with what I think are a couple of fragments that add their own tones and mystery.

Other photographic artists I admire, to mention but a few, include:

• Tammie  who does such excellent panoramic and macro shots; 
• Gabrielle of Two Tigers Creations who capture the mood of the city and seasons; 
• Leovi who creates such colours and abstracts; 
• Elena who can make multiples and even unpeeling a garlic look magical; and 
• Ruma who introduces us to the magic of the Japanese landscape and kanji script.

Friday draw - giveaway

Over the last couple of days Fiona and I have been over to Perth and back for work-work - got back late-ish this afternoon. And whilst we have been on the go catching up and doing shopping and family stuff I did remember that I was to draw the earring giveaway.

So all the names in the comments on the post were written on paper; cut and folded; placed in the Tibetan singing bowl; and two names were drawn out of the bowl by Fiona.

A bowl of names

And as you can see the giveaway recipients are Robyn and Anna.

The earrings below will head overseas to Robyn as her name was first out of the bowl.

Barry Smith © Earrings for Robyn

And the earrings below will be sent to anna - second name drawn.

Barry Smith © Earrings for Anna

Thanks to everyone for contributing to the comments especially sharing your views on recycling and art. May we hunters and collectors grow and turn more of the discarded into renewed beauty.

I have some great public art in Perth photos to share but that will wait until tomorrow.