Small Sculptures

I did an aria 1 from the end of a grader bucket tooth. This one was inspired by a timber wedge I had lying in my pile. I liked the ratty end and thought it could be like a fluffy frill. She worked out quite well and the pose seems to suggest she is singing so hence Aria 3.

I look through Instagram in the morning and some things spark ideas in me. I love drawing faces and I did a nice copy of someone’s photo. I am exploring how much control I have in using the plasma cutter so I had a go at this piece. I must admit the cutter adds its own quality to the line but overall I am quite satisfied with the result.

 I periodically look in op shops for odd things that might create something with my metal characters. I had done a tea lady before with a girl in a teapot on wheels and this pot stirred my creative juices. It sort of is tank like but I do love the swirls and flourishes on the pot. I had the wheels in my pile waiting for a suitable use and everything came together happily.

I think I might have seen a picture with clouds in front of the person but in my version I used an aluminium cloud and added a sun to make a double sided piece. If you look from the cloud side behind it suggests that you can look at the clouds if you like but in another focus the sun is shining. From the other side where you can see most of the face, the clouds are being left behind as she moves forward. Quite a positive piece really.The title comes from old pantomimes where there is something behind the hero but they can’t seem to see it .

I was looking through Instagram and there was an image similar to this from Leila.eg. Hers was a fork and a spoon couple with a baby tea spoon and it inspired me to think about what I could do with this idea and my character forms. As I thought further I came up with a range of couple type ideas but this is the first.

I look through Instagram in the morning and some things spark ideas in me. The original inspiration was a computer art piece by Diegoidef but I modified the idea and also added a flower.I have been impressed by a number of other artists who are not defined by the “real “ lines of the figure and I have started a number of pieces following this technique.

I look through Instagram in the morning and some things spark ideas in me. I was attracted by this idea for a piece involving curly hair.

I did a cut out cat face using the plasma cutter and this was the space inside this image. What was left was the negative space but it was missing the eyes and nose. I added these by welding and rather than call it negative cat I thought it looked even happier ( more positive). I was inspired by the first one to print from it with ink and paper and I did the same for this one. The result was quite different really but all versions have some degree of charm.

I was deciding what to do with some lovely shapes cut from a dragonfly’s wing and I thought a fish might be nice. The phrase “ fish out of water” came to mind and I did a fish leaping out of his bowl.( which was fun in itself in that the bowl had no water to begin with). It did look a bit plain though so my girl rider added both colour and whimsy to the scene.

I am enjoying experimenting with the plasma cutter to see how well I can translate images I find and drawings to metal. It seems pretty versatile. I saw this girl on Instagram and thought she would make a lovely piece. I certainly love the fact that some people can be graceful through working so hard and it is certainly something I can never achieve. It is based on an image of Megan Hill although I have modified it a bit( longer hair) and I suspect Meagan would not regard it as a portrait. Still. I am pleased with the result and I will be doing further small pieces using this process.

I have done a series of pieces involving pinecones and some have been birds, insects, dresses and all sorts of things. This cone was on my bench and calling out to be used and as I was doing some plasma-cutting this idea came to mind. Because the cone was partially opened it sort of reminded me of a basket of fruit headdress worn by Carmen Miranda in the 60’s and this is how it developed..

 I was given a set of quite beautiful and worthy books (literary) from a school library where they had not been read (or touched!)  Old technology I guess. I did find it hard initially to “damage” them to make sculptures but I overcame the years of people telling me not to damage a book  I have very dirty hands usually). Anyway, this idea developed possibly from seeing ideas on Instagram of illustrations. This one was the most cut up into a bird shape and I had quite a few problems trying to get the wings to stay out and affix my character .It really is an allegory I guess

I have been tidying up my shed recently and a whole range of small treasures have come to light. One thing I found was this old iron base and it instantly suggested I make a warship out of it. Ironclads were the name of the first iron warships from a previous time but the shape and the heaviness just mad the name quite apt( as well as the “iron” element.)

I look through Instagram in the morning and some things spark ideas in me. I saw a 10 year old girl doing a typical 10 year old pose. At the same time my pile of scrap handed me this motor cover which called out to be made into a dress. The two things came together and I added a bit of my interpretation and here we have a girl loving life and dancing.. It sort of reminds me that snoopy ( cartoon) often had a dance for spring or some such occasion and this joyousness just makes me smile. You can’t be unhappy around this piece!

I often react to the shape of tools and mechanisms. This pick head was on my bench and suggested a kayak. I have a friend who does this competitively and I thought this might be a nice gift for him

I found a disc of pine and the idea of cutting out the middle and sandwiching it between plasma cut shaped metal was part of my exploring different ways of combining plasma cutting with timber. I finally decided to add the stainless steel wool for the tree tops as an extra element of texture although it did look ok without it ( starker) . Anyway I am content with the finished product although it doesn’t have any real message .

