Blogging for those of us who aspire to be a silversmith

OMG!

My husband has reminded me that it was one year ago that I took my first silver class. Actually the first class was in January of 2009. This class was learning to solder and we made a simple bracelet with o-rings that we formed into hearts.

BUT it was in February that I took the class where I learned to make a silver mounted cab in a pendant. And from there it was no looking back.

I have saved most of the receipts from my purchases of silver, tools, equipment, classes, and such though I have not added them up and right now I don’t want to know how much I have spent. One day when I am famous (ha!) and I need to insure the building I own with my studio and gallery, then I shall add it up.

In the mean time [today] I started to build my new website - yes I am going to start selling on-line.

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Actually I think it might be more Art Nouveau  but I will let you decided.

This tray was requested by Elisa of Scotland a few weeks ago. She wanted another tray to put her bling in, when she is washing dishes. Personally I don’t think a person of her lineage should be doing dishes but maybe times are tough for her highness too.

Hmm, could this be why I have not gotten my Royal Warrant yet either? Maybe she let the calligrapher go?

The tray was “raised” about 4 weeks ago and then I was trying to finish the shape when I smashed my thumb - and thus all work stopped on this. The thumb is all healed now and even though the tray is not symmetrical and one wall is more vertical than the other, I got started on the chasing & repousse last week.

It took four attempts to get the curly-q’s to the point where I was happy. I then thickened the lines, lined the design and then flipped the tray so I could start the repousse from the back. The tray is longer than the diameter of my pitch bowl and thus I had to fill the tray and build a platform of pitch to place the tray on.

[I have just bought a 8" diam shallow pitch pot]

Today I finish the tray, trimmed the walls, filed out the rough spots and it is now being cleaned. I will probably mail it to Elisa sometime next week. Maybe I will send some home grown lemons too (so they don’t get scurvy this winter)

I am very happy with the results and I am thinking that “trinket trays” might be a product line - yes I am almost to the point where I want to make things to sell!

For more pictures visit the Metals 2010 page over at Kernology.

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I don’t know how I missed it but I never posted this.  I think that when I smashed my thumb my brain went numb too!

But here it is now.

This is my Yin-Yang Medal. I decided to do this at the beginning of January as a good project for repousse. This is part of what I call my positive/negative space series - the other and only piece so far is the swirl bowl.

This was a good exercise as I had to use clay to make impressions of each side so I could make sure they were the same depth and shape.

There are just a few more pictures in the Kernology Metals 2010 gallery

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I was all set to work on my bowl this morning when over our coffee I was told “Take A Day OFF!!

I goofed off a bit of the morning but at around noon I went back to the copper and stakes but holding the copper with my right hand (with the hurt thumb) was hard. So I gave up.

Sorry folks -the Quarterback in on the injured list and the game has been forfeited. I

Even though I am not posting the pictures of the bowl I started yesterday, there are some great bowls over on the flicker group put up by Wendy at Hammermarks

My wonton cup and my mini-tear drop are my quarter-final entries.

L.

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For the past week or more I  have been pondering my Super Bowl Challenge 2010 designed. While taking a breather from do analysis at work or while driving home, the ideas have been running through the brain.

One night this week, while watching the TV, I found my self playing with paper. I am folding, curving, cutting and I came up with a design that fits into my current thread of learning - what happens with different shapes of copper when you raise them.

I took my folded paper into my husbands office and asked him what the thought. We both saw a flower or a origami crane depending on how you looked at it. I was happy with it and now had my design idea.

I was going to raise a triangular piece of copper. I would use a equilateral triangle. This type of triangle is one where each angle is 60 degrees; as all the angles in a triangle always add up to 180 degrees. Trust me on this if you don’t remember your geometry lessons.  Using an equilateral triangle also meant that all sides would be the same length.  I had not decided if I would have a flat or a rounded bottom. That would happen as I was working with the copper.

This morning I was up at 8 am and tracing my triangle on the copper. Because of the size of my copper sheet I had to first cut it down to size. The length of each side of the triangle was about 6.25 inches. Several saw blades later, it was cut out.

Time to set up the T-stake, get the hammers and anneal the copper.   It was now around noon and I was presented with a dish of scrambled eggs for lunch! (He is such a sweetie!)

I traced a small circle in the middle and took out my sinking hammer and sandbag and sunk the center. The bottom would be round.  Over the next two hours I was able to do two sets of raising and annealing.

Before I started the third set of raising, I felt the bottom needed some bouging. I took out a 2.5″ diameter wood ball I have and……

WHAM - the blood was everywhere.  I had hit my right thumb and it did not hurt YET. I have no idea where my mind had gone cause I was certain that my fingers were not on the top of the copper. But some how that leather mallet with a lead insert came down, right on the edge of the nail and it pinched the skin at the tip of the finger.  HELP!!.. HELP!!  As I wrapped my thumb in a paper towel and went in to the kitchen.  Out came the hydrogen peroxide, Band-Aids, Neosporin, and soap. Even washing it hurt ;=(((

So at half time the Quarterback is out with injuries and is sitting on the bench with a large dram of Scotch [It does have medicinal qualities].   I think tomorrow I will be able to finish it and then I will post my pictures.

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On Saturday night I felt that I had to get back into the garage and raise some more copper. I could not do this in my office/studio as I still had some stuff on the floor. But since the forecast for Sunday was going to be warm, I could open the garage door and enjoy the weather too.

Sunday morning I pulled out a sheet of 18 gauge copper and on one edge there was a odd rectangle sticking out as a result of cutting off some copper from each other end. The piece was about 3″ wide by 4″ long and maybe two of the corners were close to 90 degrees and one end was a tad wider than the other. I was about to saw out a circle and decided not to. I was going to work with it odd square that it was.

