Tools, stones and silver

 

The last couple of days has been about finishing projects (small stamping tools and metal in stones; and cutting out silver cottage forms for a workshop Fiona and I are doing next Thursday. The finished stamps and inlaid stones are seen in the opening photo.

I plan to make some small silver rustic cottage earrings. I am testing a few approaches for the prototypes. I plan to scribe windows doors etc into some; and test out some home made metal stamps on the others.

The stamps started life as 125mm iron nails - below. 

I have filed and sawn the nails into several stamps with rudimentary window, dormer window and slate texture shapes. Progress photos follow. I a later blog post I will show how these worked on silver.

In the photos below you can see I have started sawing silver plate to make several different cottage forms. The cottages will be about 9X11mm.

I'm looking forward to see how this all works out when we do our half day workshop.

Leaf litter?

 

Well not quite leaf litter; but rather a shiny gathering (see above) of leaf form earrings with drops ranging in size from 25mm to 60mm.

Some images of individual pairs follow. You will note that the left and right leaf forms curve in opposite directions!!!

Following are a few progress-process photos including opening a 25mm leaf form on a brass weight.

And finally another photo of the leaf gathering!!

 

New life- new memories

 

I was given a small stash of old and neglected silver-plated metal in case I could use it. I always ask to see if the person gifting the metal wanted to retain some connection with the pieces. In this case I agreed to make earrings for three family members if I could find metal that was still ok to use.

As you can see from the opening photo I have made five pair of earrings - I always like to give myself choice. I have made these earrings with the texture of the tray to the front.

The process photos start with blanks cut out of one of the trays. I also gave a piece of the metal the bend test to see that it could handle being folded - which it did - it was silver-plated brass. The photos also show that there are quite a number of steps involved in making leaf earrings.

The following photo is after I had added jump rings and earwigs to the ground, drilled and polished leaves.

And I took time to give my 'love' and 'joy' stamped earrings (see below) for Scotland a final grind and polish on the wheel.

I get a good vibe when I can gift back to people who give me material in a way that gives them a piece of their history but with a new purpose to create new memories.

Tiny love and joy leaf earrings in the making

 

It was a bit of a rush job - but I managed to cut, stamp, form, grind and polish 8 pair of small leaves (25mm -60mm) for 8 pair of earrings. Four pair of love and four pair of joy - although they could be mixed.

The 16 leaves are in the opening photo - still need to be given a twist and earwigs added. Process photos follow. The metal was cut from two good quality Strachan drink coasters. The strips of metal were about 8-10mm wide.

Making tiny leaves has the added challenge of being a bit hard to hold when cutting and grinding-polishing. These earrings are destined for Scotland. The finished earrings will be shiny, light and strong.

Small circles of beauty

 

There has not been a lot of time for creating lately - various family and friend commitments have required the time. It is good though that one can grab small moments to make small things such as these metal bits - stars and ingots.

And F and I have been doing a few small bits together including choosing and preparing wee stones to make pebble earrings.

Celebrating the small creative moments is important.

Product for the Vessel exhibition shop

 

As I worked on my three pieces for the Vessel Exhibition I also worked on a few pieces that might go into the gallery shop.

Over the weekend I completed making some sail form bowls/incense burners and some sail form earrings. You can see 5 pair of highly polished solid brass plate earrings in the opening photo.

I made 7 incense bowls-burners; including making the incense holders our of melted metal - beautiful silver-brass metal with gorgeous tops as you can see in the photos below.

An another look at the earrings- reflecting a painting on the wall - as you can see one pair is made from patinated copper.

Another productive weekend.

A whole lot of earrings

 

I have managed to complete my leaf earrings and a few buffalo horn earrings. Not much time for art today as people came first.

The leaf forms vary in length from about 2.5cm to 6cm. Some have words stampede on them; and others are plain. All with the pattern from the silver-plated placemats and the rear side. Photos of earrings with differing ear wires.

I cut enough buffalo for 8 pair of earrings with metal rivets; but only got time to complete 4 pair.

Good to complete the earrings I started about 4 weeks ago.