January One-a-Day

Super Awesome in Training

Week one and two were busy busy,  a full week off with Maurice in Hospital for week three  and  four ended with me being sick. Still I am “Super Awesome in Training” and it will take more than a pesky virus and life to hold me down. Besides  I also dived in one day out of a couple of the weekends which made up for a lot of my unscheduled down time,

Sundays seem to be a great work day for me. Truth be told most things happened during  those two Sundays. The nights after work , only consisting of a couple of hours were not all that productive item wise. They did serve a very useful purpose of letting ideas form in my head and letting the skills settle and develop  and so are just equally important. One a Day isnt likely to be a real doozy but 3 on one day and none for a couple …it all works out and as long as I roll with it…

A whole month (2 weeks) of messing about forming and shaping copper, was lots of fun. I allowed myself $50 of cheap copper scrap  to play with for practice. I used about 1/4 of that. The simple act of ‘doing’ improved my eye and my skills lots and ‘doing’ with no end result in mind , took away any self imposed pressures I might have placed on my goals.

I dived in and hammered away like an over grown elf in a Pratchett story.

With nothing in mind nothing could be ruined if I made an error, using cheap materials,  little was lost if I botched something so basically it was a stress free play time that yielded some great results.  Working out what worked and what added to the scrap pile ( a fair chunk of too thin copper is making up the scrap pile currently) It was all such fun and when something came together it  was  exhilarating.

Now I have a camera I can run off a couple of images ( Ill add them as soon as I get my usb lead) Each piece I made had no direction or  intended outcome, it just happened. Folding, chasing, punching, colouring with heat, colouring with liver of sulpher. I have created some lovely pieces that have given me lots of ideas and direction for future projects.  Not one of these pieces is something I would have thought to choose to make   but the freedom of being unconstrained  by a design or aesthetic was a huge  part of the enjoyment.

All very blank state , very zen.

January also brought about a tiny internet footprint I’m working on. Crafty Cunts  sprang up  here , twitter, facebook & pinterest and will blossom, then when I’m ready to show my arse to the world I will  have a very nice well displayed arse !

And of course, January brought me a camera. Shari, my special lady,  gave me some money for Christmas and I searched and researched  until i found a super bargain DSLR and a lens both of which are fantastic and Im going to enjoy the learning curve and can upgrade my lens when I can afford it.  Its a Sony Alpha 100 with a macro lens and I also picked up a Minolta Maxx original beer can. The camera, lens, minolta second lens, bag  memory and usb lead, battery and charger bought from half a dozen different ebayers came to a grand total  $200, a huge amount of money for me but an absolute bargain for those items

I really must take the Christmas tree down soon.

Tools of the Moment

Rubber Block, Steel Block, Domed Chasing Hammer. Round Nose Pliers, Parallel Pliers

Tool Needs

Hammers, lots of different hammers, Punches, lots of different punches, forms lots of different forms- the rolling pin just isn’t cutting it

Material Needs

18g Sheet, 16g Sheet, 10g Wire, 12g Wire- The 22g copper I have is too lightweight for me

Project Ideas  

Crystal Prison, Gyroscope, The Engineers Pins, Mountain  Crevasse, Cooley Birds