Hoopies are named after the giant Hoop Pines (Araucaria cunninghamii) that built Brisbane. Descendents of these magnificent trees still loom, most noticable in the evenings, silhouetted against twilight skies on crowded inner city streets.
Above: Photo of Hoopie at Elidon Hill reservoir by Wayne Kington, Copper etching, Rebecca WardBut today’s built environment is constructed from all sorts of other new materials which are cheaper to produce, sometimes ugly and at other times quite attractive and interesting to the human bowerbird. So my hoopies range is made from the bits and pieces you might find on a modern-day building site: coke bottle lids, rubber washers, plastic, paper, laminex, and bits of old hardwood left from what was demolished beforehand. The circular hoop shapes are still evident though as an echo to the once magnificent hoop forests of our region.
I am putting hoopies in a show coming up soon at MoB Store- The Summer Collection - opening Wed 3 October 5:30pm - come along (RSVP 3403 4355 Mon 1 Oct).
5 comments:
Would love to be there - but have places of my own to be at. Wish I could be at two places at once! I never knew there was such a tree. Isn't it great when you discover there is more to discover? I love your hoopies!
I like your hoopies, above all the wooden ones!
Did you make prints with the copper-etching?
I often collect driftwood from the woods..worn out by the sun, bleached, like old tree-bones! And you could inspire an artist with all the things one can find in a gutter ;)
thanks CB and uschi.
i've not made prints from the etchings uschi- just the copper sheet itself. etched with ferric chloride which is a little gentler than nitric acid. using press n peel transfer paper as a resist. i've never managed that successfully to incorporate the etchings into jewellery - one day maybe.
What do you recommend for cutting laminex? I need to cut a piece from a scrap to use in an assemblage.
Dear Elaine
i'd try a jeweller's saw- like a mini hacksaw. careful not to breathe the dust - i dare say it is lethal- use a mask.
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