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!!!!

Testing tools and making examples

 

Preparation for my Simple Stylish Jewellery Workshop in Scotland in August is proceeding. We will be using salvaged silver-plated brass. Having done a plan and a design options sheet, I am now testing basic hand tools I can take with me on the next trip and making some examples based on the design options sheet and with the hand tools.

The opening and following photos shows the examples I made today

As the following photo shows I have cut most of the metal for the workshop. 

I'm testing a wooden dapping tool, metal punch pliers, a micro eyelet setting tool, diamond file for make the flower form and a vintage jeweller's  hand held vice - see photos below.

Over the weekend I hope to complete and assemble the examples including putting the pendants on necklaces and the earrings on earwigs.

Restoration and preparation

 

The photo above shows my electric furnace heated to 650 degrees - inside of the heating chamber.

A few days ago one of my graphite crucibles ruptured during a metal melt - see photo of the base of the ruptured crucible below. 

Unfortunately the hot metal just disappeared - I was not sure where it had gone and the furnace was too hot to deal with. So I just turned it all off and walked away.

This morning I investigated the furnace and found the metal had cooled into a blob at the base of the heating chamber - see photo below. However it could not be removed because the ceramic rim was quite a bit smaller in diameter than the base of the heating chamber.

Short restoration version - I managed to unscrew the metal frame holding the ceramic rim, removed the rim itself and was able to remove the metal blob (photo below) and put the furnace back together - photo below.

I tested the furnace with a replacement crucible and poured a few stars - below.

I gave the metal blob a grind - see below - grey and shiny and interesting texture . Not quite sure what I will do with this metal form.

I also cut salvaged silver plates placemats in preparation for making olive ladles and a few cone shaped bowls.

Good to be back in the shed using the tools. 

Tools, stones and silver

 

The last couple of days has been about finishing projects (small stamping tools and metal in stones; and cutting out silver cottage forms for a workshop Fiona and I are doing next Thursday. The finished stamps and inlaid stones are seen in the opening photo.

I plan to make some small silver rustic cottage earrings. I am testing a few approaches for the prototypes. I plan to scribe windows doors etc into some; and test out some home made metal stamps on the others.

The stamps started life as 125mm iron nails - below. 

I have filed and sawn the nails into several stamps with rudimentary window, dormer window and slate texture shapes. Progress photos follow. I a later blog post I will show how these worked on silver.

In the photos below you can see I have started sawing silver plate to make several different cottage forms. The cottages will be about 9X11mm.

I'm looking forward to see how this all works out when we do our half day workshop.

What works with what?

 

My experiments with inks lead me to ask the question: what pen or pencil would I use to sketch the base image for ink paintings; and would different pens or pencil react differently to a coat of alcohol or a coat of acrylic ink.

So with Fiona's assistance I set up a test for a range of pens and pencils on translucent yupo paper: and then swiped a coating of the two inks across the test sheets. You can see how the alcohol test worked in the opening image; and how the acrylic ink worked in the image below.

You will note I drew lines and wrote the different names of the pens and pencils on both pieces of paper - prepared paper below. I also recorded whatever ink was used on each - ink puddles below.

Some observations include: alcohol ink creates a more dramatic effect; black Copic pens seem to work better under alcohol ink; alcohol ink gives quite a gentle smudged look; graphite pencil seemed to hold up better under acrylic ink; and most black pens tend to turn brown under both alcohol and acrylic ink.

Fiona and I discussed the test pieces a

The experiment with these can be seen below. Observations include: hard graphite pencils work well; black ball point stands up ok; and Sharpies can be useful for smudged effects and don't go brown. I think I will be using hard graphite pencils for my base sketches if I want a clear image or contrast.

I'm quite amazed that, with Fiona and Megan's encouragement, I have spent quite a bit of time experimenting with papers, inks, layers, pens and pencils. The good news is that I think I'm just about ready to redo some of my pieces and apply the knowledge I have gained.

Nine test pieces

As a few folk would be aware I have been experimenting with alcohol and acrylic inks to see how they might work together and on different surfaces (papers).

In this blog post I share the outcome of those experiments including the opening image that I have called - Burnt bushes - silhouette after dusk: translucent yupo 'paper'; archival ink and permanent marker sketch; acrylic ink applied over with balsa wood implement (see end of blog); and alcohol over that - again applied with balsa wood.

Moonscape - white yupo paper; alcohol inks dropped directly onto paper; ink lines and acrylic moon added when dry.

Moody Moon - translucent yupo paper; archival ink sketch; acrylic moon; and alcohol ink painted over.

Moody evening - white yupo paper: 2-3 layers of alcohol ink applied with 10mm flat brush.

Fishing poles - dark dawn - 300gsm watercolour paper: archival ink sketch; acrylic ink applied with brush; alcohol ink overlay; acrylic ink touch up; and posca pen sun.

Fishing huts - through mist and grass - white yupo paper: acrylic painting of huts, sky and foreground; alcohol ink overlay; acrylic ink overlay; grass drawn through wet acrylic ink with pencil.

Dandelion shadows -translucent yupo paper: rough archival ink sketch; and alcohol ink applied with balsa wood implement.

Silver moon in winter landscape - translucent yupo paper: archival ink sketch; acrylic ink overlay applied with wide brush; alcohol ink applied with wide brush; posca pen moon and stars.

Moon in dark starry sky - translucent yupo paper: alcohol ink base applied with wide brush; acrylic ink moon; second coat of alcohol ink; posca pen moon and stars.

Balsa wood implement - about 8-9cm wide. Fiona used this when doing huge calligraphic letters. She suggested I give it a go. I think it will become one of my things.

Quite a lot of lessons learnt. I have written notes on each piece. I will now think about which technique and sequence and paper I will adopt.