Beauty after rain and hare sneaks up on wallaby

 

We have had almost 200mm of rain over the last week to ten days. This has really helped the many native plants we have planted since moving to our new townhouse. But the photo above is not one of ours but seen on the walk this morning - great colour.

We were looking out out window towards the roadway and trees below our place - a wallaby was quietly having a meal in the mist - suddenly it turned and noticed that a hare had come out of the tree line and basically had almost joined it to have a meal. Can you see the hare?

The birds were out - great colour of the lorikeet and the magpie was ruffling its feathers and taking in the sunshine.

A few photo of some of the native blossoms and grass.

The rain quickly brings the plants to life. And can add a bit of wear and tear to the weather grams.

Bookmarks and patinated leaf-forms

 

It was one of my days in the studio yesterday. I used it to emboss a few sets of bookmarks I had printed last week; and I printed a couple more. The couple I printed yesterday were more for younger folk - so Micky Mouse and a butterfly. A close up of the detail of the butterfly ornament is above.

Today I got back onto progressing the leaf forms I started on Friday. I did a test on riveting one of the leaves to aluminium rod - a change away from rusted iron rod I have used in the past. The prototype is below - wedged in the drain outlet in the workshop floor. Overall it measures 70cm from tip to tail.

A few more photos of the process: opening folded and hammered forms with an oyster knife; then fully opening them using a brass cube and soft hammer; and then the 18 were ground and patinated today.

Weather permitting I will use a fixative on the patina and then rivet the leaf forms to the rod.

Leaf installation in the making

 

Today I was able to progress three related leaf-form projects: a small installation of 7 largish leaves on stems; a larger installation with 15 leaves on stems; and a trio of medium sized leaves. The photo above shows a stash of the leaf-forms that have been hammered - but more so the lovely fire colour on the copper again.

Warning - process photos follow.

And then there are some photos of the patination process - lovely green-blue colour on the copper. To get the patina solution to work I ground the fire scale and other impurities off the copper leaf-forms and polished them with a wire brush; and then applied a diluted patina solution. Takes about an hour for the solution to work and the metal to dry.

I did get to patina 9 leaves from which I will choose 7 for the small installation. Once I have given the patina coat of fixative I will then rivet them to the stems - but that is for another day.

More fragments

 

A bit of a mix of subjects ranging from: little visitors (hares) down below the cottage (above), frog on the window, native bee on crepe myrtle blossom, an unfolding cycad blossom, a couple of F's cut flowers, to a couple of G's orchids. 

Really just stuff that makes one smile.

Printing with ornaments

 

In our collection of ornaments we have one of a rat with a topcoat and top hat. I have been asked a few times whether we would sell it. I had not printed with it and so did not know the quality. On Saturday I decided to use paper I had cut to make a series of smaller book marks using three ornaments that had not been printed with - rat, bird and two women. The end result is in the photo above. All three ornaments are fine quality and give fine detailed prints. I don't think we will be selling any of those ornaments. 

As you can see from the photo below I made 20 bookmarks of each of the ornaments. I used a number of different paper offcuts hence the different coloured bookmarks.

We also had some business card size cards cut from offcuts. We have set these aside so that people can have a play with a press if they want. To this end I have locked up three 3x5 chases with: hope, love peace and a Mickey Mouse ornament. 

So I printed some of the rat in a top hat on to business cards and love-heart-peace also on cards.  Quite a bit of fun.

Today (Sunday) I have been working on a couple of small sculpture commissions in the workshop - secret so can't blog on them. I must say it was very hot in the workshop with the current heatwave. 

Early steps

 

I have begun a few small sculptural pieces. A couple that involve timber cubes; and a couple that involve largish copper leaves.

The photo below shows the 30 or so pieces of copper I have cut - about 180mm long and 45mm wide. I just love the fire colour on the annealed copper blanks as you can see in the photo above.

The timber I cut is exceedingly hard. I needed precise cubes so the cutting was being done with a new sharp hand saw. One cube is 100mm and the other is 150mm. The 150mm cube is iron bark!!!! I think they should have named it ironwood!!!

For me the preparation and early steps are always important. 

Fragments in morning light

 

The sun was dipping in and out through gaps in the clouds this morning. Trees or plants were highlighted for a few seconds and then steeped in shadow as the clouds scudded across the sky. The tiny flower with its web and suspended pod were in light for but a moment. The trees at the top of the block were subject to moments of sunlight on the branches. The big tree is an old fig tree.

Obvious in the light I could be seen so the wallabies took off into the bush.

And a few other beautiful fragments touched by the light - including courting pigeons in a rare gap of blue.

A cloudy morning with sunlit highlights - joy.