Daily focus - continuing the series

 

For many years now I have made and sold silver-plated Daily Leaf Words sets. The sets are made up of a small metal bowl with seven formed leaves each stamped with a different word. The idea is that one choses at random a leaf at the beginning of the day. That may help one to be calm and maintain a gentle focus with through meditation or just reflection through the day. See photo of a couple of sets below. Daily Leaf Word sets can be purchased on my online shop.

I have complemented these sets with a small pamphlet stitched publication where I wrote words that might inspire or add a bit more focus to the day. I did all the letterpress set up, printing and binding myself - a limited edition of 25. See some photos below. The booklet can be purchased on my online shop.

I'm now planning to print a 7.5cm square concertina book on Kardi cotton paper. The opening photo is me comparing a number of letterpress fonts including narrow wood 2.5cm high type. I have chosen to go with Empire 72pt - the bottom font - very elegant and quiet. The following photos show some of the process of me setting out and choosing fonts, layout and ink.

I'm looking forward to printing this little pocket-purse book even though the concertina nature of it will make it a bit of a challenge on the letterpress press.

The magic of multiples

 

Making multiples can be hard work - the task seems to take so long to come to an end. I was determined to get the 7 sets of Daily Leaf Words finished over the weekend - in fact there were 8 sets of leaf words as you can see from the photo above (56 word leaves in all). I managed to find a spare Daily Word bowl at the studio so was able to make up 8 sets as you can see from the photo below.

A couple of photos of the bowls and leaves finished  - one on the work bench and the second of the seven bowls reflecting the painting on the wall.

Following are a closer shots of a few of the bowls with words including the torn bowl and the spiral bowl with a couple micro cracks.

A great outcome.

Stitched metal...

 

I'm making an effort to finish off some metal work before heading to the cottage in Scotland. I planned to make 7 Daily Leaf Word sets. I have all but finished the sets of leaves; but had hardly made a start on the bowls - today was the day as you can see from the photos in this blog post. 

But working with metal can have its challenges. I was using metal cut from different silver-plated trays - some silver over copper and silver over brass. However I discovered that one larger tray I cut up was in fact silver over brass that had nickel added to it - makes it more silvery.  In past blogs I have reported that depending on the amount of nickel the metal can't really be annealed and can be prone to split. The metal on two of the bowls split. As you can see from the opening photo one split badly. Rather than scrap the bowl I decided to finish hammering it into shape and stitching across the split with 1mm brass rod. I like the outcome.

Before I show some process photos, below are few more photos of the two split bowls - including a spiral patterned bowl - the only ones I completed today. The shiny metal was reflecting the painting on the wall - I rather like it.

And as promised some process photos.

I hope to finish the other 5 bowls over the weekend.

Peace and leaves

 

Another mixed weekend - I worked in Deckled Edge Press printing peace pocket posters; and in the workshop progressing leaves with words.

The photo above shows the three peace pocket posters I printed - advanced preparation for International Day of Peace. In all I printed 210 pocket posters  - 21 to fit in with the date of IDoP in September - and 70 of each so that there are enough to send out into the world. I checked out the IDoP website - the theme this year is build peace against racism - and we can do this by building equality - we can never have too much equality. I have chosen blue on blue to create a calm and peaceful look to the pocket posters. I loved the lusciousness of the colour mixing process.

I have managed to: fold all the 140 stamped leaf blanks; marked them up for cutting; and cut the earring pieces - and even unfolded and ground one pair (see last photo). 

The rest of the leaves will be cut, ground and polished over the next week. I'm always a bit surprised how long production can take - but then again I have set myself the task of doing 140 word leaves.

Weekend fragments

 

My time over the weekend was a bit fragmented - spent some of Saturday at DEP and all of today. So the outcome,e was a bit of metal and a bit of letterpress as you will see from the blog post.

I did get to polish the bowl (about 15-17cm in diameter) above. I liked the heavy hammer marks so rather than smoothing those away I decided to leave the bowl as it is. Made from a vintage silver-plated placemat.

I finished the bowls and leaves for the three Daily Leaf Word sets.

I spent quite a bit of time proofing and adjusting the middle pages of my daily words poem book. I wanted to get it right so that I can repeat the layout and lock up for the remaining pages. I will attempt to do an edition of 20-25.

In response to the decision of governments regarding omicron I decided to print a nano-poster (20 copies ) simply reflecting the fact that countries require healthy people if the are to have healthy economies. Seems sensible to me that you can't produce and deliver if you don't have a workforce to do that. Beautiful vintage 72 point wood type - love the grain and old ink staining some of the timber.

So a very bibs and bobs weekend really.

Small sculpture and Daily Words

 

I have been putting together a collection of metal pieces that will go into a pop-up display-shop in Caloundra gallery. I was pleased to finish the above small leaf sculpture - it could go into a garden, on a deck or hallway table as it is about 50cm H, 50cm L, 20cm W.

As you can see the leaf forms on aluminium rod are now set into a curve of rust - cut from segment of very heavy gauge metal pipe that was given to me. It took a reasonable amount of time cutting and drilling - but I like how the rust complements the patinated copper.

I am progressing the 3 sets of daily leaf words - one a commission and the other two because I need stock. The commission includes the words forgiveness and generosity.

I need to polish about another 14 leaves and the commission plus the other two sets are done.