It has been a grey and drizzly-wet weekend; not a lot of opportunity to do outside work like shovelling gravel. So I used it to advance a few projects:
- trialling etching of letters and leaves on heavy gauge aluminium for some panels for posts I'm working on;
- finishing the first design-assemblage phase of another series of Steampunk Lamps I'm working on; and
- finishing the Daily Leaf Words and Daily Words sets I started a couple of weeks ago.
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| ©2015 Fiona Dempster - Etched plate showing shellac as the resist. |
I got to trial the etching as Fiona had planned to do the etching of a cover for her
fragile gains artists book. The etching was done using the salt and copper sulphate method - a lot less toxic.
The leaves and letters turned out OK given I was using corroded old aluminium sheet for the trial. I think it will work well on new metal; and if I give it more time in the solution to bite deeper - good lessons learnt. The panels are going to be about 1.2m long and 100mm wide - the metal I tested the process on is 100mm wide.
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| ©2015 Fiona Dempster - Plate with etching reaction - pretty grungy? |
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| ©2015 Fiona Dempster - Etching grunge cleaned off in water |
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| ©2015 Barry Smith - Shellac resist removed - revealing the etched leaf |
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| ©2015 Barry Smith - Shellac resist removed - revealing the etched letter |
I managed to assemble the first phase of 5 table top Steampunk Lamps - now for the grinding, polishing and securing the fittings (globe holders and cords).
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| ©2015 Barry Smith - Five assemblages on the workbench - quite a bit of grinding and polishing to be done. |
And I did manage to finish the 10 bowls I started for the daily words sets.
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| ©2015 Barry Smith - Second round of hammering completed on 10 bowls |
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| ©2015 Barry Smith - Third round of hammering completed; and grinding and polishing done |
The Daily Leaf Words sets look beautiful.
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| ©2015 Barry Smith - Daily Leaf Words set - bowl and word leaves |
So all in all - a good indoor use of a wet weekend.
wow. i'm exhausted just reading all of this! but i have to say, that amidst all of the wonderful shapes and surfaces those steampunk lamps are just so much fun!
ReplyDeleteI am there with Velma - love those steam punk lamps..... and the aluminium etching of course.
ReplyDeleteHello. Your works is Superb.
ReplyDeleteKanji. 和. Meaning is peace. The character is written very well.
Greetings from Japan. ruma
Hi V, SB & Ruma - thanks for checking out my bits and pieces; and for your comments. V - it didn't seem exhausting: and the Steampunk Lamps are continuing to develop - eve4n cleared a table for them today. SB - I'll let you know when this batch is hatched - I'm thinking of doing a couple of larger floor lamps this time. Ruma - thank you regarding Kangi - a friend wants peace etched on the metal in 5 languages including the Kangi - she has a friend in Japan. All - go well - peace. B
ReplyDeleteWonderful to see you working on your steampunk lamps. And everything else - such a lot of treasures appearing under your hands.
ReplyDeleteHi C - always some action in the garage-studio. Go well. B
DeleteOH! I like your etching! did you add battery power for the etch?
ReplyDeleteSo, you're on a bowl explosion I see :)