Thursday Thoughts...

“What is necessary, after all, is only this: solitude, vast inner solitude. To walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours - that is what you must be able to attain. To be solitary as you were when you were a child, when the grownups walked around involved with matters that seemed large and important because they looked so busy and because you didn’t understand a thing about what they were doing.” 

Rainer Maria Rilke

Solitude. Inner Solitude. To be solitary.

For some of us this need is just that - as if it were food or shelter or drink - we need solitude. We need time on our own and we need quiet spaces to simply sit with ourselves and with nothing.

I love visualising the notion of walking inside yourself and meeting no one. Vastness. Emptiness. 

The way he links this place to being like a child again - does take you back to those times you were in adult company and where you had been told to sit and be quiet - and you did. You spent all this time with your self and your aloneness, even tho you were in amongst people.

These were good times for the imagination. Or oftentimes for me, good times to sit and read a book, which is a solitary activity, yet not quite solitude as he means it.

I re-balance in these moments of solitude, I refill, I replenish and I refresh. Solitude is necessary for me to feel balanced and right and 'me', and I love that he knows how much it matters.

Sometimes a vast outer solitude too...

Small bits of satisfaction

 As we get ready to return to Maleny, we have managed a few more minutes here and there of making and creating.  One of the things I enjoy about being here in the cottage is that I face limitations. Plenty of them in terms of space, materials, equipment and time.

With making jewellery, I don't have access to a roller which is a key part of what I do. It takes the round wire pebble forms and flattens them. I can try to hammer them flat; but I find that without a large hammer and a large anvil it just doesn't seem to create the best effect.

So I decided I would do lots pf preparation, and take the pieces back to Maleny and use the roller there.  In between times after soldering the forms, I usually 'pickle' them to get the heat marks off them.

Again back in Maleny I have a small crock pot with a pickling solution and I pop the pieces in and leave them in for about five minutes then collect them all nice and clean.

I had imagined I would take the forms back and pickle them there; yet one night as I lay awake I thought about googling non toxic pickle mixes to make. And lo and behold I had all the ingredients I needed, here in the kitchen.

Vinegar and salt. I laughed as the salt is our fabulous salt from Blackthorn Salt - have a look at the magnificent way they make salt and the beautiful building they do it in here - and not just plain old table salt. But needs must. Luckily the vinegar was distilled cleaning vinegar!

Again, I don't have a crockpot for regular and slow warming, but we do have a microwave, so it was pour in the vinegar, stir in the salt and then heat it for 30 seconds. Then drop the pieces in a few at a time to see what might happen.

Yay! They came out shiny and clean!

Hopefully lots of new jewellery waiting to be.

And is so often the case, you do something, buy something and then see it everywhere. And so it was when we popped in to the Clachan Cafe through he week and went to look at Barry's sculpture in place and on display, and sitting quietly in a window was this great old typewriter!

And a final few photos of the weather, and the water, and the rocks, and the fishing net drying poles before we go...

Thursday Thoughts...

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”  

Aristotle

I think this is a very thoughtful way of thinking about art making. Sometimes, representation of something just as it is, is important  and oh so beautiful. But oftentimes, art is about feeling. It is about expressing a desire or a need. It is about an attempt to share insight and understanding; to respond and give voice to thoughts and experiences.

Aristotle wrote this a very long time ago, and I am amazed at how apt it remains. 

I think he is suggesting that art is about looking beyond the surface and trying to explain/express/represent what the significance of that landscape is; or of those objects; or of the person. It is not simply about representing them photographically accurately, but more about representing them; and their meaning and depth.

A detail from Tenebrae...attempting to express light out of darkness.

Getting back in the groove

 We have pretty much finished the chores we set ourselves to do this trip - the painting, the pointing and the planting - so we have been able to grab  few moments here and there to think about, and make, some things artistic.

Whilst this photo looks like I have a fur hat on; it is actually the reflection of the hay bale in the field beside us! It took me a while to work out what was going on.

This is me hard at work in my workshop. Also known as the garden shed behind the cottage.

When next we are here, we are planning another pop up art show and I thought to myself I should get down and start making some jewellery.  It seemed like if I could grab an hour here, and maybe an hour there, I could cut some silver wire and solder some forms.

Nothing too fine or too tricky or too elegant; just get down and get the basics underway. I think am snipping solder here, ready to make a few more pebble forms. It was about 6 degrees outside with a sharpish wind, so I am pretty rugged up. My hands really felt it tho!

It was a good productive hour!

