Creeping towards completion….

©2015 Barry Smith - Base of hammered bowl

I am determined to complete the work with Meg's metal by the end of the weekend. I got quite a good run at the remaining metal today.

I have now cut up the last of the silver-plated objects - sugar bowls, milk jugs and small ice bucket.

©2015 Barry Smith - More recycled metal on the sorting table.

Before lunch I made a couple of cuff bracelets out of the top of a sugar bowl and milk jug; and made a spiral arm band from the rim of a small ice bucket.

©2015 Barry Smith - A brace of cuff bracelets and a spiral arm-band

©2015 Barry Smith - Spiral arm-band - thick hard metal  (2mm) and the decorative part is about 6-7mm wide

©2015 Barry Smith - Decorative edged cuff bracelets

Larger bowls are on Meg's list - so I did the first round of annealing and hammering on the larger bowls and a bunch of smaller ones I will make. I plan to make Star Burst bowls from the deeper base sections of three of the small objects.

©2015 Barry Smith - A group of bowls looking the worse for wear after annealing and initial hammering

I was asked to make 4 leaf pate knives. Meg's metal is too light so I decided to make the pate knives anyway out of an old Italian silver-plate nickel-silver jug I bought from an Op-shop for a couple of dollars  - the handle was falling off and it is badly worn. The metal is over 1mm thick and extremely hard. Today I decided to make a prototype from this metal - test out how I would have to work it - it can't be softened with annealing.  The prototype worked OK - couple of refinements to be made in the process. The knife is about 16cm long.

©2015 Barry Smith - Leaf pate knife with strip of nickel silver metal

©2015 Barry Smith - Leaf pate knife

All in all, a good day. Hopefully over the weekend I will finish the bowls. Now I'm off to get ready to go out to dinner with friends - a good end to a Friday.

©2015 Barry Smith - Silver-plate filings floating on the surface of the rusty annealing bowl