17 Dec 2009

One Christmas present finished, many still to go

Further to an earlier blog about the dilemma of giving your own hand crafted gifts to family and wondering if they’re thoroughly sick of your work, or actually value the effort you’ve made higher than bought presents, I have now finished the silver bracelet I was contemplating at that time – and have another different design in progress too.

Of the two bracelets made in copper, this was the heavier one.
Please click on the photos to see better versions.

The original idea was for an open loop-in-loop bracelet in Sterling silver and I started by trying the structure in copper first, liked the results, so then made a couple of finished bracelets in copper – I find working on a specific finished project far more worthwhile as a learning exercise than just tinkering with a part-made prototype.

Both copper bracelets together, heavily antiqued.

The finished bracelet in Sterling silver –
it is the same size as the smaller copper one.

I have now pretty much finished the silver version, save for some last minute inspection and polishing. I’m very happy with the results and definitely thankful that I’d already snagged the design and honed all the measurements and shapes in copper, as silver is slightly harder to work with in some respects and what I learned earlier potentially saved some costly wasting of material.


Unfortunately it has worked out heavier than I’d hoped when finished and will be too heavy to make to sell without being hallmarked, so that is something for the future.

Now all I have to do is hope that she likes it.
9 Dec 2009

Design or serendipitous accidents?

Or . . . “today I haz mostly been working with copper”

Just depending on the combination of what needs to be done, available materials, customer commissions etc., my work tends to go in phases. Some weeks I’m perpetually soldering silver, melting blobs or wrapping loops. Other weeks, as this last one, my work has been fairly exclusively as metalsmithing copper.

An intermediate, pre-oxidising, stage of
some twisted rope necklaces I’m working on.
Please click on the photos to see a larger, sharper version.

I do love all sorts of different types of work – and I suppose that the very variety of what I end up making keeps me perpetually interested. Sometimes the therapeutic rhythm of joining rings for some of the loose chainmaille designs I do is just what is needed, other times I love to shape and form raw metal – I just love expending the energy and getting dirty hands. On another day, I love to lose myself in the still and clean work of some fine wire wrapping.

I like to make all my own raw components, that way
I get just what I want, in terms of workmanship and design.

And some days, like today, nothing hits the spot better than getting thoroughly dirty by shaping metal, hammering, soldering, pickling and oxidising – I find myself totally lost in the work and oblivious to the passage time and outside world.

I’ve tried keeping clean as I work and it’s just not possible. You need the fine control and touch that no tool can do better than your bare fingers – you need to feel the metal, you need to become intimate with every twist, turn and edge and you consequently end up thoroughly grubby. But nothing cleans dirty fingers quite as effectively as some nice soft moist fresh bread. It’s a tad alarming to get to the end of your cheese and tomato butty and realise that your hands are now thoroughly clean and moisturised.

These soldered copper rings are destined to become a bracelet,
inter-spaced with round buttons of spider web jasper.

A friend recently brought my attention to a design award that she thought might be of interest. Which whilst it was very flattering to come to mind when thinking about design, I never really think of my work as ‘designed’. It isn’t really, it largely just happens.

I perpetually have a head full of ideas waiting to take form – shapes and techniques vying for my attention – and as I work on one thing, it then sets off a whole new tangent of ideas – I always have far more ideas than I have time to work on – and every day as I learn and stretch myself, the world of possibility opens even wider. I’ve already scribbled several ideas down over breakfast this morning.

The twisted hammered ring in this pendant arose from a different idea
entirely and the curiosity to see if it would solder successfully. Which it did.

The finished and antiqued pendant, hung on belcher chain.

I often start off with an idea and then the metal takes me somewhere entirely different. Some designs end up exactly as I drew them – but more often they just don’t. The best pieces are often a serendipitous accident – sometimes an idea just doesn’t work how you’d envisioned it – either the metal doesn’t behave how you expect, it doesn’t look as nice as you’d hoped, or the proportions are wrong for what you had in mind, so it becomes something different. Sometimes that result itself opens up a whole new area of possibilities.

Twisted copper earrings that started out as a different idea entirely.

The earrings and pendant shown nearby are one such serendipitous result. I was twisting wire for some rope necklaces, as shown at the top, and in an attempt to get a twist as thick as I could, I tried twisting two strands of a heavier gauge – which wasn’t going to be suitable for the rope I wanted to make, but hammering it flat to open the twist right out gave an entirely different result than the idea I started with. My next version will combine silver and copper together and I have another sketch to work featuring twisted copper with silver nuggets. So watch this space . . .

The earrings in their raw polished copper form,
they’ve since been antiqued to match the pendant, see below.