All these forms need to be cleaned, and to have the lumps and bumps filed down, but I am well on the way to having a bunch of pebble forms to play with to make some new jewellery.

And a few photos from around the cottage. Out the bedroom window as we headed to bed one night.

Our apple tree is in full bloom.

And the lambs are being cute.

As we round the corners to home...

Turn left into Armadale...

Typewriter 2!

 Well, we went and did it. We went and bought ourselves a small compact 1970s typewriter so we could have one to use when we are in Scotland. 

Decadence. Indulgence. Whatever it is, it is nevertheless fabulous to have this wee one with us now and I couldn't wait to get started using it! Here it is all primed to go on my multi-purpose studio bench.

I had so much fun remembering the little quirks of a typewriter, setting tabs and line spacing; and loving the ding when I had room for just a few more characters in my line. I tied it on the usual 80gsm bond paper and that fed through really well. 

The ribbon is brand new so it was quite inky in places. This image also shows how easy it is to make typos; and how you can't readily remove them by simply backspacing or deleting. I like the honesty of the work.

I can't yet tell that ghost effect is me thumping the keys too hard because maybe the typewriter is too high on the bench; or if there is a setting I need to get sorted that will change it.

For the time being I don't mind it - perfection is not the goal - but it would be good to be able to understand what is going on.

As is my want, I then went and picked up all sorts of papers I had lying around - Japanese papers; lightweight tracing paper; used teabags; heavier art paper; and card; and checked to see if they would go through and if the keys would work on them.

I popped the tea bag onto a piece of copier paper and held it down with washi tape, then fed it through. All good.

The 'ghost print' equivalent on the copier paper was a bit of a bonus!

So I can see a lot of fun happening here.

We went away for a couple of days through the week - taking my Dad to see some of his favourite old haunts and some new ones. Here are a couple of shots from our road trip.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.”

Carl Sagan

I like the thought that books are like magic.

In some ways, it seems as if he is suggesting books almost enable time-travel; they allow the past to speak to the present, and for the present to speak to the future.  And in this way, I guess they are kind of magic.

I keep thinking he means books are magic; but on closer inspection he really seems to say that books are evidence that humans can make magic - and yet I prefer my own interpretation!

Breaking the shackles of time perhaps suggests that books can be timeless, that the recording of information, lessons, philosophies or memories can be just as potent now as they were when they were written. Perhaps it also suggests that fiction can transport us to other times or other futures.

Whichever or whatever, I still think books are magic.

So many time shackles to be broken.

Some moments from here and there...

We have had some lovely blue sky days, and some soft grey days.

On the blue sky days we try hard to get as much washing done as possible, and here is my Dad and me soaking up the sun after a marathon waking effort!

Not sure if it is the same seagull, bt it is the same roof on two different days!

 

A dazzling shimmering sunshiny moment on our morning walk.

Looking across the road to the fields with some lambs and the gorse in bloom.

A grey day was the day for a drive to talking and tongue and there is beauty in the softness of grey as well.

And Spring is making an appearance...

A visit to the Melness cemetery showed me a memorial with a list of heroes; and one heroine, from WWI. I have never seen a nurse recognised on a Memorial before and thought it was truly marvellous!

Kilian Capitals

 There have not been too many moments to play and make and create, but I have been thoroughly enjoying my time with Kilian Capitals!!!

My photos are not transferring properly for some reason so I am frustrated by that; will do my best to make things look reasonable, but that is the best I can hope for I think.

I had drafted three words and practiced a few different layouts here - the missing word is stillness.

I transferred the single line version of the words onto black - looks grey here but is really a nice black.

And gradually filled them out in pencil as I went. I have mentioned my issues with writing the letter S - and boy what a delight it was for me to have all these opportunities to practice!

The finished 'piece'.

I continued on my merry way wth another short piece of one of my favourite quotes, but along the way I caught sight of a folded 'book-et' I had sitting alongside me and wondered if I might be able to bring things together somehow.

And so here it is!

I thought it would make a two-way sample book. I had loved this series of folds (inspired by Annwyn) and I enjoyed finding proportions I liked. I had written the lengths on the back of it, planning to use it as  resource. And then I realised that in fact, some of my Kilian sample pieces would fit within the folds. how excitement! and so then it could be my fold sample as well as my Kilian sample!

It incorporates black on white vertical writing, vertical writing white on black, pencil on white, pencil on black and white on black.

I got an extraordinary sense of satisfaction and achievement doing this small, play piece. Funny isn't it how you just play around and make something for yourself and it is joyous!