Whilst this morning was taken up with community commitments I got down to doing a bit more preparation for tomorrow's Open Studio.
I have been running out of silver-plated ENPNS for making bowls, leaf forms, Daily Words etc. Last Sunday Fiona and I had to take a trip to a coastal gallery to pick up some of our work. On the way home we happened upon an op-shop so went in search of metal. As you can see from the photo below we were successful - a good stash of other people's discarded treasures.
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| ©2012 Barry Smith - Others discards are my treasures |
But alas today I cut 4 of the 7 trays up for metal. Usually when I cut up a tray (with a cutting wheel in my side-grinder) I take the ends off for possible found jewellery bits and metal for words; I take the sides off for leaf forms; and the centre part of the trays become metal for bowls. You can see from the photos I have enough to go on with for demonstrations etc for the next little while.
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| ©2012 Barry Smith - Four dismantled silver-plated trays |
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| ©2012 Barry Smith - A fan of tray edges |
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| ©2012 Barry Smith - Potential found earrings? |
Given I will be demonstrating I took the time to polish some of my most used hammers. The photo below shows my tiny riveting and jewellery leaf hammers. I have modified the riveting hammers to become leaf and ring hammers; and the chasing hammers are used for planishing and riveting.
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| ©Barry Smith - Tiny hammers for delicate work |
And of course there are bigger leaf forming. sinking, beating and planishing hammers.
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| ©2012 Barry Smith - The big metal movers |
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| ©2012 Barry Smith - Tiny hangs out with the big metal movers |
So I'm set to go for tomorrow - stock is up to date and metal and hammers are ready.
Fascinating post, Barry. Nothing is wasted!Holding thumbs for a successful Open Studio.
ReplyDeleteWould love to see a demo... but probably would miss it even if I left today!
ReplyDeleteAhhh to be a fly on the wall in your studio. Always inspiring to see what you're up to.
ReplyDeleteWow - someone with a method to the madness. Love it. These trays overflow here at our thrift stores... too bad the shipping is so crazy to downunder. I had to smile at the polishing of the tools for your upcoming demo's. :) Now that I know what those gems look like I'll have to keep my eyes open for them! I truly appreciate the method in which you cut all those platter up. GREAT POST.
ReplyDeleteSuch beautiful shiny hammers - I enjoyed learning about your process when I visited - now understand about hammers!
ReplyDeletecongrats on your finds! love that you showed us what you do with them or at least the beginnings. those shinny hammers are quite impressive! wishing you a wonderful time.
ReplyDeleteoh my ... seeing with my own eyes a batch of shiny trays being cut up into little pieces made my tummy jump a little. becos i'd always imagine them being old and wretched, but yea ... there must be some shiny ones that people don't want. just curious B, when you cut shiny ones up the first time round, how did you feel?
ReplyDeleteof course i'm sure i'll be going ooo and aaa in the next post when you show us how you transformed the pieces into your beauties!! and i'll forget all about the shiny trays then :)
the hammers! covet!! can you actually polish back hammers which have nicks in them? and what about bench blocks? mine's really scratchy already.
That's an awesome hammer collection. I must go to the 'tip' again soon to hunt for some more additions to your metal stash.
ReplyDeleteOh, the hammers! I think I'll have to polish mine, now I see how wonderful they look. My 3 yr old grandson recently spent a happy hour sorting my tools and he lined up the hammers by size. Of course I didn't think to take a photo. He's now been given his own set of tools.
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