Fruit Wood - the start

a stick with cracks... but William pear wood

The wood looks pretty shattered - being felled by bulldozer is not the ideal way to start a sculpture. So I picked the smallest piece and figured I'd have a go and see how the pear wood responds to the tools.....

It's a bit softer than the Manchurian pear so I'll have to see what sort of polish it will take - when I get to that point... Still this piece has some grace and reminds me of my Nana.

and under the bark there really is some nice wood.

My maternal grandparents retired to Mornington just after the second war. They considered chickens at the start but Grandpa worked out it was cheaper to buy the eggs. By the time I came for summer holdays the fruit trees were well established. They had two sorts of peach, apricots and plums. I remember hot days - I just sat in the shade and ate the best fruit but Nana sat up in the hot west window of the kitchen bottling fruit as hard as she could go - "to save its life". On other days Nana was tall and elegant and dressed up to the nines and went shopping in town with her friend Mrs Murray.

Collecting Fruit Wood

There was a touch of panic after I decided to start this project - it was just forming as an idea when I heard that the trees being pulled out at Shepparton would be burned as soon as they had dried out - and before the fire season started. So with help from people in the fruit growers association I set off to Shepparton in a rented moving van - fortunately with a friend - and looked at the mountains of trees awaiting their fiery end.

remains of the William pear trees

Three great piles of William pear trees that were already planted and growing there when Marley's father bought the orchard in 1948 or 49. All around other trees were blooming - their fate sealed by being a different variety suitable for the fresh fruit market.

Packham pear blossoms

new apple trees leaning out of their double rows

apple blossoms

As it turned out the orchardists were flat out that day - there was a storm with rain coming and the trees had to be sprayed beforehand. All around you can see the different way the newer trees are trained - apple trees in double rows leaning out must yield their fruit more readily and likewise open to the sun as needed.




One thing I was glad to have was a strong Dutchman to cut, and roll and wrestle the big ones into submission:

The Log from Lorne

Well it started as a lemon scented gum with a problem - then it was a felled log in the rain. We chose it to "clean up" because it had cool wrinkles on it. Then came the hard work of lifting it into Jamie's car and getting it to the studio.





And here it is with its spongy middle and wrinkly bark looking cool but heavy in the studio.



The next part was to make it stand up like a bridge and then take out the unsound wood from the middle. And for that I was working first with the arbortech wheel on the angle grinder and then with the old chisels..... and I dug and dug and dug... and found lots of ants and a huge witchety grub (which the chook enjoyed because I'm a wimp).

A moment of triumph came as I saw daylight through each end - then the fiddling to cut back to sound wood... a bit like dentistry - cut out the rotten, probe for good wood, cut some more..... wow I've got a bit of respect now!

And the space was too small for the angle grinder plus handle to get in there so a trip to Pop's Shed got me a mini grinder and onwards ever onwards.

 and then some more......

and well it's nearly there - so soon the grand oiled product ......

it's a very hollow log now - but mainly sound wood. Let's see how it looks finished and oiled....

A Week Already?

The final Friday at Lightning Ridge was spent in virtual combat with the camera. Sculpture demands more than having facility with the tools and materials.. there's the recording.... well I lacked the intimate knowledge of the time lapse camera but I have learned a lot now! So here is my three weeks work compressed into less than six minutes. If the clip doesn't run in your browser you can open it in You Tube

 And if you think there was a lot of hand sanding - well you are right! At some point in the future I'll get the full day images together - the sunrise was amazing coming up between the stones.

Well it was farewell to Lightning Ridge and working in a T shirt in the winter and a quick visit to Canberra on the way home.

The Wide Brown Land Sculpture - being explored

Hawthorn bonsai at the National Arboretum

The Cedar Forest - the National Arboretum at sunset

Then home and back to work in the studio. With some welcome greetings from my wonderful family.

Charlie was happy to have me home too

Welcome home

Does it look any different?

After three weeks of prancing about in a black plastic bag wielding recalcitrant power tools and sanding mightily what have I got to show for it? The rocks are subtly different - smooth faces form the gestures supported on the untouched native rock. Not your standard sculpture where the forms are telling the story.

The work will be named and launched on Friday.