Metalsmithing and Related Topics

It’s been way too long since my last post. It seems I’ve just been much too busy. Lately I’ve been preoccupied with this big project, which was prompted by a heads-up from Brad Severtson, who showed me a link to an exhibition for funerary art: http://www.funeria.com/.
I wanted it to be something special, and to push my skills to the limit. The bronze is much harder to work than brass or copper, but it’s beauty, I think, makes it worth the effort. I did something I have never tried before on this piece: welding. I started working with bronze about a year ago, and was told how easy it is to weld. This is the first piece on which I’ve taken advantage of that. I had to do some practice with scraps to figure out how to get the best results. Fortunately, I was able to get it done without any major goofs. It made me very nervous, because if I messed up, there would be 30-some hours of work down the drain, and I would never get myself to start the whole thing over again. The welding was done with an oxy-acetylene torch. Due to the nature of the weld joint, it turned out I didn’t need any filler metal. The welded part is the scalloped edge that joins the top to the bottom of the vessel. Here’s a detail picture:

I decided to repeat the weld texture on the rim of the lid, which I did the same way, except nothing was being joined.
I have some process pics that I took along the way, and I will be posting about the process when I get the time.

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This is the first in a series of one of a kind pieces I plan to do. It was fun because I had no specific end in mind; I had no idea when I started how it would end up. The cutout I started with (first picture) was a leftover scrap of brass that I reshaped a little to make it work. The next picture shows the first stage of forming, and then using the bending jig I made for the base of “Emergence”. I made a different clamping device for this one, shown in the close-up.

The next two pictures show successive stages of forming. It took several stages of annealing, bending in the jig, hammering on stakes, to get a shape I was happy with. The next picture shows it after the seam was mostly silver-soldered.

Then the finished piece. The wood base was a scrap of 2″ ash left over from a die I made for my “Man in the Moon” project. I had planned to use just a square piece of wood, but then I saw that arched piece and decided that was perfect. The piece swivels in the base, so it can be positioned any way you like. The finished sculpture is 14″ long.

The last picture shows that the head part is not closed up on the bottom. I chose to leave it like that for a couple reasons: it didn’t want to close up; I liked the shape that the head had at that point, and closing it up would have made it look like another tail (Which might be OK, and I might do on future ones). I also like the idea that it shows that the piece was made from sheet and not cast, and it gives it sort of a sinister look, like some depictions I’ve seen of the grim reaper.
The next ones I do I hope to make curvier, and maybe make so they don’t require a base. I have to make a different bending jig, one capable of 360 degree bends.

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After I made the base for “Emergence”, it was obvious that I had to make a horn with a similar shape. I’m not a horn player of any kind whatsoever, but I do know the principle of how it’s supposed to work. I can produce a few tortured notes on it. I would love to know if a trumpeter could actually play some simple music with it. It doesn’t really matter, though, because it’s mostly just to look at, and it was not intended to look at all like any “real” horn. Here’s an abbreviated look at how it was made:
The first picture show the cutout shape, second, the piece bent, with a little hammering, into form for silver-soldering. The third picture shows it having been silver-soldered, with the special screw clamp I made to clamp the seam of the bell where it’s out of reach for any of my regular clamps.

Next is the die I made to form the silver mouthpiece, the punches used to form it, and the silver mouthpiece, which started as a 1-1/8″ disc. The outer rim was formed around the outside of the die with a small planishing hammer. The next picture show the finished mouthpiece. The stem is made of brass sheet rolled into tube form and silver soldered. The large end was carefully worked down on the belt sander to match the taper of the bore of the horn. It has a very secure friction fit in the horn.

Finally, the finished product. It’s 18-1/2″ long x 6″ at the large end.

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This sculpture (see previous post) was a big project, so I’m breaking up the process into several parts. The base was the first part I made, and the first attempt was a failure. I did not realize that the stem portion needed to be bent into its final almost-upright position before closing up and silver-soldering the form. One very large piece of bronze wasted.

