Ruheforst Mushrooms, part 2

A few more of the mushroom specimens snapped by Avalus at the natural burial forest.

Everything was totally dry and this one excreted water. I was (and still am) very puzzled. ©Avalus, all rights reserved

Tiny guys squeezing between the bark and the wood. I was fascinated. ©Avalus, all rights reserved

©Avalus, all rights reserved

Just a group of sulfurshrooms with a green sheen. ©Avalus, all rights reserved

Thanks Avalus. I really like the different perspectives that you’ve used. Each one seems perfectly suited to its subject. Check back tomorrow for the next installment of ‘shrooms.

Tree Tuesday

These stunning photos are from DavidinOz and they were taken along the Murray River in Swan Hill, Victoria. David says he was fortunate to be there at the “golden hour” and I have to agree. The light is golden and tinged with just a smidge of rose. The exposed tree roots alone make for dramatic photos, but combined with that light they become something special. Thanks for sharing, David.

©David Brindly, all rights reserved

©David Brindly, all rights reserved

©David Brindly, all rights reserved

Light Magic

It’s an open secret that LED fairy lights were invented for me. I love lights and there’s an abundance of solar powered lights around the house in summer and (rechargeable) battery lights in winter inside. So to combine resin and lights was a natural step. Especially since Marcus sent me a crystal mould and a handmade big globe mould.

I first tried my regular resin with the crystal. I absolutely love how the colour came out and how the copper metal foil really makes it all mysterious.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

But, but, the resin clearly wasn’t the right one for such a project. It cured too quickly and with too much heat. You can see the bubbles all around.

resin crystal

©Giliell, all rights reserved

So back to the computer to get a different resin. This one cures a lot more slowly and with less heat and is more suitable for bigger projects.

resin crystal

©Giliell, all rights reserved

This one cured nicely without too many bubbles, though the longer time meant that my metal sunk down more than I like it. The opaque sheen is due to the acrylic paint I added for the colour.

resin crystal

©Giliell, all rights reserved

I used one of the solar fairy lights Marcus sent in this project.

Now on to the big globe. I first ran a trial freezing water and then deemed it suitable.

resin globe

©Giliell, all rights reserved

The mould is not quite perfect with some bubbles at the top, but with such a project you won’t notice that anyway. This time, my metal rose to the top and there are still some bubbles, but I think they add to the otherworldly flair.

But man does that resin eat itself. I swear the mould was filled completely. It#s not a problem here, since a perfect globe wouldn’t rest nicely on my window sill, but I think it would be best to refill part of it after a day or so.

resin globe

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Bumblebees

Courtesy of Avalus we have a rabble of bumblebees to help chase the November blues away.

All from the first week of October.

The bumblebee on my hand was nice. It was a cold morning and she just buzzed to me, sat down on my hand and seemed to enjoy the heat. My hand hat just been holding a tea mug, so it was extra warm. I improvised some sugarwater of which she drank a drop from my hand and then after about two minutes flew away again.

I love these fuzzy critters.

I love them too, Avalus and it must have been wondrous to have one sit and your hand and stay for so long. Thanks for sharing.

octobees, ©Avalus, all rights reserved

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Metal Magic

We’ve received a wonderful surprise from kestrel. She’s making magic and has decided to let us watch the show. This is part 1 of what may be about 5 parts and I am just as in the dark as you about what’s coming next. Kestrel will reveal all one post at a time so make sure to tune in for all the updates. That’s just the way magic should be, full of anticipation and surprises. And now… heeere’s kestrel!

A while back, Marcus posted about some mokume gane he had made, and the exciting adventures he had making it. https://freethoughtblogs.com/stderr/2018/03/27/mokume-gane/ I know it’s properly called mokume gane, but I like to think of it as MarcusMetal. (No doubt that will trademarked soon.) Much to my surprise, it arrived at my house early one morning. I immediately leaped up to polish part of it – away from the coffee, mind you – because I knew it was going to be very beautiful and I could not wait to see it. If you look carefully, you can see a pattern of swirls of copper against the nickel in the part that I polished. When I am done and I finish a piece, I will put a patina on the metal that will make the pattern show up in greater contrast.

©kestrel, all rights reserved

[Read more…]

Roses!

DavidinOz has treated us to roses today and they are grand. Just look at those crisp petals, that bright colour and all that beautiful light. Why, I can almost smell them. The photos were taken at the Renmark Rose Festival and the busy bee makes them positively perfect. They’re just the tonic I needed to banish the November blues. Thanks for sharing, David.