 I went to China and we saw a lake of lotus flowers. When we returned they had  all died  but the pods were also interesting. When I was in Zart art buying some art supplies I found small bags of these pods and I had to experiment with using them. This is the first piece and I love the contrast of hard and shiny with natural and textured. I have changed the size relationships to suggest trees but it seems a delightful piece to me.

Instagram again in that there are some beautiful drawings on there. I used one from minarim as the initial impetus and altered aspects of it to allow me to achieve the effects I wanted. The contrast of rust to sealed areas was what I wanted to play with and the finished result is more or less what I was aiming for. I do like the balance of positive and negative spaces also and my girl is a bit more subdued than the original drawing.

My wife is very busy at the moment dealing with our two grandchildren. She always seems to have one in her arms and is so patient and supportive of them it is such a delight to see. (I am the grumpy old man who lives in the shed… so quite a contrast!)  However, I thought I should at least create something that sort of captures the time. She always was a wonderful mother and now she is being a wonderful grandmother.

I did a face of a girl in this manner and I was quite delighted by its effect. The idea for the cat face came from the “rockitman” on Instagram who had done a rock engraving in a similar simple manner. This one also inspired me to try to print from it and I was quite content with the result. I have two cats myself and one loves me and the other allows me to serve it. Nonetheless I do like cats ( and dogs) and they add so much to our lives .The title refers to the positive as distinct from negative form.. as well as the expression on the face.

I look through Instagram in the morning and some things spark ideas in me. I saw a cartoon type face, (with an outline) and for some reason it suggested this composition. It is sort of like the Cheshire cat in Alice in wonderland but it sort of invokes a presence of someone/something that is sort of supernatural well to me anyway.

 I am still exploring combining plasma cutting metal with wood and I saw a lovely little sketch of “bean people” on miillustrations on Instagram. I enjoyed turning the forms on the lathe and using different timbers (Red-gum, Camphor laurel and Oregon) and the faces are aluminium and plasma cut. There is a lot of fuss about same sex marriage at present and I liked the idea that my characters were all different yet basically the same. I am for same sex marriage and I am against prejudice in all forms. My little characters are maybe a gentle way of showing similarity and differences (and nobody is yelling!).

I original did a piece called prickly about a character surrounded by forks who was “prickly”. Needless to say she didn’t find a home I recycled the piece this year by making a new figure and cutting down the forks to produce this idea. It still uses the forks( and looks quite fine ) although really he hasn’t got into the water yet so he shouldn’t make such a splash yet. Ah what the heck, the idea is interesting and quite fun..

The title is from a song but there was a starting point in an Illustration by Carosurreal on Instagram. I have done a number of pieces using stars as part of the composition and this one sort of developed as I went along.An image of Hedy Lamar even added to its development. So many possibilities and so much fun exploring them.  .

 I have different ideas for using the plasma cutter and although I have done a range of cat images I thought to do a striped cat. I have a striped cat myself but not as distinct as this one and it as interesting to try to develop the drawing so I could use positive and negative shapes.

I look through Instagram in the morning and some things spark ideas in me. I saw a lovely drawing in a graphics page of a girl looking sort of sideways with some head covering. This is my adaptation and the colour, face shape and attitude are different. I am enjoying translating drawing ideas into projects for the plasmacutter and using colour to highlight some areas

I love having hugs. There I have said it… still anyone who knows me that is no surprise. I was interested in drawing this and exploring the positive and negative shapes involved in the image. I do like the depth of this hug and the shadows the piece casts. If it inspires more hugs in the world that is not a bad thing.!

The last book is me playing with my plasma cutter again. We have a small playgroup that comes to the gallery on some Fridays and one of the girls was sitting in a lovely pose so I photographed and sketched her. The original pose was her eating and on one of the comfy chairs but I modified this. As to the last book, well the intensity of the pose suggests that she is at the crucial stage of the last book in the series. Also, as books are quickly becoming an older technology ,the pose of someone reading in this way might be a disappearing image.

I saw a similar image on Instagram and the idea really appealed as a topic for a plasmacut. I was going to call it see through but that is perhaps a bit out of keeping with the joy of the pose. I do like that the pattern is actual holes though.

When I first started college I made a lovely window scene with enamel panes and a wooden frame. It had colour and shine and it was an interesting piece to create. This one hearks back to that but it extended my use of the plasma cutter by making holes and placing mirror behind them. The girl ( in red) is drawing the curtains and by separating the pieces creates that sense of distance.. although it was hard to photograph successfully.

