Heavy metal of the brass variety

©2017 Barry Smith - Brass hose nozzle as centrepiece of the Avian Font

When I chose the base of a very old and large jardiniere for the metal for bowl of the Avian Font I thought I'd be hammering a circle of metal about 1mm thick. As it turned out it was closer to 2mm thick; and 37cm in diameter.  This is the thickest piece of brass I have hammered into a bowl shape. It took a few hours of heavy hammering from beginning to end. Heavy metal work indeed.

©2017 Barry Smith - Using my largest copper hammer to flatten and turn the edges on the anvil on the floor

©2017 Barry Smith - My Japanese metal working hammer was used on the reverse side of the metal to begin the process of raising the bowl on a metal stake

©2017 Barry Smith - Getting there after a few rounds of hammering on the stake and anvil

©2017 Barry Smith - Looking good - I could have spent a couple more hours hammer to get a smoother finish; but In fact I wanted the textured and hammered look - the bowl is about 37cm across and 7.5cm deep. Flattened section ready for cutting the hole for the stand.

After cutting the hole in the centre to attach the stand I cleaned the bowl and added a patina solution. This resulted in quite a blue colour so I coated the patina with a UV resistant art varnish and sanded it back to allow some of the original brown and black patina and polished brass to show through.

©2017 Barry Smith - Patinated bowl after sanding back to reveal the old patina and brass highlights

©2017 Barry Smith - Close up of the patinated and sanded surface close to the centre of the bowl - nice bit of rust from the mild steel washer reacting to the patina solution.

To get a firm and leakproof attachment I needed to make some rubber and steel washers. This took about an hour as the holes were bigger than my metal punches. The steel washer took quite a bit of filing.

©2017 Barry Smith - So little to show for the time involved

The stand and base, including rubber washers, were then assembled and ready for the bowl and spray nozzle.

©2017 Barry Smith - Stand and base - the stand has a copper pipe inner  tube and a rusty garage spring out sleeve. The top of the stand includes a brass plumbing fittings, a brass tap body and a rusty cog with an inner brass tube which was then riveted to the stand;s inner copper tube.

And this is the finished product - looking gorgeous enough to attract a few birds.

©2017 Barry Smith - Font without water 

©2017 Barry Smith - Holding water - ready for the birds.

This Avian Font will be delivered to the new owner mid next week.