Rustnstuff: Spirals

Showing posts with label Spirals. Show all posts

Friday, June 19, 2015

Creeping towards completion….

I am determined to complete the work with Meg's metal by the end of the weekend. I got quite a good run at the remaining metal today.

I have now cut up the last of the silver-plated objects - sugar bowls, milk jugs and small ice bucket.

Before lunch I made a couple of cuff bracelets out of the top of a sugar bowl and milk jug; and made a spiral arm band from the rim of a small ice bucket.

Larger bowls are on Meg's list - so I did the first round of annealing and hammering on the larger bowls and a bunch of smaller ones I will make. I plan to make Star Burst bowls from the deeper base sections of three of the small objects.

I was asked to make 4 leaf pate knives. Meg's metal is too light so I decided to make the pate knives anyway out of an old Italian silver-plate nickel-silver jug I bought from an Op-shop for a couple of dollars - the handle was falling off and it is badly worn. The metal is over 1mm thick and extremely hard. Today I decided to make a prototype from this metal - test out how I would have to work it - it can't be softened with annealing. The prototype worked OK - couple of refinements to be made in the process. The knife is about 16cm long.

All in all, a good day. Hopefully over the weekend I will finish the bowls. Now I'm off to get ready to go out to dinner with friends - a good end to a Friday.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

One finished and the second started

Over the weekend I have continued to work on the two pieces of work I want to submit to the Goondiwindi Aspects Art Show.

The first, an installation of 25 leaf forms on bent rusted iron rods, has been completed.

After Friday there were still a few more steps including hammering and opening the leaf forms.

Grinding sharp edges off and polishing the forms with a steel wire brush so that the patina solution had a better chance of acting.

Applying the patina solution with a pump sprayer; and letting it cure.

The installation has been designed to be installed in light coloured gravel but the grey gravel by the bell deck demonstrates the idea.

But because the installation needs to shown indoors I have made timber planks to hold the rods - doesn't look as good - but ….. And they can be placed in different configurations. The timber is Spotted Gum - recycled offcuts and second quality discarded planks. I might need to shorten some of the rods to get some layering happening - I will discuss that with my design consultant.

I also started the other work - a double spiral of leaf forms encircling a 175cm high 20cm square post. The top and side grain is beautiful now that I have done the first sand and oil; and I have cut the 45 degree slots into the post to hold the leaf forms - 16 copper leaves 25-27cm long.

2014 Barry Smith - Growth rings

I need to finish the second work this coming week.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Fiddling on Friday

It is Friday after all - so it was time to give metal beating a go. But in the spirit of gently going forward I decided to do a few small bits and only take them to the raw beaten stage. And because I was restarting I just wanted to do something that did not require too much thought and manipulation therefore it had to be about bowls and leaves.

A close inspection of the bowl photos show that it still has its fire scale and rough edges etc - but beautiful in its own right. The bowl is 60mm in diameter and 35mm deep.

I had a go at making a very slender and longish set of earring leaves cut from a light gauge nickel silver drink coaster. I wanted to retain the coaster design on the insides and hammer marks on the outside. The annealing to open the leaf forms has resulted in beautiful rainbow colours - not sure how to deal with these in the polishing stage - be great to preserve them. The leaf forms are about 60mm long and 10mm wide at the top.

And just for something different I wanted to have a go at creating a spiral form. I started with the idea that the spiral might hint at a lilly pad form. The test spiral is below. I think I have worked out the beating sequence. I will have a go at a few others in different sizes. Once I have perfected the technique I would give silver or nickel silver a go. I think the spirals could be just beautiful forms in their own right; or small versions could make their way onto ears. The spiral form is 50mm long and 42mm wide and high.

It was good to fiddle with metal on Friday. Over the weekend I will polish the bits; and also see how I pull up muscle wise. All pieces are made from recycled metal.

Rustnstuff

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