I was looking on Instagram and there was an image with stars in the background. It suggested a tree of star to me and I quickly sketched the idea down. I always get excited at this stage thinking I have come up with a new idea but when I look for pictures to accompany this piece of writing I usually find a mountain of images by other people who have had a similar idea. Maybe ideas are connected … sort of like a tree of stars!

I have done a series of pieces involving pinecones and some have been birds, insects, dresses and all sorts of things. This cone was so compact that it suggested the back of some giant insect. Of course I had to have someone riding it and after a bit of tricky welding it all came together. It called out to be a bit like riding a wild horse rather than just a sedate trot, hence the title. Yee Ha!

There is a man on Instagram called airtightartwork who produces lovely sculptures of birds from cutlery and it got me thinking what else could be done from cutlery. I sketched a cat with forks for whiskers and this is the end result. He is a bit tigerish but overall the effect is quite delightful to me.

On sunny days I often raise my arms and feel the warmth and almost feel being part of the day.. taking off and soaring would be ideal… but when you see me, the idea that my arms would lift me off the ground… well you can see why the piece is called wish. Still the idea persists !

I was looking through Instagram one morning and there was an image of a person looking at a star through a window. This had some resonance with me as I used to love watching the Walt Disney TV show where the theme was “when you wish upon a star”. I had made a piece called the Watcher many years previously and it was still about, probably because it was a bit creepy. I thought to modify it to give it a more positive interpretation and the man had a gender change to become a girl, the head came up instead of down and the star was added for focus. A much more positive piece I think.

I was doing some plasma cutting and this face developed. I have a bucket of leaves made from offcuts of whatever I am cutting out and the two seemed to say put us together. She looks sort of like an indian chief but mainly I was trying to suggest that leaves were growing from her head instead of hair.. some sort of woodsprite I guess. I do like the randomness of the leaf shapes and textures and she looks a positive and happy character.

I was listening to a Richard Thompson song off his “still” album and the phrase “a fork in the road” just conjured this creation. I guess it comes down to scale in that my little characters interact with normal sized objects in quite a different way to what we do. Anyway it seemed a fun thing to do.. and as to what he is going to do with the fork…?

I saw this idea on Pinterest as an illustration and I have had fun developing ways to make it work as a sculpture. I love the idea that a book will take you to unknown worlds and even “Mischievous Moncton “no doubt was a delight in its time. I did find it hard to drill a hole in the book… the early training about not damaging a book really is still present … but the end result seems worth it. I have captured the illustrations for another project but the rest of the book is sort of still readable… if you demolish the rest of the sculpture!

I had this tip of an excavator fork in my pile for years. It is heavy and I vaguely thought I would make a bird beak or something similar. As it is it is the base of this fairly heavy singer and I quite like the contrast to what it was originally and what it is now. The head is a wheel brace end and the bike chain just filled it nicely.

Aria actually means” an elaborate melody sung solo with accompaniment”

I did an aria 1 from the end of a grader bucket tooth. This one was inspired by a picture on instagram of a girl in a dress and I thought I could imitate the dress with old above ground pool surround( of which I have heaps). She worked out quite well and the pose seems to suggest she is singing so hence Aria 2.

I did a series of balance ”toys” with one of my classes when I was still a teacher inspired by an in-service on “the science of toys”. I was very impressed with the range of things they came up with from turned cones, to tractors, skateboarders and wrestlers. Anyway I hadn’t done much with the idea personally up to now and I thought that it might amuse some people with some of my different interpretations. I do love the magic of it all.. just applied centre of gravity really, but a fascinating thing to play with. This is the first of at least a few.

I have been recently fascinated by the shape and form or pinecones and I have combined this one with a bird constructed from cutlery. I love the texture for the chest as well as the forms of the feathers. There was someone on Instagram doing something similar but his were very different .

I sometimes just pick an awkward piece from my pile and try to think what to do with it. This started from the two buttons on a box. They could have been eyes, they could have been the back of something but I made them into breasts.. surely the most unbreast shape that could possible be but I have been pleased with the end result. I used the timing gear for her skirt, an old sculpture holder for her shoulders and plasma cut her face hands and legs.

I did a piece last year called” walking the dog” with a girl in a similar position… needless to say that sort of inspired this piece.. that and the fact I love words or phrases that can be interpreted in different ways. Catwalk is obviously one of them… maybe using cats for shoes might be a different interpretation but that is a bit yukky so I will stay with this format.I have two cats.. and nearly always have had cats and the idea that they would put up with this is very foreign to the nature of the cats I have had.We have a cat that goes for a walk with us each night but really it is just that he chooses the same time to walk as us and really he is not part of any family activity… Bloody cats!.

