Birds, bowl and ampersand

 

As you can see from the opening photo I have finally finished the three comfort birds I started some weeks ago. They are so individual in terms of timber and shapes. Size and shape is often determined by the variation in the sawing, whittling sanding processes. For me the important thing is how they finally feel in the hand - and these three feel different but good. Some process photos follow. The birds are oiled with Lemon Myrtle eco oil.

A person wanted to purchase one of my larger (about 110mm in diameter) Starburst Bowls to hold some simple metal stamped daily words. Though the bowl could rest on its side and hold the words I thought a simple stand made out of a piece of 50mm in diameter copper tube would offer an alternate way of holding the words. The bowl and stand are shown in the photo below - I like the look. It is now packed and ready to be posted to its new home on Monday.

As part of our art studio garage sale I sold most of the silicone moulds I used for casting cement pieces. Of course one of the moulds we couldn't leave go was that used for casting ampersands. I decided to buy a small amount of two-pack resin and do a test cast of a resin ampersand. As you can see from the photo below it is looking good at this stage. It is slow curing resin so won't be dry for 24 hours.

There are days when doing a bit of this and that reminds one of the joy of unstructured creating.

Joy of printing

 

It felt good to be at Deckled Edge Press studio today - working with text, paper and playing with ink.

As you can see from the photo above and the couple below I had a lovely time mixing gold and black ink on the plate to create a black with a golden hue.

During the week I had spent a morning cutting paper remnants into cards for mini-posters and business card sized inspiration cards.

Today I got to print some weather grams on recycled cutlery envelopes (both brown and black paper) for International Day of Peace in September. Given the type was set and the paper was cut during the week I also printed some mini-posters as you can see below.

As I saud in the opening sentence - it just felt great to be in the studio printing; printing words that mean a lot to me;  and printing mini-posters I can give away.

Orchids and other blossoms

This blog post simply shares the beauty of G's orchids and other blossoms experienced during the week.

Starting with the orchids - opening photo and following.

Some of the other bits of beauty I have been uplifted by during the week

I think in these times of horror, brutality, savagery and destruction  perpetrated by so called leaders of some so called developed and sophisticated countries we need nature to offer us solace through its simple beauty. May the beauty of nature and universal peace prevail.

Progressing watercolours and thankfulness

 

Even though Fiona and I were preparing for the studio garage sale I still managed to attend my watercolour group morning with Megan. 

As you can see from the photo above and below I progressed the old barn and the abandoned house in Lednagullin.

I have also made a start on a couple of versions of a restored mill wheel in Sworldly.

On Saturday Fiona and I had a successful studio garage sale thanks to the support of many of our artist friends. It was grand to see and chat with many art friends. A big thanks to all who bought stuff - may it all contribute more creative pieces.

Set up for art studio garage sale

 

Tomorrow (Saturday 26 July) Fiona and I are having an art studio garage sale at Deckled Edge Press 10/74 Maple street Maleny from 10am to 4pm - yep one day only.

We are selling a heap of art materials and small art tools. The sale includes lots of really good quality paper, bone folders, awls, book fabric, inks, frames, display stands, tea towels for screen printing, art books and more. 

The opening photo and the following photos show that it is all set up for easy appraisal and everything is priced to go.

So drop in early Saturday morning and grab a bargain or three. Looking forward to seeing some of our tribe and some new folk as well. Apologies, but we are not in a position to provide detailed information or imagery about individual items.

Random fragments of beauty from the phone

 

A bit of a miss-mash of images today - some from this morning's walk but others taken over the last couple of weeks including the one of the moon and barbed wire above.

The rest of the images cascade below in the order they were transferred from the iPhone to the iMac.

At times is is good to look back at fragments of beauty that have caught the eye and lifted the spirits.