Of stones & sculpture

 

We are so fortunate to be able to walk to the stone shore of the cove to enjoy the stones and collect a few for art - see cut stones above. 

During the week I got to take such a walk on a blue sky day and enjoy the shore at low tide; and immerse myself in stones - see below.

I chose those stones that will have metal inlaid into them and cut the grooves into them with the diamond blade in my angle grinder - see following photos.

Today I started the process of bending and cutting 1.5mm metal wire-rod (silver and brass) and fitting it into the grooves in preparation for glueing.

On Saturday I had a young 8 year old lad from the village join me in the workshop aka garden shed to assemble a sculpture he wanted two make for the garden at his family's place. He chose the bits of timber and rust from our stash; and he decided the layout himself. Together we assembled the piece. See photo of the piece below - completed on the work bench.

He had specifically chosen a heavy metal bracket that could hold the piece on another heavy block of timber so that the work would sit at an angle and could be moved around the garden - See photo below of the completed piece open the gravel outside the workshop.

The piece was delivered yesterday afternoon and installed in a spot in the home garden he had chosen. What a grand thing to start creating art at such a young age.

Almost ready for the Pop-Up Art Show

 

Fiona and I have been doing the last bits of making and sifting and sorting for our  Pop-Up Art Show in our local (Armadale) village hall over the weekend (Saturday 17 and Sunday 18) 11am-4pm.

The opening photo shows my watercolours spread out on the second bedroom bed for inventory purposes. Of all the framed works I brought across from our Maleny home the glass was broken in only one. 

Since I have been here I have added to the stash of watercolours including the two below finished yesterday - the rushed photos don't show the colours accurately. In all I have about 35 watercolours for show and sale. All my watercolours are based on my own Scotland photos.

Fiona will be showing a stash of her pebble inspired earrings and pendants. Both of us will supplement our main bodies of work with other pieces including leaf inspired pieces, small metal books, small metal boats - and I have completed local stones with inlaid silver and brass rod and a couple of small birds carved from local birch wood.

This afternoon we have spent time on price tags, road signs (see photo below of F working on road signs) and sorting presentation materials including slates.

After I launch this blog post we will pack the car and head to the village hall to start the set up!!!!  

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.

Commission and connections

 

Many of us carry bits and pieces with us as we go through life - including stones. I carried one such stone for probably 60 plus years. My memory of it was that it was found by my prospector grandfather and given to me as a young one probably because I had shown interest in it. Over the years I gave it a clean, ground rough edges off it and wonder if there was anything else I might do with it apart from carry it forward because it connected me with my grandfather. It was not a precious stone in monetary terms; and had flaws in it. I understood it was a piece of Chrysoprase.

Last year Fiona and I commissioned Lindsey Gallacher to make a pendant for Fiona from a flake of Scottish stone that we thought connected us to a place and events. If you check out Lindsey's site you will see she does beautiful work with stones that connect people to place and people.

Fiona and I decided to take the Chrysoprase stone to Scotland this year and commission Lindsey to make a pendant from the stone so that I could gift it to my niece to make another connection - to my grandfather and myself. As you can see from the opening photo Lindsey did a great job making the pendant - 20mm in diameter - with flaws and all. I love the swirls and almost green moonlike image that has emerged.

After cutting the stone there were four corners left. Fiona suggested that we might ask Lindsey to make four small pendants or charms (1cm diameter) for my four young grand nieces. The resulting four pendants are in the photos below. The group of three are for three sisters.

All that is left of the original stone are small fragments - below. These will be gifted with the five pendants.

Lindsey's skilful work has enabled me to pass this stone on with the links to a  my prospecting grandfather. Maybe the pendants will continue to carry forward family connections for another 60 plus years!!!!

The beauty of silver and stone

 

I have made as many stones with inlaid solid silver that I can on this trip. All stones except the cross for Graham are in the opening photo. Following are some process photos including shiny stones where I have added a coat of oil to bring out the colour. I wipe the excess oil off and the stone tends to retain the deepened colour.

The two pairs of stones following are going to new homes.

The four below will go into our studio gallery shop when we reach our Maleny home.

I am pleased with what I have achieved.

Cupped and other carved stones

 

Over the last week I have completed three projects: some cupped stones for friends; a cupped stone for installation at our front door; and replacing the Armadale stone cottage in the Stone Cottages artwork that was exhibited in my Betrayal and Loss exhibition SNM 2023.

Cup carvings in stones is an ancient form of decoration-art and was used by the Picts in the Highlands. Nobody really knows the meaning or purpose of creating the cups; but to me it is a conscious act by folk many years ago. Carving these stones seems to me to be a way of making a connection with artisans of the past.

Three of the four finished stones for friends I carved cup marks into can be seen in the opening photo; and the original stones and the fourth stone can be seen below.

During earlier visits I had carved two stones for our front door wee stone installation - I managed to carve a third stone (pink) to make up a trio - see photo below.

The original Armadale Cove stone cottage that was part of the Stone Cottages artwork made its way to our deck in Maleny. I wanted to recreate the set by carving another cottage out of an Armadale Cove stone. As you can see below this has been done; and the installation of 5 is set in a gravelled corner out the back of the cottage. The cottage photo was taken in the rough before finessing it.

I am pleased to say I have achieved my stone carving goals for this trip.

Stone with inlaid solid silver

 

When we did a workshop last year with Lindsey Gallacher I experiment with inlaying solid silver rod into a cove stone I had cut a groove into with a diamond blade. When Fiona and I were talking about art that we might do whilst we are over here this time she suggested that I might do some more inlay work. 

I ordered a .5m length of 2mm .925 solid silver rod; and we collected suitable stones from the cove - see photos below.

Over the weekend I managed to finish one of the stones (see opening photo); and worked on four others including an inlaid cross for Graham (see process photos below). The stones were cut free hand with a 1.5mm diamond blade in my side grinder. This requires steady hands and good safety goggles, mask and gloves.

The grooves are finessed with a diamond file; the silver rod is glued into the groove when cut, shaped etc; the whole thing is given a polishing sand; and finally polished with light coat of mineral oil.

Over the next couple of weeks I hope to finish about 7 stones in all.