Back on the hammer and stake

 

It was good to get time in the workshed today to make a set of fungi form bowls - you can see the outcome in the opening and following photos

As is often the case there are many steps in creating these small forms - turning the disks of metal into small bowls; putting an indent into the indoor centre ; and systematically hammering the bowl on my 'finger' shaped stake.

A couple of process photos follow.

A photo of my handmade stake (made by a blacksmith in Portland Oregon: and my hand made Japanese metal working hammer  follow.

Photos by Fiona of me hammering.

A good session in the workshop!!!!

Repurposing salvaged objects

 

Many moons ago I had removed the bowl sections off a few vintage champagne coupes - yes there are such things - certainly a thing in days gone by. They were wider and shallower goblets!!

Anyway I digress. I thought if hammered the bowls to create a deeper shape and planish the back surface, the coupe sections would make good deep ladle bowl sections.

As you can see from the opening photo I have made three deeper ladles. These can be used for ladling hot soup, or stews or ladling jams or sauces into jars - very versatile!!! The handles are a bit longer than usual so one can keep one's hands away from hot or boiling liquids.

A few of the process photos follow: forming handles, formed bowls before planishing, the planishing process and back and front of the bowls after planishing and polishing.

A few more images of the finished ladles. I have used 2mm thick copper rivets on these ladles - cut down copper nails.

These ladles have been put into my online shop under the Culinary Metal category 

Beautiful salvaged metal

 

Two different aspects of salvaged metal in this post: metal from salvaged trays -platters; and recycling precious metal.

First - turning the salvaged trays metal into beautiful bowls that eventually will hold sets of Fiona's rainbow daily words. I just love the lustre of the bowl in the opening photo - 13cm in diameter and 2.5cm deep. It was made from a very worn out vintage silver-plated copper platter. The silver in the centre of the platter had been totally polished-worn away. On the edge of the bowl you can see a faint rim of silver; and the back still has a good silver coat - see below.

Some process photos below - including the other 3 bowls on the go.

In my future art life I will no longer make jewellery from found objects etc. I am exploring the possibility of making a limited range of jewellery from silver plate. In preparation for that exploration today I did a high temperature (925 degrees) metal melt of many bits and pieces of silver including short lengths of chain, Fiona's silver wire and silver plate offcuts and other bits and pieces I had collected over the year. I pored the molten metal into a steel form to create sheets that are about 1.5mm thick. In all I ended up with 130gms of silver plate.

Below - silver in the graphite crucible in the furnace; the steel form; and the sheets of silver.

New beginnings for and from salvaged metal.

Metal play and water features

 

The image above shows the outcome of a bit of art metal play. I wanted to see how three layers of copper sheet would behave when pressed in wood and metal forms a number of times in my hand operated hydraulic press. If you like quirky spiky bowls this bowl will appeal to you; but if you are challenged by the square edges and pointy bits this one is not for you.  A couple of process-progress photos follow.

I think I will try this again but maybe with offset circles of metal. The hydraulic pressing process resulted in the three layers of metal binding together - no glue or rivets required - very organic!!!

I also finished hammering a couple of large bowls - one from the laundry copper and one from the base of the hot water tank. Both are water features - most likely watering spots for birds - stones for them to land on. The first bowl is about 450mm in diameter; and the second is about 350mm in diameter.

Who knows where the metal might take me over the next couple of weeks.

Sometimes the metal speaks

 

The metal I cut from the humble vintage laundry copper (see earlier blog here) spoke of creating simple bowls that, whilst rustic in form, were to serve sacred roles.  

As you can see from the image above and immediately below I have made a simple Meditation or Incense Bowl and a Memory Keeper Bowl. The bowls are about 14cm in diameter and 3 cm deep.

As seen in the photo the Meditation-Insence Bowl is a set - a bowl, a copper stand and a brass incense holder. The Memory Keeper Bowl is a single simple bowl. Both bowls have been given a coat of varnish so that the copper patina does not stain timber or fabric when in use. I think the images show why each piece is given its name.

As you can see from the image below both bowls started as circles of patinated copper cut from the salvaged patinated laundry copper metal.

The copper stand was cut from a salvaged 5cm round copper pipe; and the incense burner was cut from a salvaged hexagonal length of brass. 

Following are some additional images of both bowls.

These bowls are part of my mindful metal works and join other the mindfulness works of mine such as the Daily Word Leaf Sets.

Olive ladles

 

One of the designs I developed for my handmade ladles is a perforated tiny (3.5cm diameter) ladles with the handle bent at about 90 degrees to the bowl.  See a photo of the bowl section of three olive ladles in the opening photo. 

I refer to these ladles as Olive Ladles as initially I designed them being used to scoop olives out of a jar; and for the perforations (holes) to let the oil or vinegar flow back into the jar. 

People who have bought the ladles say they can use them for scooping out cocktail onions and capers.

Some process photos of the making of the ladles follow including - starting with disks of decorative silver-plated metal cut from salvaged silver-plated brass placemats; punching holes into the disks; planishing the backs of the bowls after they have been formed from the disks (see planishing hammer in the photo); and attaching the brass rod handles with copper or brass rivets (see the small riveting hammer in the photo).

In my last couple of making sessions I made seven of these olive ladles as you can  see from the photo below. Why 7? I like odd numbers; and also needed quite a stash as I had orders for four!!