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sinking

Super Bowl Challenge 2010 @ Halftime the Quarterback is Hurt

by Laurie Jane Kern on February 6, 2010

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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Taking the Challenge

by Laurie Jane Kern on January 2, 2010

Over at Hammermarks (opens in a new window), Wendy has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged us (her readers) join her in making a super bowl, on or for Super-Bowl Sunday [That would be February 7, 2010].

I think this is a great idea, and I have decided to join in on the fun.

Now I have to think of something that challenges ME!

Should I :

Make Tear Drop 2: - I think that might be cheating; but to see if I could make another in a smaller size would be a challenge.

Sink a simple bowl: - I have done these in various sizes starting from a 1″ disk to a 5″ disk, should I go for a larger size?

Raise a bowl: I have done one simple bowl and then I did a tray (which Deb says is truely wonderful job) - maybe I could add a curve to the body mid-height

Raise a Pint:  Actually I think raising a copper pint, along the lines of a traditional glass pint, would be appropriate, then I could drink a beer or other wonderful libation out of it.  Hmmm, would I or even, could I get it certified as a true Imperial Pint???

Off to do some research on the dimensions of a pint glass. Get that beer cold and ready!

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Four Days of Fun

by Laurie Jane Kern on December 26, 2009

At this point only 3 days have gone by but with tomorrow it will be four - four wonderful days to sleep late, stay in my jammies {sorry if that is TMI!] and playing with metals.

Thursday, I started a repousse piece for a friend, which I finished yesterday. It is only the third piece I have done. The first piece, the leaf, was in the Nancy Megan Corwin workshop the weekend of December 5th and 6th. The second piece was a Trinity celtic knot - which I totally messed up.

I bought the starter set of tools from MettleWorks [ http://www.mettleworks.com] on Monday the 7th and they arrived in 3 days. So these 10 tools were all I had at my disposal.  I started a Trinity Celtic Knot and I had the lining done in one night and then over the next two nights I had most of the repousse done on the back. It fit on a 3.5″ square and sat nicely in the pitch pot. Then on Sunday the 13th, I turned it over and started the undercutting and planishing. I then [you know where this is going] I decided that I wanted the domed area of the knot a bit more angular. I SHOULD HAVE stopped and turned it back over, but did I do that noooooooo! I now have a Trinity knot that is a great example of what NOT [sorry for the pun] to do!

It was back to the drawing board for me! Which is why I started a new piece on Thursday.  I just finished cleaning it up and de-warping it.

Today I went back to a bowl I started sinking on December 12th. I grabbed the wrong gauge sheet 16 - it should have been 18! and by the time I had sawed out half the circle (6″ diameter) and gone though 4 saw blades - that was when I figured something was not correct.  Working with the thicker gauge really is harder to work with - it takes longer to anneal it, harder to hammer and form and my arms get tired sooner so I also have to take breaks more often [which is why I blogging now!].

The bowl is only halfway sunk. I have at least 2 or 3 more complete rounds to go before I even start planishing.  I figure I can get another round done today, a round or two tomorrow, Sunday. And if all goes well, next weekend I can true it up, planish it and form the handle which is a corner that I did not cut round. This corner only adds to the complexity since it prevents the shape from forming easily and then when get near it with the hammering, it curls in ward making the bowl hard to hold.

So between all the various steps - waiting for pitch to cool, waiting for metal to pickle, I have also been building out my website and I have posted lots of pictures there. Go take a look at kernology at http://www.kernology.com

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Spoon-erism’s

by Laurie Jane Kern on October 11, 2009

Spoonerisms: The terms applied to making a spoon. That’s my definition!

After much searching and talking to a lot of people, I found someone to teach me metal smithing - real metal smithing where you are hammering and moving metal!!

Mary N, who is also a member of the Palomar Gem & Mineral Club told me to contact Deb Jemmott. Mary was taking a class from her at San Diego Community College. [Mary was in my Viking Knit class at the time] - So after a few emails and quite a bit of telephone tag, not only had I spoken to Deb but we set up an all day session. Deb also sent out a call for other students, and Mary signed up too. So, yesterday we had our class, focusing on forming, forging and sinking!

OH MY GOD, IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! We arrived at 10 am and for the next 6 hours we learned how to properly select the working height, hold the hammer and then we proceeded to hammer on aluminum (as it never work hardens thus no annealing required) and Copper. We formed, dapped, annealed, Bouged, planished, and sunk metal using cross pein hammers, sinking hammers, and planishing hammers.

I was able to make a tiny - I mean small bowl with a rim and from an oval blank as spoon bowl (pictures below). Mary worked on a bowl and then started a ‘oak’ leaf bowl/dish [Mary let me know if I got it correct] which I think she is going to continue in the class at the community college.

After our session, I met the Janda, the Fair Maiden of Tran at our favorite Thai restaurant in San Marcos as it was only anther 10 minute drive from Deb’s house. We had yummy Crab Cake Panang for dinner and caught up on lots of gossip. I was home by 7:30 pm and then had to tell everything to my husband.

It was off to bet at midnight, tired and very happy.

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