Slow Going

Añadido: 2026-05-25

[00:00:04]Hi, welcome back to our YouTube channel.

[00:00:07]There's been a bit of a gap between videos and it's been slow going. So, this is a quick catch up. The up and down weather that comes with the change of season reres havocs on both of our healths. So, um this crazy weather we've been having recently has seen us out of action as often as we've been um in the garden and in the studio.

[00:00:30]I've also been sporting this lovely piece of jewelry 24 hours a day for the last couple of months. So, it's helped to slow things down as well. Although, now I am allowed to take it off for a while as my arm and my hand is improving. So, this week I've been back in the studio.

[00:00:47]But before all that, we painted up some posts that will mark the entry to the labyrinth. Progress in the labyrinth over the last couple months has been slow, but there's always something going on. So, in this video, I'll just touch on the projects that are in work or that we've recommenced.

[00:01:08]Our friend and builder Alan came around and installed them for us.

[00:01:15]There are also two gates, but they've been a little delayed.

[00:01:20]We'll come back to this project when the gates are completed in a future video.

[00:01:25]Um, and the whole piece has been installed.

[00:01:30]I usually like to wait till the project is finished and then put a video together of the whole project from start to end. But unfortunately, a lot of the projects have been stop start. So, in this video, I'll just try and give you an overview of the sort of things that are going on in the background. I'll put full videos together um once each project reaches completion.

[00:01:53]Do you remember click clack?

[00:01:56]I also wanted to make um some use of the failed click clack mold. I mean, the mold worked okay. It was just the joints that didn't um didn't work as I wanted anyway. So, I poured a big base for this guy and popped him in and started his transformation from click clack to Daphne. But I'm forever impatient. of course pulled it out of the mold too early and cracked cracked the piece. So, it hasn't been completed, but it's inc and it's incredibly heavy.

[00:02:29]It's sitting on the sidelines at the end of each day when I finish off other projects. If I have any leftover concrete, then I'm slowly going back to this one and working on it. So, once it's finally completed, I'll do a full quick video on that whole process.

[00:02:47]I'm always looking for ways to take some of the weight out of the concrete. And I saw a YouTube video um of some makers in America creating Halloween uh decorations using expansion foam. And one guy did a really cute video where he used a skull to form the base of a a elf head that he made and he worked on that with some form of concrete mix. So, I've been playing around with styrene.

[00:03:17]I'm really enjoying working with the expanded foam. It gave me a very quick way to build um a fairly strong armature and take some of the weight out of the cont concrete by just reducing the volume of concrete required to build.

[00:03:31]This is Echko. She'll be the first character that will go into the reflective garden in the labyrinth.

[00:03:41]The concrete seems to bond well. um to the foam and it makes it a very quick and easy process to get the first layer um of the sculpture down. And then over the next couple of days I've added details. Ekko will have a partner piece of Narcissus which will also go into the reflective garden. A full video on that again later.

[00:04:03]The builders have started um creating the hard structure for the reflective garden. This is a 6 m long wall that on one side will form be forming up a shadow box, but on the other side as you enter the reflective garden will be rendered and covered in mirrors. And then of course the pieces of narcissus and echo will enter that space.

[00:04:31]I've also been collecting up old doors for a number of different projects um that will go into the into the garden space at the moment. The first project um builder Allan is working on, but this one will be a surprise for me because it's all happening off site. Uh again, we'll update that when it all happens.

[00:04:54]Back in the studio, I've been doing more experiments with the expansion foam.

[00:04:58]These little faces I made a year or so ago with end of the day concrete um loosely based around uh creating handbuilt circus characters.

[00:05:10]They were just created over a mound of sand, so they have hollow backs. Um, so I played with the expansion foam to fill in part of that space and have worked with um more foam just on a a narrow cardboard form. It was fun being able to give this little face a full body and um and create a full personality for her.

[00:05:36]Let's face it, there ought to be clowns and the first one is already here.

[00:05:42]It's great to be back in the studio.

[00:05:44]Things are moving along again. Um, we're still on target for our deadline of having the garden ready to open in January 2027.

[00:05:55]This week I was able to start the first for first of the characters for our spiky garden, which are our spiky toads.

[00:06:02]The next video will be making a knot of toads.

[00:06:08]So, that's a quick catch up of everything that's been going on in the background. We are always busy. Two old girls living our best lives through art and gardening.

[00:06:22]Thanks for sticking with us through our creative garden adventures.

[00:06:27]If you enjoyed this video, we'd really appreciate it if you could give us a like and subscribe.

[00:06:34]Thanks for watching. Tell all your friends and we'll see you all in the next one. Bye for now.