Solid silver commission

©2018 Barry Smith - Solid silver golf-formed and then flattened leaves

I have a commission to make flat but fold-formed leaves out of solid silver (925). I needed to see how many leaves I could make from two .7mmX15cmX30cm sheets of the silver (see sheets below).

I managed to source the metal from a company in Australia that sells recycled silver sheets - which was good. The sheets were highly polish silver and therefore were covered on both sides with film. Because I was needed to produce hammered but otherwise unmarked leaves I tested to see if I could do the fold forming etc with the film on. No opportunity to anneal the metal. Good news - it was possible because I was using soft silver and worked gently.

©2018 Barry Smith - Sheets of solid silver - film on both sides

Mark up of the metal.

©2018 Barry Smith - Careful mark up to get the most out of the sheets and a variety of sizes

Some process photos.

©2018 Barry Smith - Thirty-eight blanks marked for folding

©2018 Barry Smith - Folded blanks and marking up for cutting the half leaf shapes

©2018 Barry Smith - This is what 161grams of offcuts looks like - about 22% of the silver in all - needs to go back to the metal company to be recycled again.

©2018 Barry Smith - Hammered leaf forms

©2018 Barry Smith - unfolding the leaf forms and flattening them with a hard rubber hammer.

The finished stash of leaves - I managed to make 38 leaves ranging in size from 7.5cm to 11cm.

©2018 Barry Smith - Thirty-eight leaves - showing some fronts and some backs

A full day in the studio-garage; and a good outcome.