This began at the wheels really. I took them off a boot for roller-skating and I was asking myself what I would do with them They suggested that I make a Segway ( I have never been on one but they do look fun). The character I made was going to be waving but when it was all assembled it did look a bit dull. It sat on the table for a day and I tried all sorts of combinations. I had a dragonfly I had made there as well and when I attached this it looked right. What was he doing? Well catching dragonflies of course…. Why…well that’s a whole different story.

 I hadn’t done any turning for quite a while and I thought I should start using some of the brass pieces( taps and pipes) I had collected. The contrast between the smooth turned redgum and the complex but glowing brass seemed to be a good fit so this entirely nonfunctional and interesting juxtaposition came about. I need to explore the colour of brass more as I have quite a collection and I haven’t been giving it enough value. I used to turn hundreds of things from redgum but I have been remiss in using the material since I started welding.

I was explaining to a customer at the gallery that you can get inspiration from almost anywhere if you just have the right mindset. I picked up a copy of Gippsland Lifestyle and it had a cyclist and shadow on the cover ( at Mt Baw Baw) and I thought that would make a fun sculpture to do. I have done a bike or so before and they are a bit tricky but this one came together ok and I used the plasma cutter to cut out an approximation of his shadow( taking it out on the verandah and tracing it).

I think it is quite an interesting composition… but you be the judge

I love playing with forks and cutlery.. well they are such interesting shapes. I have done a number of different dancers in the past ( I still can’t dance) and this one seemed to be more a hula dancer hence suiting the “grass” skirt.! 

I guess Madonna started it with her pointy boobs and this image of lady Gaga also incorporates spikes. Looking at a typical tutu it isn’t hard to imagine it as a spiky dress and I have been doing a bit with cutlery recently and this sort of came together. I made a piece called prickly a while ago and this also uses forks to keep people away. Certainly she is doing her individual dance not as part of a team or partnership. Still lovely though. 

I was recycling this dancer from another piece and I was thinking what to do with her. There was apparently an old religious problem of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and this sort of made itself known to me. Sounds an amazing thing to think about and I am sure most of the discussion centred around angels.. wheras I made the pin big and solved my problem at least. Obviously the answer is one!

( wiki: Scornful description of a tedious concern with irrelevant details; an allusion to religious controversies in the middle ages. In fact, the medieval argument was over how many angels could stand on the point of a pin.”)

I have started using spade and shovel forms as part of some slightly different pieces. This is the second of them. My girl here looks to me as though she is a grand opera singer and it is a fun and interesting way of recycling .

I have done a number of fish interactions with some of my characters and it always amuses me to see how I will create the fish and what their interaction will be. In this case it looks like they are diving deep. I know people go swimming with Whale sharks and other sea life( I haven’t done this yet)  but it seems a wonderful thing to do. As to being able to control the fish like a horse .. well I can barely control a bike and they have handle bars. Anyway , just another flight of fancy.

I have done a number of fish interactions with some of my characters and it always amuses me to see how I will create the fish and what their interaction will be. In this case it looks like they are diving deep. I know people go swimming with Whale sharks and other sea life( I haven’t done this yet)  but it seems a wonderful thing to do. As to being able to control the fish like a horse .. well I can barely control a bike and they have handle bars. Anyway , just another flight of fancy.this is the second dive as I sold the first oneand had it entered in a show as well

I had not done much with much of the brass and copper junk that comes my way and I did a couple of pieces that made me quite amused with the effects and the lovely appearance of Brass and Bronze. I had a small piece which reminded me of a divers helmet and that lead to this whole piece. All the bits just came together from my collection and I combined brass and copper and steel in this piece. I like him taking his fish for a “swim/walk”.

I have made a number of pieces where characters ride impossible creatures, fish, butterflies, birds and of late I have been making a series of dragonflies using old cutlery so it seemed only appropriate that a dragonfly should acquire a rider sooner or later. It is all a question of scale really and if we had giant dragonflies I am sure some effort would be made to tame them to be capable of this. As we don’t this flight of fancy will remain just that. 

We had an exhibition in the gallery called Joan and the Jindi kids and one of the pieces was this one shown. It inspired me to make my version of it and although I have thought about the rain falling I thought it might be a bit dangerous without something above it to stop people poking their eyes( ends of wire) . anyway it developed from there and my character and base take it quite a way from the original inspiration.

I have made a few different girls with flowers in the past. In this one the scale was the deciding factor. We climb trees, we put our nose in flowers and bees enter flowers. It really is only that the flower isn’t quite big enough otherwise there would be a whole new field of adventure botany. What if we were that small?… or flowers were that big?...I love thinking of the different implications and anyway it is fun to make!

This is the third piece I have used a shovel shape for a dress. My girl here also has a flower to suit her role.The patterns on the dress are fun to do and my character is fairly into her task of carrying a flower.Sort of what spades are used for …. But with a whole different take on the idea.

