Rustnstuff: Foldformed jewellery

Showing posts with label Foldformed jewellery. Show all posts

Friday, September 11, 2020

First from the new workshop

It seemed quite fitting that the first bits of hammered metal from the new workshop should be leaves - one of my favourite forms.

Last weekend I was asked by a visitor to DEP studio-gallery-shop could I make her a pair of leaf earrings with clips given she does not have pierced ears. Of course I could as you can see from the opening photo graph - the leaf drops are about 35-40mm long.

After bolting my two vices to the workbench today I got into the process of making seven pairs of leaf earrings with different length drops.

Cutting up silver-plated drink coasters.

Folding and shaping the leaf forms.

Grinding, polishing and twisting the opened leaf forms.

And assembling a couple of pair including the wee ones below - leaf form is about 1.8cm. The longest reaffirm drop is about 6cm.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Sometimes you just play

Many things were achieved over the weekend- the mundane like weeding, cleaning the car and 'whipper-snipping' the weeds. But Fiona and I also got to go on a metal buying tour to increase my stash as I have an exhibition to work towards - more on the stash and exhibition later; and I managed to devise another travelling anvil for Japan - but I won't bore folk with that here.

I did however also get time to make a few more Steampunk influenced pieces - two pendants and a set of earrings. I could have done other things but these pieces of metal just called to be cut, bent, drilled, riveted and assembled. They were just a boost of refreshing creativity.

The pendant below is a foldformed piece of brass (about 4cm square) and pieces of a fob-watch. The parts are riveted in place with copper rivets; and the chain is heavy stainless steel (about 65cm long).

The second pendant has a piece (about 6cm long and 2.5cm wide) of scroll EPNS from an old drink tray; half a brass body of a fob-watch; the brass gonger out of a small clock; and a brass clock collar piece. The silverplated chain is about 65cm long.

The asymmetrical are made from the stainless steel body of a fob-watch. I love the fact that the pieces still have their ruby stones in place. These are a really fun pair.

Finding time to make for creativity's sake is good. Blogger is very slow etc tonight so keeping it all brief

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Another touch of Steampunk

Much of Saturday and Sunday has been given over to getting the house and block back under control after many weeks of rain. So many hours pulling weeds, cobwebbing and pressure cleaning decks.

Not a lot of time for art in the garage-studio; but enough to create a couple of assemblage meets foldforming jewellery pieces. The baseplate for the pendant is a foldformed piece of recycled copper that has been seriously burnt to create the charred and reticulated red look. The crystals are on silver wire and can turn on the wire rod. The copper base plate is about 4.5cm square. The brass chain is also recycled. The clock parts are riveted to the copper with tube silver and brass rivets.

The earrings are for the more adventurous. They are made from stainless steel clock shafts; and brass clock cogs. Because I have used parts from two different clocks the shafts are different but give a bit of interest. The length of drop of the earrings is about 8-10cm. I flattened the ends of the shafts to give a surface to centre punch and drill through. Very hard metal - burnt a quality 1mm bit out doing the drilling.

Still nice to do a little something.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Earrings for an 18 year old

Fiona and I are in the main fortunate with our neighbours - we look out for each other, communicate, keep an eye on each others' property when people are absent - but we also have our personal space.

One of our elderly neighbours phoned us on Friday with a request - "would Barry have some earrings to show her that might be suitable as a gift for her granddaughter's 18 birthday?" Of course the answer was yes - but it did require the completion of a number of pairs of earrings that might be attractive to a young woman. In the end I went with the five pairs below - some are 'found earrings'; and some are 'leaf form earrings'.

We visited our neighbour this afternoon and Fiona kindly lent an ear to model various earrings. In the end the pair of leaf earrings pictured below were selected. As you can see they have a good length (leaf is about 55mm), some curl action is happening in the leaf, and some silver and copper chain has been added to give a bit of movement. Hopefully the young woman will find them attractive and feel the love that her grandmother put into the request and choice.

The 'found earrings' below are simple but bit dainty (found section is about 35mm long)?

The formed earrings below (about 50mm long) are a little more on the structured - a bit 'old' for a younger person!!

It always feels good to be able to respond in a creative way to a request that is based on a personal relationship - there is a different energy to the creative act and the choice.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Leaf Earrings

For some time I have been creating a small stash of smaller more finely foldformed and beaten pairs of leaves to use in leaf jewellery such as earrings and pendants. The leaf forms range from about 35-40mm in length; and all are light in weight. All the leaf forms are made from recycled copper, brass, reticulated zinc on brass and silver-plated copper.

