Eucalyptus clippings and self-seeded wallflowers in a glass vase and a little found shrimp paste pot; an old brick found on the beach, and put in the fire to clean off the black tar; a vintage plough share, washed and waxed with furniture wax, and some rusty old sheep wire formed into a spiral.
I was walking along a farm track with my daughter and her three children a couple of weeks ago and spied a piece of rust embedded in the chalk and rubble of the track. (Not this track but one very similar – this photo was taken on Friday)
Oooh Rust! I cried! and bent down to try to pick it up. I couldn’t get the piece out, so said I would come back another day to retrieve it and bring a tool to work it free. The children were determined to get it out for me, and with some sticks and stones they only took about 5 minutes to free it. I always have my rucksack with me, which was just as well as it was heavy to carry home.
A precious (well to me anyway) piece of farming history. My son-in-law recognised it as a single furrow plough share, from the horsedrawn era and spent a bit of time looking online to see if he could identify it more precisely. It might have come from something like this one.
Just the sort of plough that my Grandfather would have walked behind on his farm in West Dorset.
When I sent this photo to my son-in-law later, he said it looked like an alien snail
So the working title for this little sculpture is ‘Snailien’.
What does it look like to you? What would you call it?
It’s catching – Little Miss M, 8, has now started her own rust collection!
and this is Miss E (13) having her first welding lesson from her Dad, what a cool Dad he is!
It turns out she was making a flower/plant for me! and when I got home that night she had planted it in my garden!
Oh my! Better than diamonds – this makes me so happy.
This is a great fat rainbow I saw on my walk on Friday – it looked so much closer and bigger in reality. Maybe there is a pot of rust at the end of it! 😉
❤ 🙂 ❤
Ravelry
Wild Daffodil 
Being creative brings so much happiness to the creator — but even better is seeing that love of creative endeavours passed to a younger generation! I am so glad that your grandchildren are finding the love of creativity too.
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What a wonderful Ploughshare – we found a delightful rusting axe head in our garden, it had been used as a wedge for a fencepost which had rotted.
The sculpture is amazing, I couldn’t help thinking about ‘swords into ploughshares’ but couldn’t incorporate the barbed wire into that thought, so I decided perhaps “As You Sow” might work (for me). I love the vision of family extracting it with you, and the wonderful granddaughters collection and sculpture!
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Fabulous they’re joining in too! Love that. I used to love welding. A very useful skill to have I might add! Just be mindful of their tetanus. Have they had jabs?
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Yes – I agree, a useful skill.
No idea about their tetanus status, thanks for mentioning it.
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Swords to ploughshares. It must have been meditative, but VERY hard work, following horses or oxen to plough a field.
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Yes, it was a hard life altogether back then wasn’t it.
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Such a creative and satisfying composition for this Monday, your vase. Enjoyed the little side stories as well. Rust is fascinating. I’m more 2-D and would love to see the rusty pieces embossed onto nice printing paper to draw on or use as is.
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Ooo – now there’s an idea!
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I would call that sculpture ‘Stuck’ because the ploughshare looks like a dog’s head and the dog has pushed into a fence to sniff and brought the wire out with it! Welding is a skill I do not have but I think my son would teach me if I ever need it.
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What a fabulous story you have woven about ‘Stuck’! 🙂
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Glad you liked it!
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I’m another ‘bringer-home of unconsidered trifles’ and a plough share is definitely worthy loot. I wish my Pa had taught me to weld, but first, he’d have had to learn himself!
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You got me thinking about what my Dad taught me – although he was a farmer, I don’t think he ever did any welding. We went out riding horses together and feeding cattle – so maybe a bit of animal husbandry and a love of the outdoors rubbed off. I am with you – I wish I had had someone to teach me things like welding – a valuable life skill!
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Indeed, but he did at least give me a love of literature, poetry and music. And from my mother I learned invaluable domestic arts, like making food stretch until it screamed! Also a valuable life skill! It meant I could pay my first mortgage at the age of 24 without starving…
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Fantastic!
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The vase is lovely and the colours go well with rust. What a great find. 😃 I think my Grandfather probably started off in the 1930s with a plough like that before he got his first tractor! I am not sure I see the alien in your rust object, but it is very appealing. I do think your granddaughter is set to take after you though with her wonderful work of art!
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So many of us will have Grandfathers or Great Grandfathers who tilled the soil – it’s a nice connection to think about.
I am fascinated to see what my daughter’s children do with their creative thoughts as they get older. 🙂
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What beautiful countryside views, Sandra. I love your rusty art piece too – it looks like it creates nice shadows as well, amplifying its impact.