I was recycling this dancer from another piece and I was thinking what to do with her. I had this old brace in the pile and the two seemed a natural fit. She looks like she is trying out the new gymnastics equipment. I had used an old brace in the past but not as dynamically as this one

I was recycling this dancer from another piece and I was thinking what to do with her. I had this old brace in the pile and the two seemed a natural fit. She looks like she is trying out the new gymnastics equipment. I had used an old brace in the past but not as dynamically as this one

Having done the first head in a book piece I had the idea for a second interpretation. It certainly isn’t as graceful as the first but it has a feeling of “up to your neck in it” although from the other direction .The book being the farmers handbook has a certain topical relevance although I am not sure if reading any farmers handbook would help our local farmers with their milk pricing problems.

I started this head years ago. It didn’t seem to be working at the time and I threw it on the scrap heap. It sat there for a year or so until I saw an image on Pinterest or Instagram which had flowers around a head and another which had nail eyelashes. It provoked me to reclaim the head, finish it by fully covering it and adding hair and also eyelashes . She is much happier now and I do like the combination of materials and ideas

I often just go to my pile of scrap and pull out something that appeals to me at the moment. The small rusty jack was the chosen piece for this work and initially I toyed with the idea of it being either a top hat or a girls dress. Needless to say the dress won. I was going to do just a simple pose but as a jack lifts weights then that suggested the pose here. The hair is from stainless steel strip that someone delivered to me and although it probably isnt perhaps the right gear to lift weights in, she seems to be doing ok.

I was making some dragonflies and a couple of characters for other works and serendipity worked and I wondered what the dragonfly wings ( Knives) would be like on a character. I did one and then thought SPOONS!  Hence this one. Really just a bit of fun. 

I was making some dragonflies and a couple of characters for other works and serendipity worked and I wondered what the dragonfly wings ( Knives) would be like on a character. Hence this one. Really just a bit of fun.

We have a birdman competition at the Melbourne festival( Moomba) and various characters leap off a ramp with odd wing forms attached.. into the Yarra River!  I have never done it myself but this form of mania attracts a certain amount of attention. I had a character leaping off a doghouse in a previous exhibition. I love these determined characters.In this case my hammer broke and in looking at the head it reminded me of astanding pose.. certainly a hammerhead with wings would indeed be taking a leap of faith.

I cut out a series of hearts making a tree with heart shaped holes in the foliage.. of course I cant just let anything go to waste so I decided as I was picking up the hearts ,maybe I would have another character picking up hearts too but sort like as a plant. Certainly we choose who to love and I guess in most cases there is a wide range of people to choose from. What makes the special person? I am not sure but although there are maniacs in the world the majority of people are loving and worthy of love.

People often throw metal objects into the pile. This lovely old Brace ( no bit) was one and I wanted to make a piece that would allow its beautiful shape and most of its design to be appreciated. I also love the word boring .. which I sometimes am and sometimes do. Anyway the idea of the character on the top sprang to mind and once the rust was removed from the brace it looked lovely. Not quite so needed in these days of battery drills but still a lovely thing in itself.

I have enjoyed looking in my pile of metal and thinking how I can give a new life to some of the pieces there. This old axe head called to me. It must be over 100 years old and now it is part of a sculpture and its texture is delightful. I have never been a great risk taker.. I did parachute jump once.. but I know others love the adrenaline rush of the uncertainty. My girl seems to be in control and I hope it works out well for whoever this relates to in your life.

I was cutting out heart shapes to make a tree with heart shaped holes. What to do with the cut outs? It came to me overnight that they would make great wings and hence this piece. I looked up images associated with the title but it only came up with a tv show and I have found no images with heart shaped wings. Have I ended up with something original spurred by serendipity? Ah well, I think it is a nice piece anyway!

I have been recently fascinated by the shape and form or pinecones and I have combined this one with one of my girls to give her a lovely dress. It was a bit tricky getting the proportions right and perhaps it has folk art connotations but the forms of these things are just so intriguing I can’t resist.

I have done a number of pieces in the past for the Blarney Books show which involves interaction with books. I happened to get a small group from an op shop with the idea of using them in one sculpture but as I had them there I saw a number of other ideas forming. This is my original idea( probably seen on Pinterest or some such place). I have glued the books to the base and the girl to the books… I do find it hard to permanently damage books.. even ones as old and unread as these.

I have been doing a few ideas using old books as the starting point. I collected a small batch from the local Salvos and this old Victorian Education Dept reader was amongst them. I had a similar reader and it was one of the tools that introduced me to a variety of writers and different forms of story. I had this idea for a while and it has come together nicely in this piece. I still value reading highly but I don’t know if books will survive the development of e readers etc. Still they are a wonderful resource for me.

