In early May I had a go at making
a ring from a section of brass tubing and a slither of anodised aluminium. That prototype turned out reasonably well. So today, Friday - art day, I set myself the task of making one or more rings if time permitted. In the end, over a couple of sessions, I did make three rings as you can see from the image below; but I would not say they are a resounding success.
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| ©2012 Barry Smith - Three brass rings in the rough |
As you can see from the photo below the brass tubing, from a recycled fuel camping stove, does not look pretty when annealed and roughly beaten several times.
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| ©2012 Barry Smith - Three brass rings - really rough |
But in the end the rings have turned out ok. And you can see I experimented with a few different designs. The simple anodised aluminium; copper wire with stirling silver beads; and 14 gauge stirling silver wire.
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| ©2012 Fiona Dempster - Three brass rings - getting closer to completion |
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| ©2012 Barry Smith - Brass rings with copper and stirling silver beads. |
So what went wrong? Well over the last couple of months I had forgotten: which hammers I used when; that I needed to file and polish the inside edge of the piece I fold over (can't file and plush the inside edge after it is folded over wire or anodised aluminium); and the lengths of tubing were a little too short to give me a decent grip when creating the initial fold. And of course I think I might have tried to do too much too quickly - but I think I was driven by the fact that Saturday and Sunday are given over to visitors so no art.
Still it was good to get back into the fine motor skills part of metal beating. The rings will still be ok when I sand the inside finger area to get rid of the irregular shape and give them a final file and polish.
Intriguing. Love the use of old tubing and all the wire and other bits. Kept thinking of you and Fiona while browsing Allsaints [a clothing store] in the Nodding Hill area on Tuesday. Photos to go up on the blog soon. You'll understand why then.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, could you tell me how you "grabbed" the Peace Flags button and linked it? A simple screen save? I'd like to add it to my blog too.
Have a great weekend and enjoy your visitors!
They look pretty wonderful to me, Barry
ReplyDeleteThey look interesting and very individual, glad you are having fun. Cant get any interestng marks yet from my tea and rusty chain, will try to make the tea stronger!.Not much else happening, so cold and wet my shed is not very appealing and full of wet dogs when I go in there.
ReplyDeleteThey look great to me! I even like the second "in proces' photo as they look like artifacts from the Titanic or something! Though I'm not sure I'd want to wear one in that state. The end results have a "bolty" feeling to them, I like the weight.
ReplyDeleteOooo! I love them!
ReplyDeleteWonderful compositions which you get with these pieces of pipe to make them beautiful rings. I really love your art and creativity.
ReplyDeleteHello, Barry.
ReplyDeleteIt is my joy to share your wonderful work.
And sweet message charms my heart.
I pray for your happiness and world peace.
Have a good weekend. From Japan, ruma ❃
my goodness B! you think of everything! it never even occurred to me that tubings can be made into rings and some fine ones too! you mean the last pic was a mistake? i thought it was texture :p i really love the rough and tough look of these rings and i can already imagine Harley Davidson riders wearing them :)and wow ... what a difference between the just annealed rings and the high polished ones ... the brass shines like gold! never knew they used such good quality brass in tubings. oooo... that reminds me, i might have to talk to you about getting some scrap copper sheets from you ;) will email you next week or so :)
ReplyDeleteThey look great Barry.... aprticularly the one with the copper wire. That final picture shows it off to perfection.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that you have felt up to hammering! Love the rings, especially the ones with the wire.
ReplyDeleteYou could file the edges of the brass before folding them over...
Well we all see our mistakes long before anyone else does.... Mistakes? Where? Character.... YES! Shows a true example how junk can be turned into beauty.
ReplyDeleteinteresting concept B, the final results look great quiet supprising really, when you see what you have started with - imperfection can be very admirable.
ReplyDeleteJ, N, P, VA, JG, L, R, LT, JM, S/R, SZQ & K - really pleasing that you found the ring fling interesting - and not was good to be back hammering and I must say with no real after effects so that is good. J - re photo - it is a matter of saving as an attachment to a picture file and when creating a new gadget importing the picture - does that make sense? N- glad you liked. P - talked to F about the rusting - it could be a matter of stronger tea. VA - I like the idea of artefacts - and you are right they do have good weight. JG - pleased you loved them. L - it is good to be able to take a piece of brass pipe and create something of beauty. R - thanks for your comments and wishes of peace. LT - I think I will create a more guy line - for HD riders. Have lots of metal so let us talk. JM&S/R - the wire does work. S/R - filing the edges first is the conclusion I also came to. SZQ - from junk to beauty - I think that is our catch cry. K - imperfection can be appealing to some of us. All - go well and see beauty. B
ReplyDeleteThey look good to me, I rather like the irigularity of them.
ReplyDelete