Behind the scene - making Daily Leaf Words sets.

 

Some folk ask how long it takes me to make different metal items. I mostly;y wander that I don't know because I don't time it. But what I do know that to make sets of Daily Leaf Words, as pictured in the images above and below, involves many steps over 4-5 sessions in the  workshop.

Some images of some steps involved follow. From the top down - from finished leaves at the top and the starting point of cut rectangular metal blanks: 

leaf forms ground and polished on the wheel; bowls hammered into shape with nylon and wooden hammers; disks of silver-plated metal annealed before hammering; leaf forms given a twist; tools used to open leaf forms in three stages; stash of folded leaf forms cut on the guillotine; leaf form being cut on the guillotine - watch your fingers; rectangular leaf blanks cut, stamped and folded.

The Daily Leaf Word sets shown in this blog are heading into my revamped online shop at as part of my Mindful Metal shop category.

Words to live life by?

 

I'm making four sets of Daily Leaf Words and 12 small metal books for my online shop. After cutting the leaf pieces and the 'pages' for the small metal books I grabbed a bit of time to stamp the words on: seven words on the Daily Leaf Words and four on the books.

The opening image shows the stash of stamped metal for the word leaves.

Below are the 'pages' for the books with stamped centre page.

A few more process photos follow. I love the images of the metal stamps and the stamped word "wonder".

When time permits the leaf metal will be folded and cut into their leaf shape etc etc - several more steps to go yet. The book pages will be riveted into their book forms after polishing and grinding. I will blog on the Daily Leaf Words and the small Metal Books when they are ready for the shop.

Preparation and prototype

 

I did not get to finish anything over the weekend; but I made a start on a few things during the week including testing a prototype of a free standing brass leaf form that could become one of the pages of an unbound artists' book.  I cracked it with the form (see above); and have had the sense to trace the form before cutting and bending the prototype - see below. I will work on this book in the coming weeks.

In the spirit of sifting, sorting and shifting as part of the closure of our public studio-gallery I decided to have a good assessment and cutting up of metal in the workshop - see some of the chopped metal below.

In the sorting I discovered the half made stamped leaf forms below - these will now be ground-polished etc and possibly make their way into the revamped online shop when it happens.

I have had a couple of requests for my Daily Leaf Word Sets - I had sold out in December. So as part of the cutting process I have made enough bowl and word blanks for 4 sets.

I have also sold out of my tiny stamped silver plated books. Again I cut up various pieces of silver plated metal and offcuts and now have enough pieces to make seven books.

So there are a lot of future making options right there. 

I have been filling 10 litter buckets with metal offcuts over the last couple of years - I now  have a reasonably full bucket of pure copper scraps and a bucket of silver plated brass and brass offcuts. Fiona and I will do a run in the near future to sell the offcuts to a metal recycling company.

Daily focus - continuing the series

 

For many years now I have made and sold silver-plated Daily Leaf Words sets. The sets are made up of a small metal bowl with seven formed leaves each stamped with a different word. The idea is that one choses at random a leaf at the beginning of the day. That may help one to be calm and maintain a gentle focus with through meditation or just reflection through the day. See photo of a couple of sets below. Daily Leaf Word sets can be purchased on my online shop.

I have complemented these sets with a small pamphlet stitched publication where I wrote words that might inspire or add a bit more focus to the day. I did all the letterpress set up, printing and binding myself - a limited edition of 25. See some photos below. The booklet can be purchased on my online shop.

I'm now planning to print a 7.5cm square concertina book on Kardi cotton paper. The opening photo is me comparing a number of letterpress fonts including narrow wood 2.5cm high type. I have chosen to go with Empire 72pt - the bottom font - very elegant and quiet. The following photos show some of the process of me setting out and choosing fonts, layout and ink.

I'm looking forward to printing this little pocket-purse book even though the concertina nature of it will make it a bit of a challenge on the letterpress press.

The magic of multiples

 

Making multiples can be hard work - the task seems to take so long to come to an end. I was determined to get the 7 sets of Daily Leaf Words finished over the weekend - in fact there were 8 sets of leaf words as you can see from the photo above (56 word leaves in all). I managed to find a spare Daily Word bowl at the studio so was able to make up 8 sets as you can see from the photo below.

A couple of photos of the bowls and leaves finished  - one on the work bench and the second of the seven bowls reflecting the painting on the wall.

Following are a closer shots of a few of the bowls with words including the torn bowl and the spiral bowl with a couple micro cracks.

A great outcome.

Stitched metal...

 

I'm making an effort to finish off some metal work before heading to the cottage in Scotland. I planned to make 7 Daily Leaf Word sets. I have all but finished the sets of leaves; but had hardly made a start on the bowls - today was the day as you can see from the photos in this blog post. 

But working with metal can have its challenges. I was using metal cut from different silver-plated trays - some silver over copper and silver over brass. However I discovered that one larger tray I cut up was in fact silver over brass that had nickel added to it - makes it more silvery.  In past blogs I have reported that depending on the amount of nickel the metal can't really be annealed and can be prone to split. The metal on two of the bowls split. As you can see from the opening photo one split badly. Rather than scrap the bowl I decided to finish hammering it into shape and stitching across the split with 1mm brass rod. I like the outcome.

Before I show some process photos, below are few more photos of the two split bowls - including a spiral patterned bowl - the only ones I completed today. The shiny metal was reflecting the painting on the wall - I rather like it.

And as promised some process photos.

I hope to finish the other 5 bowls over the weekend.