Experimenting with New Forms, Part 2

Having figured out the orange problem, see Part 1, I have moved on to other adaptations of the same technique. This one worked out well enough I’ve made it into a finished piece, which I’m calling “magic Orb”, as it reminds me of something from Harry Potter. Any other suggestions will be considered.

The first picture shows the styrofoam ball covered with masking tape, the line drawn and cut. When the tape is pulled off and flattened out it looks like the second picture, which also shows the cutouts of brass. This time it’s two pieces, so I can use a stake on the inside to refine the form. I decided I liked the appearance when the metal overlaps at the edge as it goes around. This makes a strong form that can be soldered. Overlapping created some geometry problems that I had to deal with, some extra hammering to lengthen the strip incrementally to allow for the thickness of the metal. The third picture shows the larger part all soldered, ready for the end piece. The end piece I had ready to go turned out to be much too small and shaped all wrong, so I had to make a new one, see the fourth picture. The fifth picture shows the end piece in place ready for soldering.

The finished piece. The stand was modelled after a piece I had sitting on my shelf for about seven years, just a little experiment that never had gone anywhere, suddenly brought to life. The “orb” has a 1″ steel ball inside to give it a little extra magic. The whole thing is 7″ tall.

Tagged as: brass, experiment, form, hammer-formed, handcrafted, metal art, metal craft, metalsmith, metalsmithing, sculpture, shelbyvision, steve shelby