Calligraphy and doodling

 There comes a time in every studio space where you need to go - Stop. Just stop. Clean up and tidy up before you do another thing. And I recently met that moment.

My desk space had pretty much NO space left on it as I had supplies for teaching out, samplers of Kilian Caps, some small pieces of calligraphy I was working on, my watercolour set and my watercolour doodles all fighting for dominance alongside my finished poetry books and my Conversations with Women Friends cards.

And so 'Time' was called, I cleaned up, cleared up and began again. I sent this photo to Barry showing him that I had done some calligraphy, chuffed that I had completed two small works that I thought I could use, only to discover as I sent it that I hadn't finished the pink one at all! It still needed the word Serenity added in.

So back I went. And you can see I gave up on the blue one as that S for Silence went way too wild (the lower bowl was too loosely curved, it needed a much sharper return) and was unretrievable in my book. 

I have now completed four I think including one blue pencil on black card which has proven almost impossible to successfully photograph.

Practising all those S s has been good for me I am sure!

I have continued with my daily doodle, most days, and am starting on my third one now.

And in amongst it all there have been flowers and local wildlife. 

A platypus in our creek.

There is a wallaby in this photograph, and a clue to where you can find it! Laugh.

There have been some lovely winter days, and we are grateful.

Type books re-made

 Re-organising continues apace here and the paper inventory and the type inventory are both now complete.

I have documents in the computer and printed out of where things can be found; and I have re-made the books that acts as samples and guides. Very chuffed.

I hd noted a few papers I was missing samples of, so it was time to find them and cut them and pop them in the books.

And there they are, happily ensconced in the right place in the two copies of the book I made - one for B and one for me. The paper sample books are simply sequenced by paper weight, starting with 100gsm and ending with 300gsm samples.

And so it was time to move onto the type. We already had several type sample books, but given we have reduced our holdings significantly it was time to make sure the books reflected those we had.

I have made the type books in three ways; alphabetically; by size; and by style. I figure that these three approaches allow to find a typeface I want to use depending on what I need up front - does it have to be small? Am I looking for fancy? Am I wondering what size I have Colonna in?

Alphabetically we start with Announce Grotesque. I often think I should investigate what it is in the type world that grotesque refers to? In general terms it's not a word that describes something lovely; yet with type they aren't ugly typefaces so I am left wondering. One day I shall investigate.

And then by size - sometime you want to make a statement so you only want to look for large typeface sizes. Or sometimes you are printing a book and need to select only from your smallest type. So this makes that part easier.

And then I often items thinkI want to use a sans serif font or a fancy one for a statement of sorts and it's easy to go in this way.

Always satisfying to be able to find what you might want, amongst what you might have.

 

And here's a document that I leave on top of the drawers to grab and look at where I will actually find the the in the type cabinets.

And the prepping and brain space organising goes on as well... now we have pink post it notes too!

All of it alongside one of those sunsets you wouldn't believe was real if somebody painted it because of those rays of light...

And late afternoon sun on a port wine magnolia..

Learning and making new things

 When we spent time with Lindsey, I also wanted to learn how to solder small pebble forms side by side...

I had made 6 or seven small pebble forms here and my goal was to try and link them up to maybe make a pair of earrings.

Playing with layout and which pebbles went where.

Learning how to solder side by side.

Soldered. 

The thing I was wary of is that if you have already soldered once (to form the pebble) if you solder again too close to that join, it may well melt. So that is a good thing to avoid if possible. 

Success.

 

And then rolled through the rolling mill.

Then polished and made up into earrings just to see if they might work. Pretty happy with the results, although I think I might change the earwires to a stud, to make them not quite so dangly.

And I finished the commissions! I was able to access Lindsey's rolling mill, so put all of the pebble forms I had made through the mill which looks a whole lot nicer than the effect I can achieve simply by hammering. And then they were all oxidised in the workshed and put together.

Then two reminders of the beauty of nature... a seagull and a field of bog cotton.

Commissions underway and a couple of locals

 After our wee Pop Up Art Show I was asked to do a few jewellery commissions. Given I now have a small kit and set up here I was happy to go ahead and do them.  It is a bit trickier working my way through a few things, but mostly things go well. Or at least when I stumble and stutter I ask B for guidance and assistance!

One of the most important bits of gear I need is a pair of curved pliers. And look at these beauties! I couldn't buy plain or boring ones, these were all I could find, and wow they are beautiful and work brilliantly. And they make me smile whenever I pick them up.

I have completed one commission and it looks lovely - a combination of shiny, oxidised and textured.

I have another two large pendants and a pair of earrings to complete, and as of yesterday another pair of earrings if I can find the time! So today it was head down and bum up so to speak out in the workshop shed. B ably assisted by sawing all the wire I had cut with pliers to get the beautiful flat surface you need to solder.

Sorted into wire size and length.

And then the shaping and soldering began.

I then ground and shaped the solder joins to make them smooth and flat. And now there is flattening, oxidising and polishing to do, as well as making them up into the jewellery. Fingers are crossed for having them all done by the weekend.

And then to the locals...

This morning this solo sheep was sentinel on the hillside at the entrance to the village.

And yesterday, we came across these coos - all so relaxed and just hanging about.

Once again, a coo-let!

We drove by slowly and then turned around to drive back and this view made us both laugh as we came around the bend.

We feel so lucky to live nearby where the coos roam...

A rainbow in a garden

 Last week we wandered over to Tongue and to Cereal Bakery once more, and on the way home we stopped off at Eddie's Garden. Somebody had mentioned to us there was a walled garden nearby; and we had driven past it a few times and I had spied signs; but this time we stopped and double checked that yes you're just allowed to wander in by yourself, and so we did!

It was a beautiful and welcoming garden full of colour and scent and the buzzing of many bees.

There was so much to look at and enjoy, but after a while I decided I would focus my meanderings a bit and look to see if I could find a rainbow. And I did.

We had such a lovely wander, the sun was shining and there was just so much to delight the senses. Clearly it was also a really good time of year to visit when everything was opening and buzzing and being beautiful.

On the way home we also stopped at a friend's place and I loved these dark grey/black 'cones' on her tree.

I know there's no black and no white in a rainbow, but I feel like these two sort of book-end a rainbow!