Pendants and pods

I have completed, packed and posted a pendant I was asked to make - contrast between rust and silver. Well in the end two pendants were posted.

The couple of pendants that were posted were based on rusted washers from our rust table.

©2019 Barry Smith - Pendant - 5cm rusty washer with hammered solid silver riveted hanging 'ring'

©2019 Barry Smith - Pendant - 3cm rusty washer with hammered solid silver riveted hanging 'ring'

The other two I made were based on 'washers' I had made out of rusted sheet metal. I made these washer forms as I was keen to made a couple of pendants that had the round hole of normal washers but a few angles and bends that washers can pick up through wear and tear.

©2019 Barry Smith - Pendant - 4.5 cm rusty handmade washer with hammered solid silver riveted hanging 'ring'

©2019 Barry Smith - Pendant - 3.5cm hand made rusty washer with hammered solid silver riveted hanging 'ring'

©2019 Barry Smith - Pair of pendant - handmade rusty washers with solid silver riveted hanging 'rings'

Each of the pendants has a solid silver (925) ring through which the chain or cord  passes.

©2019 Barry Smith - Hammered solid silver strips before being formed into oblong rings after riveting  through the washer centres - bit of juggling to get the brass rivets in place.

I have none of my pod vessels left in my display cases as I had sold the last set a few weeks ago. I thought it was time for me to get back to the hammer and stake to make a few of these. Of course it starts with selecting and cutting metal. I have worked out that for hammering pods I prefer to use silver-plated copper as it hammers better. So I cut up a few small silver-plated copper trays to get the blank circles of metal I wanted.

©2019 Barry Smith - Silver-plated copper circles for making pod vessels

After sinking the metal into a wooden form I then put a dimple into the centre to give me a point on which to start the raising process. I have also roughly marked up the metal to guide the first round of hammering on the metal stake.

©2019 Barry Smith - All the blanks have been sunk into shallow bowls and a dimple created in the centre; and the hand made Japanese metal working hammer that will be used to raise the pods.

Just out of interest the first two parts of the process reduce the diameter of the metal as follows: the sinking stage reduced the metal from 10.25cm to 9.75cm; and the first raising stage reduced it from 9.75cm to 9cm. Pretty amazing how the metal is pushed into the tighter vessel shape.

©2019 Barry Smith - The two unhampered bowls are about 9.75cm in diameter; and the bowl to the left is 9cm after first round of hammering on the metal stake.

The will be many rounds of annealing and hammering on the metal stake before I have moved the metal into the pod form.