Testing an idea

 Back here, I had soldered a lot of small circles ready to take them home and roll them through the mill to create pebble forms for my stack of three earrings.

A I posted, I had the thought about maybe texturing them? 

This thought niggled away and I went to the workshop (aka garden shed) to see if I could cut 6 small circles, solder 6 small circles, flatten 6 small circles, pickle 6 small circles, texture 6 small circles, and then solder two lots of 3 small circles, and pickle them again.

I am happy to say, mission accomplished over two days.

After soldering, the one on the right was hammered flat by hand. I realised as I did them that I usually manage to squish and distort the forms more by putting them through the mill, but was happy enough to proceed with the notion of more circle-shaped forms.

Looking somewhat earring-like...

And then pickled. With a few random fragments as well.

And so to texturing by hammering with a different hammer.

And soldered prior to pickling.

And pickled.

Still with some filing and polishing to do, they are looking maybe like they will be OK.

And then I thought, maybe I should oxidise them???

Will leave that thought till we return to Maleny!

And today has been 'a day between weathers' as our neighbour says; with what a friend calls a bluebird sky. Simply stunning.

We did some yard work, moving rocks and pruning and a touch of weeding. Then sat in the sun with our backs against the stone wall of the cottage. Basking. Apricating. Enjoying.

Bliss.

Tinkering is me

 I have come to accept, and even embrace, the notion that a lot of my creative time here is about tinkering. Or pottering. Or feutering as the Scots could say.

I used to worry that I was being flighty, unsettled, noncommittal or the like. Now I think I can celebrate that I find moments for creativity in most days, take them and make the most of them.

I am beginning an online course (which B purchased for me back in 2023); I am pondering the making of more Conversations with Women Friends work in a couple of directions. I have begun making more pebble forms to take back to Maleny and finish. I am cataloguing images for another piece of work. And so it goes.

I think I am re-framing towards "I am pushing work forward on several different fronts". Sounds impressive!

Pebble forms in the making...

I cut and soldered twelve small pebble forms.

Looking to solder them into stacked pebble earrings on my return to Maleny. I have to wait to get back to Maleny in order to put them through the rolling mill and flatten them, before soldering them together. No rolling mill here in the garden shed workshop!

They get quite discoloured with the soldering flame, so it was back to making some home made pickle to clean them. Each and every time I get delighted when it works!

Part of me is now wondering how things would go if I actually took six of the forms and tried to hammer them flat (rather than wait to roll them smooth through the mill).  I image that textured stacked pebbles might also look good? We shall see if the notion sticks.

In other tinkering I found myself searching for wooden cotton reels. I found a set on eBay and went to purchase them, only to learn that this seller was still an auction seller! It took me back twenty years I reckon where sometimes Barry and I would sit on our computers as the last seconds ticked down and tried to make the bids faster than whoever else wanted the thing we wanted. And we never ever won.

I thought to myself I am not doing that again. I made a reasonable bid and left it. Then After the auction closed I remembered to go and have look and lo and behold I had won. I was chuffed!

I received 20 reels on Saturday. Here are 11 of them.

Their arrival was a real cause for celebration as the delivery company that was being used can be somewhat hmmmm problematic up here? They have been know to wait up to 6 weeks until they have a big enough load to head out west and I worried I may never see them...

These 11 are all unique. All different and I was just so excited to see that. And perfect for what I am hoping to do! The other 9 have double sod these so I have separated them out and will se how I go.

And then there was foraging - we went on a bramble ramble...

And for some reason or another I have got this itch to bake focaccia (never have I baked focaccia) and I simply had to scratch it. Done. But this has only made me want to bake more and I now have three more recipes to try.

We had a stare out with these sheep on an afternoon walk.

And today is a washing day - and as they say a good drying day!

A day of shining...

 A week at the cottage and we are sorting and sifting and settling. There is always lots other do on return and then the excitement of all the things we plan to do as well all the wonderful catch ups here and there. There has not dear reader, been a lot of making happening. But there will be I am sure.

