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.