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Thank you Kris – yes I love the shadows too.
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Oh what a lovely post this is, Sandra, and the pretty wallflowers contrasting with the distinctive eucalyptus leaves almost pale into insignificance with your rusty exploits. What exciting finds you have made, and how inventive you are with them – and equally exciting is how much your children are inspired by you and your activities! You are definitely spreading the love at your end…
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And I seem to be spreading the the love of rusty objects too! It will be fascinating to see how that develops.
I love having the scent of wallflowers in th house at this time of yea.r
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I readily admit to picking up random bits of scrap metal, not necessarily rusty. Have I showed our metal tree before? An old cast iron down pipe with various bits of metal arttached to the top as branches (although not from found bits, but from our local reclamation yard)?
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I really like the sound of your tree – I don’t remember seeing it – I would love to though.
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I am wondering if it is on any of the videos? As I walk past the woodland on my left, it is just before I turn right into the area with the hostas and main borders…but filming in landscape (as we are told is the ‘best’ way’) probably means you would only see the trunk!
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Such a wonderful piece of writing encapsulating the serendipity of finding just such a treasure. I am sure the plough piece will be a much cherished heirloom, and you may have well have launched the career of a sculptor. Did we speak some time ago about Welsh Wigs? Mr S has been watching The Terror and I came across an interesting article on the Welsh Wigs the crew were wearing: https://inthelinings.com/blog/crafty-sailors-british-knits-onboard-amcs-the-terror
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I will certainly looking out for more plough shares on my wanders.
Yes you did let me know about Welsh Wigs before. Thank you for the link – some great photos in the article – I don’t think that is a fashion that will see a revival though!
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Phew! You made art out of history. Utterly fabulous.
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Squeeeeeeee! Thank you Laurie! That’s a great way to put it!
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so much better than diamonds, indeed!
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You understand! 😉
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has your grand daughter seen the article about Ben (teenage blacksmith) in Surry, who’s making a name for himself and even got his own etsy store? Lovely to see young people being so creative and showing initiative!
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I don’t think she has – thank you – I will let her know.
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his name is Ben Perkins and he has an etsy shop: Ben Makes. Started welding and blacksmitching aged 13, just like Miss E ^^
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You do have a way with rusty items don’t you. Rust seems strangely absent in Southampton, except in things that are firmly fixed. Your flower arrangement is very harmonious.
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Thank you.
It is fun how we all tune into different things in the world – like you and Celtic Knots. 🙂
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I love how the wallflower colour echoes the rust….To me, the plowshare looks like a blue jay head, tilted down, sporting a sharp fascinator. Or the prow of a large cruise ship, the barbed wire a metaphor for being struck by an iceberg.
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Ooooh! Chris I like what you see in the sculpture – the cruise ship reference is very apt, what with so many moored in Weymouth Bay this year as they wait out the pandemic – and then there is the tanker, Ever Given, stuck in the Suez Canal.
And I looked up the Blue Jay – YES! perfect shape – gorgeous bird – thank you for the introduction:
https://www.google.com/search?q=blue+jay&safe=strict&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4qPbnqNXvAhXluXEKHbcSBYgQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1440&bih=669
Thank you for noticing the wallflower colours referencing the terracotta and the rust – I was secretly rather pleased with that! 😉
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Absolutely fabulous. Now the only thing left to do is to find out what the initials on the plough are for? I love the garden ornament and how the grandchildren are embracing their Granny’s love for rust.
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Yes! We all pass something on! HaHa!
A Facebook friend says her husband has a collection of old plough shares and I hope he might be able to shed some light on the significance of the F3X. I will update the post if he comes back with any info.
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That’s probably one of the most interesting flower arrangements I’ve ever seen.
I’m imagining the family group standing around a piece of embedded rusty metal and trying to lift it up – probably a mystery to anybody not in the know about the attraction of rust. I’m with you though – one of the few ornamental garden things we brought back from France with us was a rusty plough section.
You’ve obviously passed on your creative genes (I won’t call them ‘rusty’ 🤣) down the next couple of generations. The perfect surprise from your grandaughter – no wonder you were thrilled.
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Rusty Genes!!! HaHaHa!!!! That made me chuckle!
Your comment reminds me of a Chinese Proverb that my son brought me back from China (circa1999) – “he who can not hear the music, thinks the dancer is mad”. Perfect! I have always been considered ‘strange’ in rural Dorset! Rest of the world, I am quite happily bland, ordinary and insignificant – but Dorset …..!
I am SO glad you enjoyed the post Lynn. ❤ That too makes me happy! 🙂
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