Today I spent the morning getting my jewellery ready for the Pop up Art Show which is in two weekends' time.

We started sharing the postcard promotions this week and will start letter box drops and posters here and there as well as some social media promotions things. I wish I knew how to do promotion better - but we do what we do and we hope some of it works.

I was very happy to catchup with Lindsey Gallacher the fabulous silver smith we have had lessons with, yesterday, and she gave us some good advice about a silver polish that we could use. And today I put it to good use.

Very happy with the shiny results! Here follows quite a few of the pieces I will be showing, all looking their best (tho not always photographing at their best which is very much down to me).

A pair of my driftwood and pebble earrings.

Some pebble stacks - one finer than the other.

This pair are quite tiny and sit on small ear wires for folk who don't like statements!

This pair are quite tiny, but sit on long hoops which is a bit of fun.

I like the texture in these ones. They are simply but also sit on the long hook.

Again quite small and a little bit textured.

This pair are a bit quirky - the large pebbles are different thicknesses as are the small pebbles - like each earring is the inverse of the other or something.

It's nice to see how the older work sits so happily alongside the new work - they work like an extended family of sorts I think.

I am looking forward to setting up and showing the work and chatting with folk in a few weeks time.

Finishing

 I managed to finish my last pin through the week.

I oftentimes find that how I see something being worn, isn't always the way that others do; so I felt I should probably make one for myself, so that I could wear it and let people see how it might work. And so it came to pass that I made another pebble pin/brooch.

I don't tend to wear brooches/pins up on my lapels so much. Rather I tend to wear them along my hem line. Like this. Apologies for the background lighting - who knew it would be so sunny! Plus I took the shot using my watch connected to my phone which is a first for me, so I got what I got!

Barry also took a photo of me wearing one of the long thing bar ones - which I think looks best vertically, so I might have to wear one like that too. I am however wearing this one on a lapel type thing on a great winter cardigan.

Enough of the modelling. I also finished off a final pice of calligraphy using the five lovely S words. This one is purple on black, and I now have five pieces that can be popped into frames. I trimmed them all yesterday, signed them and put them in a bag for transporting. Finishing, finishing.

So I think that has brought me to the end of production and making for the Pop Up in Scotland. The job now is to inventory, price and pack. Always so many associated tasks.

Including writing some explanatory notes about my Conversations with Women Friends and the Glimpses book-ets. I sometimes think my work and its purpose can be a bit obtuse or opaque, yet I find people grasp it if I tell them a story about it. Of course, I can't speak to everybody all the time, so I thought maybe a few notes here and there might allow people to pause and read and understand a bit of where I am coming from. Maybe.

And then to inventorying and packing. I put out all the jewellery in my stash and worked out which pieces I would take. I decided on 10 pairs of earrings, 7 pendants and 4 brooches/pins. Fingers are crossed.

Two of these will stay in Maleny

Two pairs of earrings will stay in Maleny.

As you can imagine, our suitcases will be full of arty things! Fortunately we keep most of the clothes we need in Scotland the cottage. We are edging closer...

Patience with the process

 After last week's morning of set backs and learnings, I have taken it slowly this week with the pair of brooches that I have seen in my mind's eye, and am working towards.

Without planning to, I decided that in fact the brooches would look good if I textured the silver background a bit, and I do like what happened when I did that.

Here are the pieces ready for finalising with a super strong glue that can handle pebbles and metal. You can see the silver bobble-headed pins that wouldn't drip or melt last weekend.

The plan being to use the blu tac to hold the pieces in place as I glued, and as they dried.

So I put them together and glued each step and then left them. Herewith the patience in the process. I moved the laminated sheet they were on after a couple of hours and then didn't approach them again until the next morning.

Then I snipped the silver pin off, and filed down the nub that was left. I then sanded the back of the silver to create a surface for the glue to key into; and did the same with the pin back.

And then with, what felt like it had to be, surgical precision I glued the pin back to the silver and once again left them alone.

And they are still waiting to be able to be moved, and turned up the right way. I so hope that they look OK on the right side!!!