23 Nov 2009

Inspired by an ancient design

Further to earlier blogs about the perpetual gift dilemma, I wanted to make my Mum something a bit different and unusual for her birthday. She doesn’t habitually wear much jewellery and so I settled on the idea of a brooch that she could wear on a coat or fleece, or use to fasten a scarf.

The design makes more sense when you see it at home on some chunky fabric.

The initial idea I sketched a little while ago with a nice lump of lapis lazuli I have put aside for her, mounted in Sterling silver, wasn’t going to be practical, I’d need to buy too many materials and I knew the design was at the limit of my abilities. That in itself is not a bad thing by any means – pushing myself to do things for the first time and outside my comfort zone is precisely how I’ve grown – but I hadn’t allowed myself enough time for that luxury on this occasion.

Please click on the photos to see a larger, clearer version.

As I commented in an earlier blog on the loop-in-loop chain I made in copper, that link format is an ancient design with examples 3000 years old having been found. That set me into looking at old jewellery designs and I was astonished at how contemporary some of the oldest forms still look. I suppose that just goes to prove the adage that good design is still good design – and will remain timeless.

Good design is still good design and will remain timeless.

The one design piece that really captured me was that of Roman fibula – sometimes called Toga pins – usually a T-shaped design with a bow front to accommodate a chunk of fabric where they were fastened at the shoulder and a sprung hinged pin. Many examples were made in copper or bronze with an iron pin for the hardness. Consequently, many have survived and are now a fabulously patinated green colour – but missing their pins.

The pin is sprung at the hinge to give it tension to keep it fastened

The design looked like it had potential to be re-worked and easily decorated – a good variation on my often made kilt style pin. I have a good range of gauges of copper wire in stock, so set about working a small prototype initially, then when it was evident it would work as I hoped, I set to work on a larger final version.

The ‘decoration’ of the pin was provided by 3 strands
of copper twisted together and wrapped around the bow.

For practical, domestic reasons that aren’t of interest, I ended up finishing it in rather a hurry and consequently there are a couple of aspects I would prefer to give more time and attention to. But on the whole, I’m happy with the design and how it works in practice. I’m not sure however that the time it took me to make would make it practical to make to sell. I’d like to make another one, armed with what I learned on the first one, to see if I could hone down that time significantly enough to make it affordable.

One of my favourite parts of it is the scrolled end acting as the clasp.
14 Nov 2009

Copper loop in loop bracelet – part 2

Further to my earlier post about the thought process that gave rise to the copper loop in loop bracelet featured – I decided on a finished colour for it.

I oxidised it fully black initially – I get a good solid black on copper by heating the pieces in a bowl of just boiled water to get the metal nice and warm, then drop them into a warm solution of liver of sulphur – a task I relegate myself to the garden for as it pongs something wicked. When it appears to have taken on a good tone, I take it out and rinse it, give it a good rub on some kitchen paper and repeat the process.

A copper pendant that has been oxidised, then polished back
to give an antiqued finish.
Please click to see a larger version of all of the photographs.

Pieces to be oxidised must be really clean – my habit is to tumble them just beforehand with some warm soapy water and avoid touching them with my fingers – I’ve seen pieces with flat hammered sections not take the colour properly and leave a clearly visible fingerprint, just from picking it up – the oil in your skin is enough to create a resist area. Hence I feel the hot water bath also helps get any surface grease off too. If I don’t want to fire up the tumbler, I just give them a quick scrub with a baby toothbrush in hot soapy water.

One of my copper raindrops necklaces, antiqued.

Once I had the bracelet – and several other pieces – good and black I rinsed then washed them again with the toothbrush and washing up liquid – the oxidisation process tends to leave the surface rather sooty and I aim to get all the surface blackening off initially before I decide if the colour is good as it is, or it needs something else. In the case of the bracelet, I was delighted that the silver soldering (each of the 32 links and clasp is soldered) had taken the oxidising well – I’d chosen a harder solder for this reason and it worked well. Even after some polishing, it has remained less visible than I expected.

Darkly oxidised copper earrings which have been extensively
tumbled to give rise to a glossy gunmetal finish.

If the piece can withstand it, I tend to tumble again at this point as I really like the gunmetal finish this gives the post-oxidised metal. Some pieces are left like this, others get more attention. At this point, I extensively tumbled the bracelet before I decided on the final finish. I tumbled it until the outermost surfaces were just showing the copper through.

But I decided that it was rather too dark for the style, so manually polished the proud surfaces to settle on an antiqued finish instead. So this is the final version of it, heavily antiqued (more so than I typically do) and giving a good contrast between the internal and external aspects of the link structure.