Making a start on 100 small boats

 

An art piece I have planned includes 100 small boats with copper hulls and brass lug sail. The starting point is getting the material ready. After a morning of cutting I ended up with the 77 pieces in the opening photo. But before I could start the cutting process I need to go back and work out how I actually made the prototype boat hulls - it was a very long time ago.

It took a few goes at measuring, cutting and hammering as you can see from the following photos - but in the end I worked out that I need 100 pieces cut to 16cmX5cm; these then needed to be folded and cut to look like a blunt half leaf; then hammered along the fold rather than the edge which is the usual way to make a leaf; then un-folded and gently open on a stake; and finally grind the edges to finish the hull..

The following photo shows the metal templates and tools to create the upturned boat hull on the right.

So then it was a matter of cutting up a patinated copper hot-water tank using my metal guillotine.

I have cut up all of the patinated hot water tank metal so the remaining 20-30 blanks will be cut from some old oxidised but not patinated copper sheet gifted to me.