It started here

 

Ten years ago Peace in the Trees Sculptural Walk was officially opened - in 2015 actually. It was lovely to see how the pieces have aged and are being held by the trees and foliage on the precinct walk that runs from the Riverside carpark.

The signage reminded me that this started as an Art4place community activity under the tutelage of international sculpture Craig Medson. 

The opening photos are of the stone that Craig had delivered and broke into monoliths so 12 local artists could create the pieces for Peace in the Trees.

Following are photos of each of the pieces as I saw them on 29 December 2025.

I wonder if Kim, Katie, Vivienne, Judy, Michael, James, Edith-Ann, Cathy, Emma, Carolyn, Sally, Ken have seen their works in recent times. Thanks to Art4place for the vision, Craig for the teaching and Sunshine Coast Council for maintaining this sculptural walk.

At times it seems there is so little we can do for peace - but let us not give up

 

The need for peace and peace action seems to surface so often in our lives - and yet it seems that there is so little we can do for peace. But we will not give up; we must and we will continue to act for and vibe for peace. 

Today is International Day of Peace (IDP - 21 September each year) - the fact that there is such an international day is a poignant reminder that peace is important and we must never let it go no matter how terrible the opposition to peaceful paths seems at time.

Each year in our home we pause to mark International Day of Peace. We do this in a number of small ways including using our letterpress to print weather grams and cards that can go out across the globe to attempt to create a few peace ripples.

The weather grams at our place again this year are hung in the  magnolia tree out the front of our home. As you can see from the photos below this year's weather grams accompany some of those hanging in from 12 months ago. They also hang with copper peace doves that are a permanent fixture in the tree.

Around the house there are other reminders of peace including a copper peace dove and a stash of older   weather grams that have fluttered to the ground but are gathered to continuing their work of reminding us to remember to vibe for peace.

This year I also made some giveaway peace tokens from melted salvaged metal.

Today, and every day, may we strive to encourage each other to find the ways to peace; and reject the ways of war.

Pieces for peace

 

International Day of Peace (IDP) is to be held on Sunday 21 September. 

To recognise this day of peace and to encourage folk to send positive peace vibes on the day I made a stash of metal (pewter) peace tokens to give away. The opening photo and the one below show some of the cleaned and polished peace tokens.

The melted salvaged pewter metal peace tokens was poured into forms that had been pressed into metal moulding sand - the pinkish sand in my case.  The finished pieces are a bit rough as my moulding sand has been reused quite a number of times and is becoming too dry. I melted the pewter to 750 degrees so that there would be plenty of times for me to pour metal into each depression in the sand.

During the week Fiona and I gave the pieces away in preparation for Sunday. There are so many wars going on in the world at the moment. May we all pause for a moment on Sunday and just send strong positive vibes to encourage the perpetrators of war to cease and to choose a peaceful path. 

 

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.

Peace tokens-buttons

 

Before I departed our Maleny home and workshop I got the chance to melt a bit of metal to make some peace tokens-buttons. The metal is pewter with a touch of silver and brass. You can see some of the finished tokens-buttons above.

I poured the molten metal into casting sand into which I had pressed an older form to enable me to pour quite a stash in one metal melt session. See casting sand with impressions below.

Following are some images of the casting process including the casting imperession burnt by the casting process.

I do love the brass colour on these pieces.

The token or button have a very organic look and feel.

Visiting Peace in the Trees

 

The Peace in the Trees sculptural walk was launch some 9 years ago - the link takes you to Art 4 Place's blogspot and a scroll through it will give an insight into the background to this work. 

Fiona and I visited the sculptures on a recent walk. Though some get vandalised a bit from time to time it is still good to see the sculptures aging in place and fitting so well into the landscape. My sculpture  (Imagine Peace) pictured above is growing some mould and is surrounded by trees and plants just as it was designed to do.

Some more images of the sculptures follow.

It is good to see that these pieces about peace and the environment can still add to the conversation today.