Three weeks ago one of my Dorking hens went broody on a clutch of eggs. Last year this didn’t end well, and none of the eggs hatched. But I’ve learned a bit more about the hatching process since then and I thought I’d give it another go, and let things happen as they would. So, … Read more
So, what did we find in Cobalt? Here’s a list of the minerals for those interested: Safflorite (cobalt): Collecting cobalt in Cobalt has a nice symmetry in my mind. Almost every mine site we visited offered a rock or two of this mineral. All told, I brought home over 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of it! … Read more
The quest to increase my pallet of locality-based colours lead me to Cobalt, Ontario for the weekend. The opportunity to do this came to me by way of Reiner and Maggie, who had planned the weekend with another rockhounder, Robert, and they invited me to come along. Cobalt is a town with an amazing history. … Read more
Last year, when Maggie, Reiner and I were looking for magnetite along the shores of Lake Huron, we found a couple of nice samples of red jasper pebbles. At the time Reiner wondered aloud whether they could be used to make pigment colour, but with the rush of the project at full throttle, I really … Read more
Today the children and I began by pruning the grape vines and ended up making charcoal. With the spring here it was time to prune back the old growth on my vines so that younger, grape bearing vines could replace them. As I was carefully choosing and pruning, my son came up asked asked what … Read more
With the turning out well, I decided to explore another area of gilding that has always interested me. Punch work on a gilded surface is especially beautiful on a water gilded surface, I think, because the punched areas provide some sparkle amid the sea of darkened burnished gold. In some examples of this technique the … Read more
It took me a while to learn to see what a layer of bole was capable telling me if I paid attention. It wasn’t long after I began gilding that I realized the applied gold leaf is so thin that it hides nothing; what the surface of the bole looks like beforehand is what it … Read more
I returned today to the work on the piece of art that I first imagined back in late January. I’ve always found it hard to talk while I’m doing something (I guess I’m a monotasker) but blogging while I’m working out a project idea is even harder. Still, since it was the focus of my … Read more
Size: 1½″ x 2″
Materials: Egg tempera; 24kt gold leaf; ebony frame; pressed wood panel.
The winter light here in Ontario is vibrant, but without being warm; it is a crisp light. Everything outside is frozen and grey, so there is no green from the trees, or blue from the rivers to enliven with this light. It is so pure others might describe it as harsh, but I love its … Read more