Thursday, August 16, 2012

On my kitchen table.

After weeks and weeks of staving off the dreaded colds and flu that have been going around, I have finally succumbed. Today has found me feeling decidedly under par so I have opted to keep busy with things that don't require too much concentration.


This is a pic of my casting set up. It takes place on the kitchen table and is pretty low tech.


I have a little camper stove-top that I use to heat up an old saucepan full of pewter left-overs that are too big for my trusty ladle. I use the "Fat-Boy" to heat up said ladle.


These are the sorts of pieces that go into the saucepan - mostly the bottoms of beer mugs that have been cut up and used in other ways. I like to use every scrap I can - not sure if that makes me environmentally conscientious or a regular old tight-arse. Either way it makes me happy to reclaim as much material as I can from these fairly obsolete objects!


Every now and then I go on a mold-making spree. I am getting better at it as I go along too.


Here are a few of the lovelies prior to clean up. That can be a bit laborious but it is nice to have a whole swathe of finished bits to use, so it is well worth the effort. I am a pretty big fan of processes that don't require super specialised tools and equipment. For instance, I like relief printmaking because it can be done without a press and torch fired enameling 'cos it can be done without a kiln. I rather like the idea of creativity blossoming in a domestic setting. My children sat at this table and created their colourful drawings, play-doh sculptures and wrote stories and essays and poems right here. I like to think that the timber has soaked up some of that creative energy and like a tree releasing carbon, will slowly over time continuously  release creativity into the air ... a bit fanciful maybe, but a nice thought huh?


And this is what the end product looks like. Do you work at your kitchen table too?

4 comments:

Enchanted Moments said...

sure do...even though I have a 'craft room'...we do most of our school project work on the kitchen table, paint, playdoh, sewing, pretty much all the creating gets done there...oh and we eat there as well, of course! Hope you feel better soon, such a foul day today too...so much rain and cold...

Daniel Smith said...

These kitchen equipment look really beautiful..

Two Dog Pond said...

I hope you're feeling better soon! Love that you showed the magic behind the end products... oh to be a fly on your wall!

Anonymous said...

Love this pet ans seeing your processes. You're a talent those moulds are awesome.