copper

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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I spent more time yesterday and today working on my swirls bowl. Keeping track of which swirl I was on was hard so I resorted to using marking pens to indicate which one I had just finished. Then I would clean the ink off when I had done all three and just before I started the next round.

I did complete the repousse from the inside and most of the outside planishing and undercutting.

My quandary is what to do with the inside surface.

The bowl is a wee little thing - about 2.5 to no more than 3″ in diameter and not even 2″ in height. When you look at it, you are looking in to the interior of the bowl, the outside surface is really an after thought when looking at it.

I decided to add texture to the outside surface that was NOT the swirls to make the them stand out. I am now pondering doing the same on the inside.  This will take a day or two to percolate through my brain..

Go over to Kernology to see more pictures, there are over 20 now posted, and tell me what you would do with the inside. [Please]

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Last weekend I started another repousse project using a bowl I made.

There was some emotion in doing this - I made the bowl but what if I screwed up the chasing and repousse?

We all must take the plunge sometime.

I started with a small sketch pad of paper and drew some swirls in a circle. This was while the bowl was in the pickle pot, because I had to anneal it. After cleaning up the bowl from the pickle, using a black marker I traced out the swirls from the center bottom. It took several tries but I got the shape I wanted.

Next I had to pack the bowl with pitch so I could trace the outside of the bowl. This was a bit messy and HOT but I had laid down paper and finally on/in the pitch bowl (see picture below). Now, a week later I have finished the lining; I have removed the pitch from the inside; cleaned it up; and sunk the bowl into the pitch for working from the inside; and completed 4 rounds of work on all three swirls.

NMC was correct - “Slow is FAST” - I have been working very slowly, some nights only working on one arm of the swirl. I don’t want to mess it up and the best way to do that is to think about what I am doing and GOING SLOW!!

Today (well right now) I have removed the bowl from the pitch, so I anneal the bowl again and by tonight I should have the swirls done and the bowl back on top of the pitch so I can finish the undercutting and planishing - tomorrow.

Here is the first picture, and if you go to Kernology, (opens in a new window) I currently have 14 pictures in a slide show, and you can see the progress so far. You can also click on the picture

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I spent yesterday in Pasadena at Farrin O’Connor taking a class on Fold Forming and using a hydraulic press. The class was taught by Carl and you can see his work here to get an idea of what we were making.

I decided that my piece would use copper for the majority of the piece that way it would look ancient - that and the fact that the amount of silver sheet to make the piece would cost a lot if anything went wrong!

We started off texturing our sheets, then annealing them. Here are mine with a pit of flame patina.

After the annealing we learned to make a T-Fold you do this by folding the larger sheet over a wood dowel and after removing the down, then flattening the pocket and fold the long leaves back on themselves.

We then took a small strip of patterned metal and slid it into the T-Pocket, this is so after the hyro-press, the fold will open up and reveal the other material. Here is the piece just before I put it in to the press.

I chose a rectangular die that had a slight curve to each side of the square. Because of the fold and the inner strip, we had to press the item 3 times, with another round of  annealing before the final press. This is the result. I also pressed a single sheet for the backing. See how with the deforming, the pressure spreads open the gap and pushed out the inserted piece.

I still have to assemble the halves using some micro-bolts and add a bale.  Overall it reminds me of an ancient medallion of office from either China or Japan - where they had some very odd ones.

And here is my finished piece @4:15 pm Sunday night - this entire piece was made without any solder too.

Now, for that bit of silver wire at the top between the micro-bolts for the bale… I figured if this is MY found object.. someone might have found it before me. With a missing bolt they might have used a small twist of wire to hold the top together. So that is what I did. (I actually had a problem with a bolt and it sheared off). For the bale, I stressed some silver tubing then took some wire and balled the ends and hammered them flat and also hammered various parts of the wire too. I then drilled the holes in the flanges and twisted the wires. I bent the wires around the tubing and just pinched the wires on the underside thus with the flanged edges of the tub, the wires won’t come off.

I am now going to relax and watch Iron Chef. I just can’t figure out why this show is about cooking. Wouldn’t a show named Iron Chef be about some one who makes Iron????

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My backordered hammers arrived on Friday so I decided that Sunday would be the time to play and whale away on some copper.

So after cutting out a 4″ disc of 18g copper; my 5 hammers, the forming stakes, copper disc and I headed off to the garage at 11:00 am [Elisa says this sounds like the intro to a Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected story...]

Here are the hammers and copper on the sandbag in the garage.

I also had a small 2″ disc with me which I decided would be another small bowl with a rim, similar to the one I made at Deb’s 3 weeks ago.

After annealing, I then proceeded to start sinking and making quite a bit of noise - What Fun!  I don’t have all the forming stakes I would like, so I used the punches from the dapping block to assist in making the small bowl. To get me at the correct height, I have to stand on a large block of wood that is left over from our patio cover! [Don't laugh! but it works, and yes this is what the Aspiring Silversmith looks like with bed-head hair.]