The material is 1/16″ silicon bronze, which is much more resistant to forming than the 16 gauge brass that I’m used to. I had to devise a way to bend that neck, something that could exert a great amount of force in just the right way. What I came up with is a large block of maple, carved out in the shape that I wanted to have the piece conform to. a clamping device was added to hold the piece securely. There’s a 1/2″ bolt going all the way through the block to provide the clamping force. The pictures below show how it was used. The steel rod extended out about six feet, and I had to push down on the end with all my weight to bend the metal as shown.

After bending, I hammered out the kinks with the piece still clamped in the jig. Then the piece was annealed and formed on a cone-shaped block as shown below, and on a variety of stakes. The pictures below are actually further along in the process. I had to bend, anneal, hammer-form, anneal, several times before I was able to get the desired shape.

Once the piece was closed up, it could be silver-soldered. This was done in several stages, as it is impossible to close up the entire seam all at once. It has to be closed in one place, clamped and soldered, then closed some more, clamped and soldered, and so forth. The curves in the neck were done after the piece was silver-soldered. For the larger part near the bottom I clamped the piece in in the jig and put a piece of 1″ black poly pipe over the stem, then a piece of larger steel pipe over that to do the bending. The smaller part of the neck I was able to bend by hand. In the last picture the piece is mostly done, polished up some and ready for some final planishing.

I have a spin-off in mind for this (since I went to all that trouble I’d hate to only make one): A lamp base, with a hand-blown glass shade.

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That’s what I’m calling this for now. It’s based on a quick doodle that was probably subconsciously inspired by Dr. Seuss. After it was done, I tried to figure out what it is, and it seems to be about birth, or the emergence of a seed in plant terms, since it looks mostly plant-like, but the seed, with a little imagination, looks like a baby. It’s a much larger scale than I’m used to working with, and It’s made from 1/16″ silicon bronze sheet, so my poor hands got some major abuse. Every part of it was a challenge, and I had to make some new tooling along the way. In the days to come I will post some pictures of the process. The whole thing is 21″ tall and 9″ across. The “seed” is not attached and has a large steel ball (about 2-1/2″) inside. The bowl pivots somewhat, so that the seed can rock back and forth, making the bowl move slightly along with it. I may be making a motor driven wobbly base to put this on, to make it kinetic. I have no idea yet whether it will work.

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Last year I made a brass and copper heart, and posted about it here. I said in my post that it only took two hours to make, but that must have been beginner’s luck, because when I tried that technique again, it was almost impossible to solder, because when heated, the seams tended to open up. So, even though that was an elegant design, I decided if I was going to make more than one, that I would go with something a little less frustrating. This design still takes over two hours to complete, but it’s consistently doable.
The first step is cutting out two hearts one bigger than the other, from 20 gauge sheet. I used a jewelers saw for this. The larger piece has a notch cut out at the point. The larger piece gets clamped to a hardwood form, as in the second picture, then hammered over all around, as in the third picture.

The next pictures shows the larger heart with a wire bent to the general shape so it fits inside the rim. This is to put a space between the two halves so that the solder won’t flow in and stick the two together anywhere but the seam. The wire is stainless steel, so it won’t get soldered to the brass. Next, the smaller heart, which just fits inside the rim of the larger one, is put in place, and the rim is hammered over all the way around, forming a gap-free seam. Notice in the middle picture the 1/16″ dia. rod inserted at the point of the heart. After the seam is hammered shut, this rod is replaced with a short piece of 1/16″ OD brass tube. The next picture shows the seam having been silver-soldered; notice the tiny tube at the point.

That tiny tube is for inflating the heart with compressed air. In the first of these three pictures, the heart has already been partially inflated, and it is being creased down the center with a wooden block. If this is not done, the metal will buckle in a random and aesthetically unpleasing way. The next picture shows the heart being inflated the rest of the way, using a special custom-made filler attachment. Next, the stem. a 1/8″ brass rod which has been drilled on the end, is shown being flared with a punch, so it will fit the point of the heart. The filler tube fits inside the hole in the end of the stem.