©David Brindley, all rights reserved

©David Brindley, all rights reserved

Jack’s Walk

Today you get voyager’s walk without Jack. I was in Toronto over the weekend to visit a friend so I thought I’d share some shots of Front Street. Everywhere you look the city is gearing up for all that mindless and debt-inducing Christmas shopping and this year it looks like Union Station is going all out Lego. So far they’ve placed 3 giant Legos in the square along with a totally Lego fireplace complete with Lego stockings hung with care. The large white board is also going to be all Lego and it has mind-numbingly small numbers. Lots of numbers, each one waiting for an individual normal size Lego block. It must take a crew of several people days to put it all together. I’ll ask my friend to send me photos of the finished project and I promise to share.

Front Street, looking east, ©voyager, all rights reserved

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Transformation

Kestrel has finally shared some of her jewellery making with us and it’s phenomenal. What starts out as a pile of horsehair becomes ordered and ultimately beautiful at the hands of a master artisan. I’ll let kestrel explain the process…

I’m working on my website and one of the things that needs to be done is to re-shoot all the photos. Since most of my work is custom (in other words, people send me hair from their own horse, and then I make stuff out of it for them) I don’t have things in inventory, and that means I had to re-make all the items in order to take new photos. One of the things I like about my work is being able to transform my materials, whatever they may be but in this case a messy pile of hair, into something orderly and worth having. 

©kestrel, all rights reserved

Some of the braiding was done before it occurred to me to take a photo, but that messy pile of hair is going to be turned into 6 bracelets: 3 that are an 8-strand braid, and 3 that are a 25-strand braid, one each of white, chestnut and black. In case you are wondering: that messy pile of hair is made up of 1,761 individual hairs. That I had to count. On purpose. I don’t usually sit down and figure out things like that, because I just really don’t want to know; it’s a little depressing. But, if one is going to braid hair, one must first count it. 

©kestrel, all rights reserved

Part way finished, you can see the 3 8-strand bracelets are done and I’ve just started on the black 25-strand bracelet. 

 

©kestrel, all rights reserved

All done! It looks very different from how it started out. Now what I have to do is take good photos of each product so that hopefully, people will want one of these made from their own horse’s hair as a keepsake or memento. Just another day (OK, actually it was about two weeks) in the life of a braider. 

Thanks for sharing, kestrel. I’m astonished at the precision and beauty of the finished product. I can’t begin to imagine the amount of work involved, especially the counting! These are surely cherished keepsakes. Why, it’s enough to make me wish for a horse of my own.

 

 

 

 

Tree Tuesday

This week we have glorious fall colour from Avalus,

Lets begin with some brightly coloured leaves from the first of October.

Golden walnut trees, red wild grapes and assorted green plants.

And it was quite good timing, just half a week later, the walnuts were all leafless.

Your timing was perfect, Avalus. All that deep, rich autumn colour shot against a clear blue sky. Thanks so much for sharing.

Herbstfarben, ©Avalus, all rights reserved

Herbstfarben, ©Avalus, all rights reserved

Herbstfarben, ©Avalus, all rights reserved

Signs of Autumn

 

The signs of autumn from Nightjar,

These are the four signs that I look for every year before I can safely declare autumn has arrived. Leaf colour, autumn snowflakes, mushrooms and green grass. I was able to check all four boxes by the end of October, which is good!

 

1. Leaves change colour and glow in the sun

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Take a look at the wide side

Ever since getting my camera I’ve been expanding on my lens arsenal. After getting the tele last year, I wanted a wide angle one. With a little bit of unexpected money I finally got myself one and took it out for a stroll. Sadly the day was overcast and the light faded too early, but I like what you can do with it.

Small pond

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

That little pond is probably 3m across. You can also see that at 10mm, I have to decide between a UV filter or a CPL filter because both are too much.

woodland

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Part of my daily walk. The little green building is a water station.

tree crown

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Tree

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

One of the fun things: shooting up trees. The lens makes it look like the trunk is 100m high.

dead tree

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

trees

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

The trees are tall and narrow, but the lens adds some more.

dead tree

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

I’ve been wanting to take pictures of those cut off and dead vines for ages, but I couldn’t with my other lenses because I couldn’t move away enough. to give you an ides, this pic and the other two were taken by minimally moving the camera.

dead tree

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Dead tree

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

fallen tree

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Another illusion of distance. In reality, the point where You can see the branch is about 2m from where I took the pic.

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Autumn colours

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Tree crowns

©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Probably my favourite one. another upshoot.