I did a piece a long while ago where I made a girl holding balloons. Some friends bought it and someone saw it and years later asked for something similar. I have improved on the original design by adding red and leaving the steel coated with a clear paint.I love the freedom of the image and the joy that we all experienced when we had balloons for the first time.. Magic really!

I did a piece a long while ago where I made a girl holding balloons. Some friends bought it and someone saw it and years later asked for something similar. I have improved on the original design by adding red and leaving the steel coated with a clear paint.I love the freedom of the image and the joy that we all experienced when we had balloons for the first time.. Magic really!

I was looking through Instagram and there was an image similar to this.. I wanted to have a go at plasma cutting this scene and this is the result. Simple and reasonably effective.It sort of has echoes of Magritte but that wasn’t the main motivation

I had this rather lovely rock which at some point I cut in half. It had sat on my bench asking to be used and this is the result. I don’t tend to relax in this sort of way near as much as I should. Maybe this will act as a reminder! 

 I made a pair of the hands which were lovely and I made a bird as a thing for them to release ( as I often do as birds sometimes get themselves inside my shed.) I had seen a piece earlier of a butterfly being released by a pair of chained hands and no doubt that had an effect on my composition. Still I do like the message it sends about setting free something that belongs to the wild.

I have made a number of pieces featuring sailboats. I have never sailed but the image of someone setting out on a voyage is quite romantic. My character here is using a recycled piece from another sculpture as a sail….It suggests a slightly environmental aspect I feel and maybe we are all searching for a way back to a more environmentally friendly world… or is that just a romantic notion too?.

I guess it’s because I am so ugly that I don’t feel the need to take many “selfies”. Still I am amazed at how many people take… sort of like a disease. I really don’t understand this world of phone and cameras. I guess I want to capture an image to do something with it . .Hence I used a girl taking a selfie as a model for my piece “selfie”..something sort of circular about this but also sort of appropriate to the “age” too.

I saw a pose like this and thought I should do something with it. It sat in my sketchbook for a year or so and I decided this year that it needed to become real. As I work, I am influenced by bits and pieces around me and there were some flowers on the bench ready for me to make into “garden flowers”. I thought one would make a great umbrella and this is the result. I did toy with the title “flowers in the rain” but decided to save that for another piece.

I been using odd pieces out of the pile and seeing what they suggest. This is a mattock head and as I sat it on the bench it suggested a submarine. It sort of has maritime precursors as the ancient Greek sailing boats used to have a sharp ram attached to the front to attack other craft. Captain Nemo in 20,000 leagues under the sea had something similar. I don’t think my character is attacking anyone but seems to be enjoying the cruise.

I have made a number of pieces with people flying on the back of a bird and each time it still delights me. The fact that it can “float” in the air is pleasing and in this case the character on the back has spent the last few years looking in a mirror lake so this is a wonderful bit of freedom for her.In every fantasy story where this occurs ( eg lord of the rings) or the hobbit it always is as part of an adventure and I guess flying with a bird in control leaves the future wide open.

Butterflies are little pieces of magic here amongst us.I had seen a book title the butterfly cage and it got me thinking. However, there really are such things, not like the butterfly house at Melbourne zoo, but small display cages for your prized butterfly. I think my butterflies could escape quite easily( if I hadn’t welded them to their branches) but I sort of like that aspect . I used to have a bird in a cage at one stage and really now I think it would be a bit cruel. When we visited China the people brought out their cage birds to parks every morning to converse with other birds… do butterflies converse? So much I don’t know! .

I did a second version of this piece after a request after the first one sold. My girls are meant to be sharing thinking and sharing time…I know it’s a common thing for boys to do…in thinking further girls convey so much through expression both vocal and facial….do girls do this? Anyway my girls are and hopefully problems of the world ( or at least their world) can be solved by this.

Another piece using hearts and again it is sort of what we do when we search for a similar soul… launch a part of ourselves into the great beyond hoping that someone reads your message… in some way it would be good if it was this easy… but alas..

I don’t know where this one came from but suddenly the idea of a Line tamer not a lion tamer popped into my head… I do love mis-interpretations and double meanings so it was a natural. The next problem was how to do it and I was going to add a chair to keep the lines back( as a lion tamer uses..) but this is how it came out.

I had cut up a pinecone years ago to see what it looked like inside. It was just sitting on my bench( I rarely tidy up) and it suggested an animal back so I made the girl and her new pet. If gene engineering continues to develop perhaps this might actually happen and we all have giant pet insects…. Maybe not.. but it is a cool use of my ½ pinecone!

Just a wild thought really. I had done a “water tank” and a “fish tank”, and this idea came out of the blue while I was thinking about something entirely different. It developed over the day and the finished piece has some wonderful implications with the question mark barrel being turned back on itself. Just a fun piece but very enjoyable to do.

