Metal harvest

©2018 Barry Smith - Metal harvested from 10 silver-plated trays ranging in size from about 17cm in diameter and  40cm in diameter - with a variety of decorative edges

Much of my hammered metal work is made from: silver-plated copper; silver plated brass; and silver-plated ENPS. The metal is generally cut from silver-plated trays that I find in op-shops or have them gifted to me. Quite often such trays become too much of a hassle for folk to clean so they go to op-shops; or get thrown in the garbage if they are too tarnished. Using this metal is a good way of giving these objects a new life.

I'm about to launch into a fairly solid period of making stock for Maleny Additions, Entangle and my on-line shop. So I decided to have a day of cutting the trays into the shapes and pieces I need for the work. It also gives me a chance to salvage a lot of the smaller offcuts for other projects; and of course I can harvest the small but good quality fragments for smelting - I separate out silver-plated copper and silver-plated brass into two different containers. The silver-plated copper results in a silver toned copper in the smelt; and the silver-plated brass gives a soft toned brass.

Below I will just share a heap of photos and record the size and purpose in the caption.

©2018 Barry Smith- Gorgeous 30cm silver-plated heavy copper tray with inscription in the centre. It is marked up for fungi bowl circles of metal - spaces are so I can miss cutting the three feet underneath

©2018 Barry Smith - Twelve fungi bowl circles - about 60-65mm in diameter 

©2018 Barry Smith - This 40cm tray is marked up in 2.5cm strips. I'm going to use the metal tags (2.5cmX4cm) for my 2018 International Peace Day giveaways. My theme is one world one peace.

©2018 Barry Smith - I managed to cut 77 tags from the tray with very little metal heading to the smelter container

©2018 Barry Smith - Fifteen blanks for Tea Caddy Spoons - blanks need to be 4cm wide and 12.5 cm long - I keep a template for each of my stock products.

©2018 Barry Smith - Again 15 blanks for making Leafspoons - the blanks need to be 3cm wide and 16.5 cm long

©2018 Barry Smith - Six blanks for Leaf Pate Knives - 3cm wide and 17cm long

©2018 Barry Smith - About 25 blanks for giveaway peace leaves - the last 15 I made a week ago are gone already. The blanks for these leaves are about 2.5cm wide and 10-11cm long.

©2018 Barry Smith - About 18 blanks that will be used for daily leaf words - these blanks need to be about 1,7cm wide and 8cmm long

©2018 Barry Smith - These circles of metal will be used for the bowl section of ladles - the diameter of the circles is about 8cm

©2018 Barry Smith - Edge shot of the 12 pieces to be used for the fungi bowl

As well as about 10 other pieces I have set aside , the post shows 172 pieces of cut metal that resulted from the cutting process. Each of these will become hammered and stamped objects.