Ear Harps

After all that bronze working , they have been safely delivered to Trowbridge and now back to the ear harps.
I finished the small one and made a larger one today.
Whittling in the sunshine preparing for my trip to America next week.

Trowbridge Bronze Beer Caps

Crazy stuff, from making ear trumpets to etching and patinering the bronzes for the Trowbridge Bronze Beer Cap Trail.
After a tricky period where the foundry told me they couldn't cast the finest of the letters in my patterns, to me having to learn how to do bronze etching, a journey which has been fantastic as I have learnt a new skill, and one I  would love to develop. My Silhouette Cameo came into its own, creating the very small and tricky lettering and cutting it in vinyl, hours of painstaking application of vinyl as a resist to the 80 bronzes, placing the bronzes in Ferric Chloride and the wonders of etching, cleaning, and then the use of nitic acid to produce a patination to the finished pieces, and finally wet and drying the surfaces to produce the worn effect I wanted.  I have to also say a huge thank you to Sara for all the hard work she put in and also Billie-Daisy for helping out too.

These are to be set into the paving around a new housing estate in Trowbridge, built by Newlands, and with a public art policy.  The site was the old Ushers Bottling factory hence the beer cap trail.

So to date we have installed, new fencing with a diamond design, individual ceramic numbers for each house, slate diamonds with images, the centenary seats with the text, and now the bronzes, next up tree grill and guards, a terrific project and huge thanks to Tom Sheppard at Newlands and Diana Hatton, the public art consultant for all their help and support.

Ear Harps

ash ear harp

oak ear harp

Well the Aussie fight back didn't amount to enough and a lovely victory for England.  In the meantime I have been making ear harps, strange wooden things that are strung in a branch of a tree and a hollow ear trumpet is inserted into the branch, when one plays the strings and puts the trumpet to ones ear so the sound is amplified, and the beautiful sounds of the strings are heard.

Here are pictures of Louise Baker and myself enjoying the aforementioned sounds.  More of these to make over the ensuing days days before the bronze etching begins.

Harp in Tree

So the aussies are fighting back and I have been in the studio creating a piece for Heydon Wood to go with the aeolian harp and camera obscura.
This one see a rectangle of larch cut from a larch tree that is soon to be felled.  The rectangle of wood gave me the opportunity to create another musical instrument that will sit inside the tree, a handle in place to pull it out and play it.
It has an oak plectrum for playing it either in situ or taken and strolled around the wood.

Later in the week I will be making ear trumpets that will be drilled and set into the larch trees so the trees can be listen too.

A Performance In A Cave In Somerset

With the help of Ignite Somerset and more particulary Richard Tomlinson
I will be recording me playing my sound instruments in various unusual locations around Somerset.
For the first one created at Banwell Bone Cave (Many thanks to all concerned there) is now on You Tube at this site:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoUNcP5e4MM
Please leave comments.

Trowbridge Slate Diamonds

I have now had delivery of all the slate diamonds from Delabole, they have sand blasted my designs into their very fine slate.

These are to be set into five special houses on the new estate in Trowbridge.  I am now to start the bronze beer caps for the trail around the estate, all looking good.

There is one design set in the middle with a blank either side.  They are 440mm x 270mm.

The First FAIRFAX:GREEN gig at the First Johnny Doo Salon Sessions

FAIRFAX:GREEN

Perform live for the first time at the Johnny Doo Salon Sessions.
A new venue for Somerset, and boy does it need one, so a big hurrah for
Johnny Doo.
In Broadway near Ilminster a barn converted into a venue,  MuffinWood has created for the event an 8 metre long instrument he calls the 'electric fence', a length of wire with attached piezo mics, magnets and speakers, covered in silver foil and LED's, it produced a sonic note around C major with the ability to be caressed, bent, struck, bowed et al. So that is how the evening started to a selected audience feasting on fine soup and bread and copious amounts of tea.  The drone droned and then a surprise to the evening and Rosie May Giblett, a young singer songwriter sang three songs of extraordinary beauty, a voice drenched in honey and someone to check out on her soundcloud/rosie-may and her bandcamp: rosiemaymusic.bandcamp.com

Rupert and I dressed in black walked to the stage a fair few nerves running, but a confidence in what we do.  We started and for 38 minutes the whole barn was filled with our evocative music, bringing images to the imagination, a journey deep, deep into the subconscious of the listener.
Sara made notes in a book I have reproduced here.

The gig was a resounding success, the BulBul Tarang perform well, and Rupert and I are now certain we are onto something here, we need to take it on..This performance will be on my soundcloud:  https://soundcloud.com/michael-fairfax