Well as I did “iron man” toaster man suggested himself to me via an old toaster on my pile. He did pose a few problems but the end result seems fine. Again a sort of misinterpretation of words and yet when I was hunting for an image to go with the piece there seems quite a few toastermen out there on the net… is there more to come with frypan man, blender man and microwave man? Only time will tell!

I had the wonderful main pieces of this creation sitting around for years. The bottom piece on the bench and couldn’t figure out how to do it justice. This is as close as I can come. The character is looking, kind of lord of the rings eye of Sauron towers and just reflecting on how we all love to climb to a high point for a view.

Another piece using hearts. I saw a man making a tree with steel branches and bronze leaves in Hobart and the idea of heart shaped leaves came into being for me. These are more fruits than leaves and it is a sort of metaphor for our search for love .Again  it would be good if it was this easy… but alas..

 I was looking through Instagram and there was an image similar to this.. I wanted to have a go at plasma cutting this scene and combining with the stainless steel wool I had used in other projects and this is the result. Simple and reasonably effective

I had to do a small piece as an order and they supplied a range of watering cans. I had one left over and it sat on my bench for a couple of years. I was talking to some people about how accidents often lead to new ideas and somehow this can ended up at my feet so it seemed natural to try to think what I could do with it. I do love word play and different interpretations of the same phrase always delight me. Hence water tank. 

I had this lovely copper soldering iron ( the copper pyramid) sitting on my bench for quite a while and I was wondering what to do with it. I had just done a small piece with a watering can ( water tank) and probably the ideas combined to make this piece. I do like to combine different materials if I can and I do like the shine of the copper against the steel. Silly… yes.. but probably no more silly than some of the theories I have heard.

 I was looking on Instagram and saw a girl walking with a sheet of something on her head and that set off an idea that resulted in this piece. The statement was common for years ,I certainly had it said to me at times . Perhaps it is less so in this age of Ipads etc where people often have a range of activities that they do on their phone or tablet, but I have been doing a series of works using old books and this became the latest.

I recycled my piece unicycle into this. I thought the unicyclist was quite impressive but when you add in a line as well it does start to get challenging. Can I balance like this?.... I have trouble standing on one leg so this is well outside my range but I do admire people who can do what I cant.

I have had a few ideas involving butterflies of late. This one is a touch unusual but sort of fun too... The idea of flying  as free and easy as a butterfly is surely a fairly worldwide one  and I have made pieces where people were on the back of a giant moth or bird…still , this one is a development… and slightly silly though full of colour!

I made a work for the Blarney Books show called “Greenhills”. This work featured 3 characters and parts of a book to meet the criteria of the show. When the piece returned I recycled the pieces and these fellows are two of them. One I have changed quite a bit but the other was being a body on the ground and his pose when stood up suggested the sort of dancing that enthusiastic but not very coordinated people do.( My suspicion is that this is the sort of dancing I do…. When I actually dance!)

I have had girls flying by all sorts of means in my sculptures. I saw this image on Pintrest and decided to adapt it to this piece. It is a lovely idea of the music and the bird form but my girl is enjoying the whole experience especially the flying“

A friend suggested this piece as when one of their friends went out in the garden she was always followed by a small contingent of ducks or chooks. My birds are a bit more generic but it has a nice friendly feel to it anyway

Needless to say my pile of metal has many odd and discarded things in it. This hook was calling to me. I have developed a contraption to support it and it seems t have captured something. I have no real philosophical background to this piece other than it all came together and I suspect I am hooked on creating!

We went away this year to a sculpture show in NSW. When we returned a friend had left me a collection of these wonderful glass insulators. Immediately one idea came to mind and this piece is the result.There is a certain degree of insulation in the costume and it favours this punny title. 

I was making a girl a day during a week where I was exploring some of the interesting pieces from my pile. Someone had left this jelly mold and it was perfect for a skirt. I decided it was a young girls outfit and made the legs even longer than normal as some young people seem to be all legs and arms. The attitude came with it!

I love the female form and I love the fluidity of people who dance so quite often I create a dancing piece. I have done both big and small pieces but this is different again. I had done a mid- sized girl previously and I was happy with the scale and what limitations it overcame and what different materials I could use. I had done a sketch of a dancing girl and wanted to use small pieces to make up her dress and this worked out well. I had some old mesh fencing and I decided to use the wire to do the hair. It worked out wilder but better than I expected.She seems to be having a wonderful time!

I was making a girl a day during a week where I was exploring some of the interesting pieces from my pile. This mostly came from.a tow bar for a Mitsubishi( hence the name) I did toy with not another bit of trailer trash but she is too classy for that. The arms came from the loops to attach the chain to and the dress is mostly the cutdown towbar. Even the holes are quite lovely as a pattern. Again she has a strong attitude from a strong background!

