News and information regarding Hammer & Hand Hobart.

So a few more “works in progress” pieces from Josh and myself …

‘A guiding Hand’  (Bruce)

‘Jacks hands…’    (Bruce)

‘Jack’

‘Jack’ again.. “Here is the man all tattered and torn who kissed the girl all forlorn, who milked the cow with the crumpled horn,

who chased the dog that worried the cat that ate the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built”… ie: the full catastrophe .. or just runaway house prices.. ?

A little silver ‘critter’ , sand-cast by Josh.

Some clay ‘masters’ of Josh’s to be cast in Bronze.

Josh forging a blade

Said blade of Josh’s

Josh at the little gas forge making a poker  (Happy?)

Some of my new range of steel and gold-leaf jewellery

The two of us…

Joshes forged , hardened and tempered kitchen knife  ( a good-un !!!)

and a page from the journal he is keeping of this time in the Workshop..

Check out his Blog here  www.joshpringle.comThis has been a great time … We’ve had a ball!… A few more days to go for him to finish up a few things then he’s headed back to Tasmania to continue his degree in Print-making, drawing, furniture design and Sculpture..

These pieces are inspired by the Pacific Islander Sailors of the Marshal Islands who navigate using ancestral knowledge handed down by means of “Stick Maps” .. These are made from small sticks and Cowrie shells , bound together with palm fiber.. These Maps indicate wave direction, currents,Wind and more … They watch birds and if they are carrying food in their beaks or claws, then they are journeying home to an island..They watch the horizon just befor dawn to spot a glow in the sky , indicating the first light of the sun reflecting on land below the horizon .. My pieces are ‘bone boats with wings or other means of propulsion that are ourselves (we understand in our bones the directions we need to travel)

Welded steel and gold leaf

welded steel, copper, bronzing

This Exhibition is proving to be very exciting for the members of Hammer and Hand Byron Bay !

A box each .. full of an odd mix of materials … 12 in all, put there by each member ..

Rachel gave us all a piece of computer motherboard and a Tiger-eye cabochon,

from Rosie we each received some Chiyogami yuzen washi paper,

From Dave , American White Oak,

from Kate , a plastic doll !,

Helen some Buttons from her Grandmothers collection,

Laura a sepia photographic image on acetate..

Wi-Hihanni a couple of pieces of bone,

Julian a slice of Ebony,

Jen put in Gold Leaf,

Lucille (who’s Idea this whole thing is!), an Anodised aluminium  pot lid,

Eve an offering of beads from her collection

and I (Bruce) put into the boxes a small rectangle of Mild-Steel !

So… !  That was the brief and challenge .. a kind of collaboration, using all these materials..

Animal, Mineral, Vegetable, Elemental and Man-made, to produce, inform, transmute and appropriate.

In the making !.. pieces for Exhibition !

So come along this coming Friday evening and experience the diversity and eclecticism that is 

HAMMER AND HAND !

I have used a 308 shell-case as a ferrule for a walking cane..(a piece for our “13BOXES” Exhibition) with a bit of automotive shock-

Live bullet

Lipstick Bullet Walking cane tip

rubber (red) as a soft, non slip tip. With the remaining piece , I took the dent out of the firing cap so that it looks ‘live’ and set it on a silver band…. The ‘brand name of the bullet is ‘norma’ , so……..