Letters in Flight

At the very start of the second alphabet I decided that I would use the letters to create a flock of birds in flight or for the purposes of ALaW 2010 it would be titled Letters in Flight. So I turned each of the 26 letters into a small bird by creasing the letter on the diagonal and then creating wings and a beak and sometimes a tail. So below are the 26 birds.

So below are a few shots of the finished flock in flight.

Barry Smith© Flight of Letters

It has been quite a hard piece to photograph - in 'the flesh' it does come together better - it needs space and you need to be able to walk around it on a plinth.

Last 9 letters for 2010

Over the last week I have had to do some catch up with ALAW. Today I managed to finish the last five letters. However I did not post my letters for last month so I am posting 9 letters today.

Today I have also managed to bend all the letters into their bird shape so hopefully over the next couple of days I will be able to construct my flight of letters piece. It has been good to see so many people getting their letters in and amazing to see the colours, shapes and variety of approaches to the second alphabet.

Behind the Q ball

I talked to Fiona about where I should be up to in my letters and she said Q - so I was 5 letters behind and so have had to do five letters this week. So there they are below.


Barry Smith © M-Q ALAW

I still have to fold the letters yet into their 'bird form'. I thought I'd test to see how the bird forms would look on the wires and rusted iron wedge. The photo below shows a test run of Letters in Flight.

Barry Smith © Letters in Flight1

I think at the end the flock of 26 letters will look OK.

Rusty letters for September

Phew! Sometimes one just needs a bit of a reminder about one's letters. Anyway this month I had to do all four in one creative sitting - so not quite a letter a week but still on track with a little catch up.

So here are my four for September - I am still engraving Chiller font letters into rusted iron sheeting.

What I have also managed to do is to source and buy five rusted and beaten timber splitting wedges that will become the base for my letters in flight final piece for this second alphabet. As you can see from the original diagram I have changed it a bit in that I am not going to use a single platform but rather the collective wedges.

Spring letters

Spring visited us today - a lovely mild sunny day - what better day to post my next set of letters.


You might recall for this second alphabet I have moved away from shiny brass to shiny letters on a rusted background. I am using a font called Chiller; and I am engraving through the rust into the metal below. To keep the shine of the letters I am coating it all with a matte art varnish.



The letters will become part of an installation called something like letters in flight; or a flock of letters.

Letters on a rusted square

For my second alphabet I have chosen to use a font called Chiller. I chose it because it is reasonably free form and looks something like letters that are created by using a brush dipped in ink.

I have also chosen to work on squares of rusted thin metal sheets we had collected from the roadside collection. I am going to engrave the letters onto the metal and treat it with fixative as I want the contrast of the newly revealed metal against the rust.

I then will bend each square diagonally to create a shape that suggests a bird in flight.

The final piece I create from the whole alphabet will be like a flock of birds in flight.

Tubular peace bell for my first alphabet

There are so many great pieces being posted that I felt I needed to get my skates on and put my first alphabet together in one 3D sculptural piece.

I decided to to create a set of tubular bells on the theme of peacefulness and joy. So I have used the vowels to create five pipes with the following words: pax, joy, hum, lit (for light) and zen. The other eleven letters were used to create two other pipes.

As you can see from the photos above the final piece took on a bit of a temple bell look.

It all took a bit longer than I thought. I needed six rivets per letter as some of the foldformed letters and beaten metal letters were pretty hard to bend around the pipe; and of course I needed to make and paint the stand; and Fiona and I needed to discuss options for hanging the pipes and their length; and then they had to be cut and drilled; and hanging them with nylon fishing line was the final challenge.

The good news is that whilst they are not tuned they do make a lovely sound.

So many great letters

So many people have completed so many great letters to complete our first alphabet. My last four letters have been relatively easy as they are all straight lines and therefore I was able create them using the foldforming approach.

I have attempted to start and finish each fold within the border of the metal. This is a bit more challenging than just running the letter off the 'page'; it also results in a much softer or subtle fold. The metal is buckled because the folding was done without annealing the metal.

I have added the photo above to show the contrast between my earlier letters where the fold is running off the metal and these later letters contained within the plate. Somehow when I photographed the six letters together I picked up what I thought was a nice tinge of blue.

More metal for May

I have continued with my original plan for the first alphabet: using recycled brass as the material; and foldforming (for letters with straight lines) and beating and stamping (for letters with curves) to create the letters. So this month R, S and U got the beating and stamping treatment; and T was foldformed.



If you were able to look closely you would note that the T has a small split along the vertical axis - metal fatigue? I can't believe we are almost to the end of our first alphabet. Have to get my thoughts firmed up for the second alphabet.

Barry's metal letters for April

Wow! The end of the month does come around quite quickly. I have created N, O, P and Q as my April letters.



As you can see the brass still flows - I have been lucky lately to get a few more brass pot plant pots on a visit to a bric a brac shop in Woodford. Because N is the only letter with straight lines it got the foldform treatment. O is stamped and beaten from the back; P has been engraved; and Q has been stamped but also punched front and back.

Both P and Q were experiments for me. I liked using the engraving tool - it enabled me to leave the original oxidised brass colour behind and also create a furry look to the letter. I like how the Q has ended up with a scale look about it. O needs a bit of a trim. I continue to have fun with the letters.

March metal letters

I just love how the ALaW is developing - so many different mediums being put into play on something that is so familiar to us all.

I have continued with my metal letters - great when you can get metal to rhyme with the month.

I have photographed the letters out of sequence as the letter J was the only one that had curves; and so I wanted it centred to standout amidst the other foldformed letters. As you can see from the letter I the foldforming can create a bit of tension in the metal - I can't always get them to sit flat.

Making marks on metal for February

I have been hammering away and putting marks on metal creating my four letters for the month of February. I have given fuller descriptions of each of the letters as I have gone along so won’t bore you all by repeating details here.

As you can see I am sticking to my foldforming and stamping. Because E, F and H are straight line only letters they are created by folfldforming; whereas curvy G required the stamped approach. Whilst 22 letters of the alphabet include straight lines, 15 have only straight lines. So there are going to be 15 foldformed letters and 11 others.

The ALaW challenge is giving me the opportunity to develop foldforming skills – but as you would read in my post for the H it is just as easy to tear brass sheeting as it is paper - if one is a bit heavy handed that is.

My lot for February

As you can see I have been able to produce my letters ‘A’ to ‘D’.




















As it turns out I have decided to do all the letters in the first alphabet in recycled brass.

Letters with curves in them will be hammered and punched and the plate itself will end up slightly curved. The heavier brass I’m using for these letters comes from the side of an old brass pot plant pots. When I cut it up the sheet just sprung flat but with a definite twist to the metal – over stretched in the manufacturing process I think. So I am working with the twist rather than heating the metal and returning it to flat.

Letters that are made up of straight lines will be done using the foldforming approach I used in the first ‘A’ I produced. This metal also comes from brass plant pots but is much thinner.