I periodically tidy up and sometimes I rediscover pieces of equipment or material that I had deemed as special. This was an old Oil can and I had kept it to do something interesting with it. I had just done another dancing girl and the spout suggested a John Travolta type pose so I started down that road. However as I added more to it, the solder that held the spout gave way and I had to redesign the piece using forks for arms. She is Olive as in Olive oil but she has plenty of personality of her own.

This piece is a recycling of a piece I made years ago. The two hands were coming out of a toaster and looked quite spooky.. such that no one liked it. When it was returned to me from a gallery recently, I decided the hands were lovely but there was no real message.  I hence made a bird as a thing for them to release( as I often do as birds sometimes get themselves inside my shed.) I had seen a piece earlier of a butterfly being released by a pair of chained hands and no doubt that had an effect on my composition. Still I do like the message it sends about setting free something that belongs to the wild.

I did a sketch at a market of a small girl skipping along looking at stuff. The sketch became a small watercolour and then this piece. I think I have captured a degree of the joy of having new boots and my girl seems fairly happy with my portrayal.

I did the snow flake for the “snow Show” that we held at the Red tree Gallery in July 2015. I originally had it pressed against some frosted glass and it was a simple but pedestrian piece. When the glue let go and it fell off after the show it gave me a chance to rethink the idea and I added a character and hence “snow Drop” developed. My friend Bart was making patterns with the plasma cutter and some of his rejected pieces ended up as the skirt!.

I had done another piece where I used a songbird ( a bird with musical forms within it) and I had the idea of following this theme a bit. I was going to use another character with the bird but I was modifying my ballet girl and the two just seemed to call to each other. The title is obvious  and being swept away by the music is certainly one of the implications.

I was going to make a bird form and then I remembered a bird made with spoons and forks and knives and I started to look at how such a thing could be done…as I added two spoons to the front it suggested a fish and as I had a lot of pieces cut from dragonfly wings it suggested scales instantaneously. As I played with the fish I remembered a piece I made with a surfer and the idea developed. Man seems to have had a very long relation with fish ( Jonah) and whale hunters using killer-whales as kelpies!  Anyway this piece developed and the title suggested itself! 

I do like butterflies.. I have had them lifting girls in flight, being walked by people and powering big machines. This is another idea inspired by a sketch I did a while ago of a girl in a cage looking at a big bird. The idea stayed with me but rather than have a sad image I liked the idea that the butterflies could freely move and wanted to stay there by magic. There certainly are a few butterfly inspired dresses out there  but none quite as bizarre as mine. 

My girls are meant to be sharing thinking and sharing time…I know it’s a common thing for boys to do…in thinking further girls convey so much through expression both vocal and facial….do girls do this? Anyway my girls are and hopefully problems of the world ( or at least their world) can be solved by this.

I do like phrases that can be interpreted in different ways. Needless to say my note taker is taking some notes… I wonder what she will do with them at the end of her journey..and who has she taken them from?“

I have made an umbrella girl previously but she was an outdoor sculpture and quite large. This girl came together when I was playing with some bits to make a mid sized piece and she seemed to need an umbrella. She is sort of similar to my skipping with red boots piece but slightly smaller. I don’t know what it is with umbrellas except they are such a lovely shape and an interesting form to add to a piece.!

I made a work for the Blarney Books show called “Greenhills”. This work featured 3 characters and parts of a book to meet the criteria of the show. When the piece returned I recycled the pieces and this fellow is one of them. I added the umbrella and made a whimsical idea similar to a few I have done in the past. It is always a bit of a fantasy of being swept away hanging on to an umbrella( but seeing I am so big I doubt that will ever happen to me!

I never had a billy cart!. I loved the idea but I never had wheels or even more cool ball bearing races. Many things end up in my pile and one of them was some old skates. This is the last to date and I thought a billy cart would be ideal. Unfortunately it doesn’t run anywhere near as well as I would wish…still I at last get to make a billy cart.. even after all this time.

I had my grandfathers clock for years.. it either came out of a ship( he was a ships engineer) or an old car, and I carted it around with me as we moved houses. I finally thought that this year I would use it in a piece and had one of my little girls about to end its existence. It certainly is the end of time for me carting it around and it seems a nice play on words.

Sold at Yakkerboo( pakenham ) art show 2015

“The end of time” was made in 2014 from new and recycled steel and  an old clock.

A recycled character, a restored handle, and an acrobatic combination. This was for the found things show in 2012 .Certainly a found thing!

Again I can’t lie on my back and spin things on my feet …yet another skill I have never developed. Still my character seems keen and it’s a good excuse for a punny title.