33/52 Slippery Sid

This challenge piece is really all about the wood! 

On my challenge list is one entry entitled drift wood. I have a LOT of small pieces of drift wood!! I very seldom see any driftwood on Hastings beach but a couple of years ago I bought a big batch of it online that I saw going for a good price. The intention was always to use it as bases for the small bronze critters I occasionally make.

As it has been washing around in the sea for so long the wood is mostly quite bleached in colour and rough-ish. It needed a finish on it to make it nice. I've tried Renaissance Wax, I've tried oiling the wood, whatever I use sinks in straight away and the wood looks no different even after quite a few treatments. I didn't want to add a varnish coating to it so the wood got placed to one side, another thing for another day! :)

It is interesting how ideas suddenly hit you though. Last week I was reading a newspaper supplement and it mentioned Shou Sugi Ban (sometimes called Yaki Sugi) as a treatment for antiquing and preserving cedar cladding on buildings. Well that immediately piqued my interest (it's that Japanese influence again! ;) ) and off I went to do some Googling!!

Basically the process involves blasting the wood with a flame to create a charred outer surface, and then cleaning the wood up well afterwards. It seemed like the perfect way to treat my little pieces of driftwood.

I geared myself up with everything I needed, heatproof surface, torch, bowl of water (safety precaution!), large tongs and some pieces of driftwood and headed out into the fresh air! It was fun! The main thing was to make sure I got an even charring and that the wood did not actually catch fire and keep burning!! Making sure I was upwind and not downwind also REALLY helped!! :)

Thankfully the bowl of water proved to be surplus to requirements and I didn't incinerate anything  :) I let the pieces cool off and then set about brushing the surface of the wood with a stiff brush to remove the loose charred particles.

The results were lovely! Different types of wood obviously reacted differently, some stayed very smooth, other had wonderful pronounced surface graining. They all had a really nice subtle sheen without any other treatment.

The two discs were commercial wooden pendants - you can see how much surface I lost in this comparison of them.

The piece of wood I chose to put Slippery Sid onto already had a couple of small holes in the surface. First I added some Renaissance Wax to increase the glow in the wood. This time the wax worked well on the surface. 

I drilled a small hole into the base of Sid and put a small wire peg into one hole in the wood so Sid didn't slip off the wood (sorry Sid!), then I added a tiny enamelled ammonite into the other hole for a touch of colour :)

I really like the result. The dark wood sets of the bronze beautifully. I'll be doing more of this! :)

Have fun!

Joy x

WCC 11/52 - Shoreline Decoy

 

Another little Goldie Bronze sculpture. This one is a little shoreline decoy bird. I really like making this style of little bird, and the simplicity of the outline.

 

The bird measures approx 47mm from tail to beak.

 

I wrote a Haiku for this one.

 

Little shoreline bird
Graceful bended silhouette
Sculpted miniature

 

This is the second of EIGHT posts for today to catch me up - so do check out my others :)

 

Joy x

WCC 10/52 Fluffy the Kitten

 

So, here we go with the first of 8 blog posts to catch up my Critter Challenge.

 

This is Fluffy the Kitten. He is a furry little thing made out of Goldie bronze and he measures just 22mm x 27mm. Fluffy didn't hang around long, I finished him on a Friday and he went off to a new home at my fair on the Saturday!

 

Here is his poem.

 

Fluffy the Kitten
Waiting to play
Throw him a toy
and you'll brighten his day

 

Cats are obviously popular - watch out for more :)

 

Joy x

Weekly Critter Challenge 3/52 - Pip-Squeak

 

For my third critter I have gone back to making Goldie Bronze sculptures.

 

This one is a cute little mouse! Pip-Squeak.

 

He has a long bendy tail...

 

 

... and an appealing look.

 

 

You can see he really is tiny!

 

Here is his poem, another haiku.

 

Happy little mouse
On hind legs sits with snaking tail
Any cheese for me?

 

My next critter will be in silver and enamel :)

 

Have fun!

 

Joy x

Weekly Critter Challenge 1/52 - Goldie

 

My first critter for my Weekly Critter Challenge 2013.

 

OK, so this is actually last weeks critter, blogger has not been letting me upload photos for some reason, but I have got round it at last!

 

This little fella is called Goldie, because he is a goldie fish, he,he!!

 

And he is made out of Goldie Bronze, so all in all, a very fitting name!

 

 

Here is the other side of him, and as you can see from the photo below, he is quite small.

 

 

If you have followed my challenges over the last two year you will recall in 2010, when I did a Bird a Week, I also wrote a Haiku poem for each one.

 

This year I have decided to write more poems. Sorry about that, but you are stuck with my poor poetic skills for the whole year!

 

They will not all be Haiku this time though.

 

Here is the poem for Goldie

 

With a flip of my tail

And a flap of my fin

In my watery realm

I'm the king pin

 

I have already made my next critter so expect another post very soon! :)

 

Joy x

Bird a Month 9/12 - On Rainbow Shores

 

And now for something a bit different!! Bird a Month for September - well 4 birds actually :)

 

I am quite enjoying playing with small sculptures. The seashells and starfish on this are fine silver made using Art Clay Silver and enamelled. The birds are made using Goldie Bronze.

 

The overall size of the sculpture is 165mm x 85mm x100mm, The enamelled seashells are 4mm - 7mm in diameter and the bronze birds are about 40mm long.

 

I had fun making this! Each little seashell has a small pin in the back to fix it into the wood.  

 

Watch out for the second mask coming tomorrow!!

 

Joy x

Bird a Month 7/12 - Shore Bird Decoy

 

My Bird a Month for July is a tiny bronze decoy bird on a wooden stand. It is made with a new clay I am testing called Goldie Bronze™. The bird itself measures approx 30mm from beak to tail and it about 18mm high. Goldie Bronze ™ clay will be available to buy in September this year.

I plan on making more little decoy birds soon :)