The next picture shows the stem fit to the heart, ready to silver-solder. Then the finished piece, all done. This one is all brass. After I was done with this one, I made three more, one all copper, one brass and copper and one copper and brass. The last picture shows all four. I am offering them for sale on my Etsy shop.

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Here’s a fun little event I found out about on Facebook. I thought some of you here might like to join in. The idea is to make a bowl and finish it on Super Bowl Sunday, and then upload a picture of it to the Flickr site. Here’s a link with all the information: http://hammermarks.wordpress.com/2010/01…enge-2010/. I plan to watch the game, especially it the Colts are in it, but that won’t be till evening.
I got the sudden inspiration to make a full-moon face, and instead of putting the face on the convex side, putting it on the concave side, so it serves as a bowl and a sculpture at the same time. This was a bit of a challenge, since the curve goes the wrong way, but once I got into it, it all went so well I didn’t want to stop. So, it’s about 90% done, and I’ll set it aside and finish it up at the appropriate time. The bowl is 8″ in diameter and 2″ deep.

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I have always been under the impression that silver was more meleable and ductile than brass. This seems to be the common wisdom. In fact, when people have asked me about it, they usually say something like “isn’t brass a lot harder to work than silver?”, and my reply is something like “Well, yes, but not that much”. I have a lot of experience forming brass, and little with silver, other than making small jewelery items. I recently made a larger silver piece, and I was looking foreward to the ease of forming silver after being used to brass. To my surprise, it was no easier, and I could almost believe it was a little harder, but I was using 18 gauge silver, and I’m used to 16 gauge brass, so I decided it was not a fair comparison.
Then a few days ago, I decided to make a silver “bird in flight” ornament, like the brass ones I have made and told about here. After some unsuccessful attempts with 22 gauge silver, I decided to make two, one silver and one brass, both of them 20 gauge, which is what I normally use for the brass ones. I noticed at the very first stage, where the head is punched for the first time, the silver one would not stretch as far as the brass one. When I got to the next stage, after annealing, the head on the silver one split open rather than stretching (see the picture), while the brass one stretched just fine. This is the first side-by-side comparison I’ve had, and it turns the common wisdom on it’s head.
The alloys used were cartridge brass (alloy 260) and sterling silver. I should try it with fine silver to see how it compares, although I don’t really want to spend that much money on something that is likely to fail. Do any of you out there know if fine silver is that much more malleable than sterling?

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This is a piece I made to enter in the Saul Bell Design Awards competition. One of my few forays into silver, very expensive for me, but I thought it might be worth the expense. Unfortunately it did not make the cut; I guess it’s too traditional-looking, and not really innovative in any way, which is what they want. I may enter it somewhere else if I can find an appropriate venue (any suggestions?). Following is the description from my entry.
This piece is 7 inches tall and 7 inches across at the base. It is three separate pieces which fit loosely together. The bowl and lid are sterling silver with LOS patina and satin finish, and the base is brass, finished the same way. I call it five-way because there are five different ways it can be used or displayed: (1) The lid by itself as a sculpture, (2) The bowl by itself, (3) the bowl on the stand without the lid, (4) the bowl with lid without the stand, and (5) the complete three-piece set.
My design for this set was inspired by some work I had just done previously. I had made a frog on a lotus leaf sculpture, and someone suggested that it would look nice as a lid on a dish or bowl. I had made a tall candlestick with trilateral symmetry, and one element of that was inspiration for the stand. The base of the stand, with the three tapered curving pieces are reminiscent of growing plant roots. The bowl, although I had a general idea of what it would look like did not take its final form, with the juxtaposed positive and negative forms, until it was mostly formed.
All three pieces were made from flat sheet, using raising techniques. The stand is made from three pieces of brass the lower part of each formed into a spiculum or conical tube shape, and silver soldered, then the three pieces were joined together with silver solder. The bowl and the lid are each one piece, and were formed with hammers, punches, and stakes. No pitch was used in the process.

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