Rustnstuff

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Early grey light

Today has been grey, cloudy and rainy. Because it is Wednesday we started the day before sunrise - Fiona off to her exercise group and me walking - before the rain.

Before heading off for my walk and just after returning home I captured the grey light of early morning - another light panorama of the valley and mountains below our house.

And because the photos were taken with the iPhone I played with a couple using my favourite app to see what additional light and colour could be drawn out of the vistas.

I love the pixelated early light when the iPhone zoom is up to full power.

As I have said before I never tire of the magic that nature and the valley offer. I was thinking this morning that I might do a Blurb book on iPhoneography panoramas of the valley from the last couple of years.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Before and after

On our recent trip to Goondiwindi for the Aspects Art Show, where my piece Bending was acquired and awarded second place, Fiona and I kept our eye out for junk and collectables shops. We managed to find a couple of good ones on the journey.

Apart from the usual stuff I search for (silver plated EPNS trays and brass, copper and rusted objects) we managed to find a number of tools with interesting pasts that we can use in our work including: a small anvil with a built in vise; an anvil beautifully crafted from a piece of 1949 railway line; a Willcox and Gibbs sewing machine from the late 1880s; and a hand operated grinder.

I spent Thursday afternoon dismantling and cleaning the various bits. I thought I would post on the before and after photos of the tools.

Small Harper anvil with vise built into it - before and after.

Anvil made from the 1949 rail line - after.

The Willcox and Gibbs sewing machine - before and after.

And the hand operated grinder - before and after

Because these items were not in such good shape they came at a lower price - but now they can be used and are worth much more - but they won't be leaving our place.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Fun with fire on Friday

Today has been a balanced day - about half on art and half on house maintenance (scrubbing and painting the last of the decks).

Artwise I got back on to hammering larger Starburst bowls and pods. Though I had two sets of Pods on the go I only managed to complete the small set of three pods.

After seeing the colours the annealing flame can make I decided today that I would maintain some of the colour on one of the Starburst bowls and on the small Pods. Photos below show both the Starburst bowls and the small Pods on the annealing pit before taking them off for grinding and polishing. The photos are not great as they were taken in a bit of a rush with the iPhone.

And then this is how the larger Starburst bowls turned out. I took a photo with the small Starburst bowls to just show the contrast in size.

And they fire treated Starburst bowls looks great with the unpolished interior and polished edges and back.

And the small Pods look like some ancient things I found. I deliberately finished these Pods in different ways: one still slightly open; one egg like; and one that I flared a little. I deliberately also cut and hammered the edges to give them a ragged texture

Of course I just have to share a bit more of the colour and texture of the inside of the heat coloured Starburst bowl.

Now I think it is time to make a roast pumpkin and blue cheese risotto - accompanied by a red wine of course.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Creating a bunch of bowls

Due to the sales of bowls through the gallery-shop and Gary Myers Galley (Maleny) I have got back into creating Pods and Starburst bowls.

I have started a number of bigger bowls and Pods; but along the way go distracted and decided to make a bunch of small Starburst bowls. Why do I call them Starburst bowls? Well the bowls are shallow and conical in shape; and by hammering the bowls in two different directions I am able to create the effect of lines spreading out or bursting from the centre point.

I started these bowls using real discards of metal - even I thought I might not use these pieces.

But once they were trimmed and sunk into a shallow bowl form you can see they have potential. I cut disks of metal out of most of the pieces once I had annealed and straightened them a bit; but I also kept the pieces that did not go full circle - I wanted to see how they turned out.

After a couple of rounds of annealing and hammering they took on ragged raised bowl shapes.

And using another stake and hammering in a counter direction the stardust shape appeared.

And of course there can always be a casualty along the way - a split bowl.

Once the Starburst bowls were ground and polished they showed why it is good not to discard even some of the not so appealing metal.

And the casualty and the stray copper bowl even look good.

The small Starburst bowls are about 44-50mm in diameter and 10-15mm deep.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Commission Completed

During the week I completed the last 20 of the Leaf Letter Openers - all 100 are now completed; and sent off the the commissioning company. Good to have the 100 pieces out there; but like many commissions it was a bit taxing.

In the end I probably started about 130 Leaf Letter Openers; and completed about 110. Twenty (20) did not make the end of the creation process as the recycled metal could not handle the stress of the fold forming and fractured.

Ten were not included in the delivery because of length - perfectly good Leaf Letter Openers but not the dimension I specified in the quote. These will find a home in my online shop and Maleny Additions.

As indicated in my Friday post - the completion of this commission frees me up to create more bowls; Travellers' Shrines; and larger sculptural pieces.

Friday, May 2, 2014

Home-wares and art-wares …..

I think it is good to pause sometimes and celebrate achievements - so that is what this blog post is about.

Over the last little I have had some good news from a few of the outlets selling my wares. Maleny Additions has sold a number of my ladles, leaf-spoons and the commissioned cake lifter and knife. Fiona refers to these as my homewards line …..

Anne from Rosetta Books has sold a couple of pieces of my Steampunk influenced jewellery.

And Gary Myers Gallery has sold quite a number of my bowls - including 3 Starburst bowls.

It is good place to be - selling a range of stuff that is. I need to get back down into the garage-studio and start creating more bowls of various kinds as my gallery shop is just about bare - and that is a good way to be.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Flowers of last Wednesday's walk

Last Wednesday on my walk I was struck by the fact that there still appeared to be quite a lot of flower blossoms on show even though we are half way through autumn - almost like nature being defiant and holding onto the colour of summer.

Anyway I thought I would share a few of the photos taken with the trusty iPhone. I love that you can still see the morning dew on some of the blossoms.