This next picture is of the original bowl and the new one without the rim - yet. Also notice the start of a patina on the original bowl.

To make the large bowl, I used my mushroom stake - the curve on this is rather shallow but I think the bowl ended up with a really nice shape. Deb said that I hammered too close to the edge, which is true but the disc did not have a clean edge to begin with and I now think it looks like the edge on a burl-wood bowl

And finally, the two finished bowls at about 4:00 PM.  The large bowl ended up approximately 3.5″ in diameter and a tad over 1.5″ heigh

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I am now starting to work with 2 other jasper cabs that I have, which are mostly of a tan and brown nature.

I placed the two of them along side some more copper sheet like I did with the Bruneau, but this time I concluded that copper is not the best metal to use. I tried silver and it makes the stones look flat. The more I looked at the cabs I began to realize that my eyes kept returning to the brown. Then I came to the conclusion that bronze might be the best material to use, and if needed maybe a slight patina would be needed on the final piece. I have ordered some sheet which I can use not only for the mounting plate but I can take a strip to the rolling mill and make my bezel too.

All of this has made me recall a statement someone made to me quite recently.

As you might remember (or not); I have been on a search for a teacher/mentor to learn metalsmithing - forging, sinking, raising and such. I have spoken and emailed a lot of people in the past few weeks and when I discussed what I am looking to learn I stated that I am open to working in copper and bronze - as well as silver. I would even work with tin and brass if appropriate. [I also think that learning on these less expensive metals is best and considering the price of silver these day, why wouldn't you!]

Well the person in question emphatically said: I am not teaching these days and if I was, I don’t work in those metals.

I found it a bit odd at the time and I still find this odd.

Ok, so you are not teaching these days, I can move on and find someone else. Thanks for your time.

But the “not working in those metals” came across - well snobbish! How dare I even mention working in these metals! What was I thinking?

I can’t imagine that metalsmiths, who are now working in silver and gold look down their noses at these materials.

I want to believe that when learning the art, the material they first hit with a hammer was something other than silver and gold. The Silversmithing books I have even instructs the reader to use copper and lead sheet to see how metal moves!

Now that I have put this out there, well I can move on but I am curious as to what you think.

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Several months ago, I bought a beautiful Bruneau Jasper that was cabbed and polished. It was not cheap but well worth the money.  I have a very old Lapidary journal that had an article about Bruneau jaspers and how mounting them in copper enhanced the colors - and looking at the one I had bought, next to some copper sheet really did make it pop.

I knew what I had to do!

First I make some copper viking knit ‘chain’ with coiled ends. You have to have a copper chain for a copper pendant.

Then I went looking for copper bezel wire. Well that was impossible to find so I had to make my own. I was already signed up for Jay’s rolling mill class - no problem I would wait until I took it.

And I waited, and recovered from my shoulder surgery.

During this down time, I doodled some designs. And waited some more.

The rolling mill class was August 15 and a week later I was down at the club, using the small rolling mill to make my copper bezel.

During the soldering of the first bezel, I blew out the joint, my torch was too hot and the wire too thin (28 g). Back to the club to roll some more and I then got my bezel completed 26 gauge this time.

I had sawed and filed my backing in-between the bezel making. It was rectangular, it had rounded corners, I then planished it with a hammer (that was my next mistake). Because I had planished the outer area of the backing, it has stretched and warped and no matter how I sanded the bezel it would not lay on the backing with out a gap.

I thought I would be smart [i.e. STUPID] - I used some binding wire and got most of the edges to meet the backing and started to solder. WRONG, the solder just flowed out the gaps and all over the backing and then I again blew out the bezel.

This was yesterday, I was sooo angry at the copper and myself. I even considered selling the cab on and not deal with it at all. I spent the night watching stupid movies and knitting. This morning was another matter. I would just put it away for a few months, post some questions on the Orchid list and see what help I could get.

Did I put the cab away - NO! I pulled out more of the bezel wire and made a new one. I made a new backing and decided to planish it AFTER the bezel was soldered. It was ‘laurie go slow, you can do this, you can beat it at it’s own game’

I DID!!!!!!!!!!!! YES IN DEEDY I BEAT IT.

I have just finished setting the cab. I needs a bit of cleaning up but here it is.. TA DA

Terri - you asked for it and here it is on my dirty work bench (10:21 pm)

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Last week I finished the third project in the Jewelry (home course) book and once again my mind is thinking beyond the basic skill and form taught.

How? - The project was for a copper planished bangle (it is really a cuff, but that’s a minor point). So why not make it out of silver?  

OR why not do some etching, engraving or cut outs? Having read the book, several times over already, these other skills are covered in later project. And these upcomming skills are some I have not even tried yet!

I can even see a bezel set stone on the cuff.

Thus my task(s) for this weekend are to make the cuff out of silver - maybe two even, and one or two more out of copper.  Then I am going to look at my stash of cabs and do a bezel set on at least one cuff.

Of course pictures will follow!

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