I had to get into a bit of production over the weekend as my stock is a little short on a few items including: silver-plated leaf forms; leaf form letter openers; and raised bowls.
I'm always surprised that in the early stages of the bowl raising process the bowls can look so battered. I sometimes wonder if they are going to come together. Most times they do turn out right - but occasionally they do collapse under the strain of my hammering - sometimes I push them too hard too fast. The bunch below are shown in their early stages on the annealing pit.
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| ©2013 Barry Smith - Bowls in the earlier stages |
In the rough the leaf forms have a certain beauty - but they also look a little worn.
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| ©2013 Leaf forms and leaf form letter openers in the rough |
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| ©2013 Barry Smith - Leaf form in the rough - in front of the large anvil |
After many more annealing and hammering episodes the bowls-pods get their shape.
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| ©2013 Barry Smith - Cluster of raised bowls |
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| ©2013 Barry Smith - Small silver-plate raised bowl (about 55mm wide & 45mm deep) |
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| ©2013 Barry Smith - Silver-place pods - (about 55mm long & 30mm wide) |
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| ©2013 Barry Smith - Silver-plate over copper pod (about 100mm long 65mm wide) |
And the leaf forms and leaf form letter openers get their smoothness and shine from the polishing wheels.
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| ©2013 Barry Smith - Leaf form letter openers - brass |
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| ©2013 Barry Smith - Three long silver-plate leaf forms (about 170mm long) |
Quite a productive weekend. The highly polished silver-plate is quite hard to photograph - even without direct light or flash the high shine reflects lots of light and picks up the colour of surrounding objects.
Very beautiful! It must be a enjoyable process for you.
ReplyDeleteAll your metal forms seem to have an inner glow that radiates outward.. like inner fire.
ReplyDeletemmmmmm.... loving the bowl-pod :)
ReplyDeleteJust amazing, B, always such a treat to see your process. The bowl pds are just gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteHi CM, D, VA & C - thanks for checking out the results of the production line - quite a few hours of heating and beating. CM - the process does have its rewards - taking scrap to some beautiful forms. D - I agree the hammering process from outside does produce some great patterns and a soft shine-glow on the inside - almost looks like different metal. VA & C - I'm a bit fond of the pod form - I'm still working on understanding the technique that enables me to push the metal inwards. But I am getting better at it. All - go well and create new things in new ways. B
ReplyDeleteThat pretty leaves, the bowls are also wonderful, pure delicacy.
ReplyDelete