Last night I used a little spare time to go into the studio (the clean one) to put some rings and wires onto the polished and drilled leaves; and so it came to pass that I had the four pairs of simple unadorned earrings below.

I did not make the wires. All the wires are stirling silver - I was not keen to go with brass or copper because of potential earlobe discolouration.Three of the pairs of the wires are antiqued hand formed stirling silver from a stock I purchased from Shannon of Misssficklemedia; and the other bright pair on the silver-copper earrings are standard commercial stirling silver wires. I think the antiqued silver and their handmade appearance work well with the fold formed leaf forms.

The Leaf Earrings are for sale through my studio; and will also eventually be for sale online when my online Gallery Shop is launched in the not too distant future - I hope. If you are interested contact me here.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Tiny challenge - leaf pendant earrings

On Friday I posted on some tiny leaves (25-30mm long) I formed to use in making earrings. Other fellow metal working artists including Stregata and Mairedodd , who are talented makers of art jewellery, make foldformed leaves as components for their pieces. Mairedodd indicated that she has formed leaves as small as about 15-18mm (3/4 inch). I thought I had to give that a go - so this afternoon I took myself back down to the 'garage-studio' to cut, beat and polish some micro leaves. As you can see from the photo below when compared to Smarties (M&Ms) they are quite tiny and yet have maintained the leaf form.

Fiona Dempster © Tiny leaves and Smarties

You can see from the photo of my thumb nail and a leaf in the process of being beaten my fingers were slightly at risk.

Barry Smith © Tiny leaf being formed

Barry Smith © A litter of tiny formed leaves

But about eleven tiny ones emerged; and were unfolded ready for polishing.

Barry Smith © Leaves opened ready for polishing

And a tiny shiny stash of leaves appeared after polishing.

Barry Smith © Stash of micro leaves

I thought it would be good to see how they worked as earring pieces. Using some chain recycled from older earrings of Fiona's I made a set of pendant earrings. They looked good on the blue glass; but look even better on Fiona who was forced to model them after a hard afternoon of creativity in the shed studio. Fiona said it was like wearing her own personal wind chimes as the leaves are so light they tinkle together.

Barry Smith © Micro leaf earrings for Fiona

Barry Smith © Micro leaf earrings modeled by Fiona

I think I could be over the actual obsession with creating micro leaves for a little while - but will return to them when I have a little more time as they have heaps of potential.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Handful of tiny leaves

OK! So I get a little obsessed at times. Recently I have set myself the challenge of forming tiny leaves that could become earrings. Over the last few months I have been progressively reducing the size - seeing if I could keep the shape and detail without ending up with beaten fingers etc.

I made my smallest pair when demonstrating leaf making with Jeff. Today (being Friday and all) I used time this afternoon to cut, beat, drill and polish another 5 pairs of tiny leaves. In the photo below you can see the 12 leaves fit very easily in the palm of my hand. All the leaves are 25-30mm in length.

Barry Smith © A handfull of tiny metal leaf forms

Fiona took photos of the six pairs of leaves whilst I got the risotto going in the rice cooker - she caught the afternoon setting sun so the photos have a lovely warm aged look about them.

I did not have the time to add jump rings and wires to the leaves - maybe I will post later on how they look as finished earrings.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A 'Burst' of Bazola bits

We had Fiona's best friend Sue visiting last weekend - it is always a good to have her visit - amongst other things she helps us to see our world in refreshed or new ways including spending more time on the southern deck watching the sun go down with a glass of white wine in the hand.

But Sue is also an admirer and buyer of Bazola jewellery. Noela had dropped off a few pieces she had 'in stock' for Sue to check out. She bought a few sets of earrings - so it made me realise I needed to make Noela another stash. So the burst of Bazola bits below was beaten and polished.

Just for fun and friendship I made the simple copper earrings below for Sue as she had admired the forms. They are very light - almost like stiff old crinkled copper paper.

Below are some shots of some of the Bazola burst bits up closer.

I never tire of what I can make from the scraps of recycled metal. The red colour on the silver plate was a reflection of my t-shirt - indicates the high polish on the bits. I delivered the bits to Noela on Monday when we hung the COMA exhibition in a local coffee shop. So I guess we will await some more finished Bazola creations.

Rustnstuff

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