From my studio I grabbed my newest T-stake, the thinner raising hammer, the planishing hammer and the copper and into the garage I went.

Anneal, clean,  hammer, Round one done
Anneal, clean,  hammer, round two done
Anneal, clean,  hammer, round three done
Start planishing - wait, I think I want to do a wee bit more raising
Anneal, clean,  hammer, round 4 done
NOW start the planishing.

Ohhhh! I like the hammer marks. Stop -  don’t use the planishing hammer just use the raising hammer gently. Hmm what to do on the inside?? Take the raising hammer and make some marks there too.

Now I am done!!

I filed the edges and did some polishing and on Monday night I saw Deb. She was very surprised and then stated that working with smaller vessels is hard. Hard? Difficult?  I didn’t think so. So we had a good laugh that boiled down to  - IF you don’t tell me these things how would I know; and then how would I know it should be hard.

I guess next time I should make sure I have a difficult time ;=) and of course over at kernology there are more pictures.

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It took a week but I am back up and running.

During the week I broke down the sewing table and just piled everything on the floor. I was able to then fold up the sewing table and roll it over to another wall. I then had to clean the floor as it had not been done in a while.

Here is a picture before… and yes I made all those mini-quilts hanging on the walls (there is a page of some of my quilts over on Kernology - I have made lots more but have not posted those pictures yet)

oh and I thought you would like to see how I am using a canvas shoe hanger for storing my hammers.

And while this what going on, my sweetie was assembling the workbench ….

Then we took it upstairs in sections and did the final assembly.  We had some issues with the drawers when we first put them in but now they glide very smoothly.

Here is the final set up. Notice the folded up sewing table on the right.

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Oh, workbench -
Oh, workbench!
My new love and joy

Thats all I have so far and my *new* workbench is still un-assembled, in its box, in the living room (which does not have any furniture but that is another story).

I have been pondering for months about what type of workbench to get. As I wrote in April, I am using my sewing table as a work bench. It has it limitations - It is deep but not long; the table surface gives since it is not thick and heavy; I have a hole, covered with a board, where my sewing machine would go; and more.

Which is why I have been pondering getting a real workbench.

Of course we all lust after that double wide oak workbench from Otto Frei and then there is Valerie Heck who got a special handmade workbench from her grandfather (yes, we are all jealous of you Valerie, and if you go away, when you get home, that bench may be gone!)

We have a small workbench out in the garage that I have been using for my silversmithing - sinking, raising and annealing mostly, but with it being so cold I have not done anything all week out there. My husband even said I could get a basic bench when they are on sale and since I have used a workbench at some studios where I take classes I knew what size I might want but I honestly felt that the classic jewelers workbench I could afford was not big enough - and I mean big as in LONG.

I want a bench where I can have my stake holder at one end and a good vise at the other. In between I need a catch tray under the table top and some drawers. On top I want room for my pickle pot and room for the soldering and more so I am not always setting up and breaking down.

A few weeks ago I was at the Woodworking store in San Diego, I was buying some wooden balls for bouging. They had a great workbench there and it was long - a full 72″ in length and 24″ deep and the top was thick. I was in love!  Unfortunately it was over $500 - even more than I would pay for a basic jewelers workbench. I almost bought it but did not, my quest would continue.

THEN last week I was at Harbor Freight in Escondido and saw this workbench -  It was very similar to the one at the Woodworking store. Yes, I know, it is a knock off from China but it had big dimensions - 60″ long by 20″ deep with 4 drawers (which the other one did not have). This one was just under $200. I went home, signed up for the sale coupons by email [they have a sale almost every week - trust me]. I was waiting for a 15% off any non-sale item.

That coupon appeared in my email in-box yesterday! And where do you think we went today? And this is why I have an unassembled workbench in the living room.

I am now making space in my office/workspace for it.  I hope to do the assembly next weekend - I will post pictures then.

OH - WORKBENCH!!!!!!

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The swirl bowl is done, I took it out of the vibra-ora-tori-um this morning. It is amazing!

I did send (another) email to NMC asking about how to finish the inside surface. I thought I would texture it similar to the outside, and she responded that it would be a good idea. BUT once I sat down to do it, I changed my mind. You see, while I was working on the bowl, I came to the realization I that I am intrigued by positive and negative space and I figured the texture on the inside - on the actual bowl surface, not the swirl, would complement the outside which I had textured.

I did decide to planish the bowl surface but not planish the swirl. This, I hoped, would make the bowl surface shinny on the inside, but ‘matt’ on the outside (since it had been textured). Then the swirl on the outside, having been planished would also be shinny - thus illustrating the positive and negative space.   (i should have textured the swirl on the inside but did not.)

I am now going to let the bowl develop a natural patina, which will take time and while this happens I am hoping to keep the outside swirl and the bowl surface on the inside shinny to emphasize the positive and negative space

In linear time, it took three weeks to do this - Of course there was the day job, sleeping, eating, and the actual repousse in there as well, it just illustrates that doing repousse takes time.

As for actual time here I estimate that I put in almost 30 hours of ‘tapping time’. This does not include the 3 hours it took to make the bowl nor does it include the time for the pitch to cool and it does not include the time the bowl was in the pickle pot.

Below is a picture of the swirl bowl, all polished and pretty. Once again head over to Kernology to see the final pictures.

For reference, the bowl is 2.25″ in diameter and 1″ deep and it is in a 4″ square tile, on our kitchen counter - so you can see how small the bowl is!

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