| The end...is...near! |
[Apr. 27th, 2008|04:26 pm] |
Marks had to be in this week, but we get a bonus work night from the day that Shona fell down the stairs. I'm getting a B+, and I'm so thrilled with that, given my skill level. My final project is maybe 80% done - after I had assembled it, I realized some more design flaws. I'm just not good at thinking in 3D spaces, nor the construction of them. So I'm making a little wooden base for the copper base.
I'm so glad my class is over. It's just a relief and it was so many nights, a lot of stress, a lot of fatigue, a lot of things I couldn't plan for at all! I would probably take another credit-free class though, and I could see myself returning next year, since taking the class again is also a cheap way of getting studio time. We'll see. I'm going to get a microtorch some time this summer. I'll keep playing with my Dremel and see if I can go anywhere with this one my own! |
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| Almost there... |
[Apr. 17th, 2008|07:24 pm] |
The face of exhaustion is not a pretty one. There's a huge mirror to the right of the torching station and I pondered my sorry image for a moment. Behind me a more experienced student was punctuating her filing work with sighs.
In the room next door, someone was pounding away. In old movies someone always puts their hands to their heads and exclaims "The drums! The drums!". This had a similar effect on both of us. We exchanged glances and I'm sure she had the same thought as me - grab a hammer and pound away on the hammerer.
"My project isn't going so well," she said as she held the lid of the pickle pot for me. "I wanted to do a bird cage, but my teacher was like, no, don't do it."
A bird cage, really. Mine was not going so well at all. I fried one of the set of bars with the torch and melted a couple of rings. I put these aside and worked on the toggle clasp that is one of the required samples. My carelessness last night really surprised me, I had a harder time than usual polishing, couldn't concentrate on the zippee sander and was rebuked by a 3rd year student for using the steam dragon improperly. Around 7 I packed up and spent the rest of the night browsing Rio Grande catalogs. |
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| I Dream of Dremel |
[Apr. 14th, 2008|05:17 pm] |
It should have occured to me to invest in a Dremel and its many accessories earlier. I realized that polishing my final project is going to be a problem, so I bought a flexshaft for it. Then I realized I needed something to hold the tool as it would roll over and shut off! So back to Home Depot I went and bought the Dremel workstation which turned out to be a better value than just the flexshaft stand. I can use it to rotate the Dremel so I can use it as a mini polisher or as a drill press. I can't wait to try some of the carving bits, but I need a face shield and proper respirator before I try anything.
My final project is still unassembled. I can't believe I've been working on it for months and still hasn't come together! Ugh! |
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| Two more classes! |
[Apr. 9th, 2008|10:16 pm] |
But at least another two weekends in the classroom or thereabouts. I ran into a design flaw with the base of my free project. I could have soldered the hangers for the bird cage to the base, but then I would reach a point where I couldn't polish it as much as possible. It was easier to cut off the corners and round them out. Actually it wasn't easy as someone made off with the circle stencils, so I have to do the rounding at home.
We learned how to make pinbacks last week and I made my sample tonight. It's surprisingly easy! Either you can buy a professionally made stem set and solder it to the back, or you can take a piece of wire and make your own. Making your own requires drilling two holes halfway into the metal with a bit the same size as your wire. Then you solder one end of the wire into a hole. Bend the wire so that it can reach the other hole and solder it there. That took me two tries as the end kept popping out of hole. Once it has been pickled and the join is secure, snip the loop apart, leaving one end long and one end short. Curl the shorter piece into a loop - this will hold the pin. Make at least two twists in the longer piece, like a safety pin spring. Trim excess wire and file the end into a point. This kind of pinback is only good for things like sweaters - it will leave a hole in just about any other piece of clothing. |
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| Fumbling along... |
[Mar. 31st, 2008|07:01 am] |
The hardest part of my final project is done - the band that goes around the
bird cage. It was a proud moment when all the parts were soldered together
and the band gently tapped into a circle. As I slid the loops for the bars inside,
I realized that I had made a grievous error in using 1mm wire for the band. The 1.5
mm bars had too much spring and pushed too hard on the band. I popped them
back out and made new ones with 1mm wire. Sometimes metalworking requires
more math and physics than I can do or think of.
My holloware sample turned out ok, I really enjoyed punching out the copper
discs and hammering them into shape with the dapping block. There's a lot of
potential here for medallions and such. With the sample I could have filed the
edges for a better seam. But again, a lot of potential for interesting objects . |
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| Holloware Construction |
[Mar. 20th, 2008|06:50 am] |
At the beginning of September, I bought 3 dozen saw blades. I snapped the last two last week and all I could do was sigh - if only they could have held out a little longer!
We learned the basics of holloware construction yesterday. Basically it is any object where air is trapped inside, or, uh, hollow. The trick seems to be constructing it in such a way that it doesn't become a little bomb - trapped air can only be heated once. If it is re-heated and there's no little hole or notch for it to escape, it will blow apart.
We can make a box or a sphere (if we feel really ambitious), but I think my sample is going to be like the one done we went through yesterday - making a lentil bead. Basically you punch out two same sized discs using the circle cutter and hydraulic press. Then you get a tool called a dapping block with dapping punches. Pick a hole that is about the size of your disc, along with a punch that is smaller than the hole. Centre it, and hammer away! In theory one should be able to make little miniature bowls this way. Emery the ends flat for a good seem and solder all around.
I don't have any pictures of my final project yet. Right now it's an ambiguous pile of pieces. I also forgot the jump rings I was going to solder on the coffee table, so that didn't get done last night. Shona suggested a great fix for a problem with the letters that I was having. I couldn't cut the letters as perfectly as I would like, and the effect would be ruined if they were not perfect, so she found me a box of letter punches. This worked so much better, even though the letters are 5mm high. I punched a variety of them in a circle on the base and the effect was very pleasing. |
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| The Minotaur |
[Mar. 14th, 2008|03:49 pm] |
Something that is not horse shaped this time :-)
March 14, 2008 ::: Acrylic ::: 5x6"
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| Re-work, re-work, re-work |
[Mar. 9th, 2008|11:32 am] |
I'm on the third version of my task list for our free project, taking out the things that will take too much time, such as sawing letters out of copper. I really do not have the sawing skill to cut them out as perfectly as I would like, so that gets crossed off the list. A little math made me realize that soldering 4.71" of links together would also be a big endeavour. I'm also less likely to be spending time in the classroom with the arrival of spring (yay!) and an upcoming dental crown, wedding and Breyer Fun Day at a toy store :-) |
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| Horses of courses :-) |
[Mar. 8th, 2008|11:11 am] |
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| Sterling Silver Necklace |
[Mar. 2nd, 2008|03:14 pm] |
Two hours in the polisher did wonders for it!
February 27, 2008 ::: Sterling Silver ::: ~18"
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[Feb. 28th, 2008|06:40 am] |
Last night was a really, really good class. It was mostly a work night. The senior student, who has taken this class before, helped me with the polishing tumber. It seems like an easy process, but there are many steps to remember, such as not losing any of the polishing shot and making sure the cover and inside of the lid are dry so that it will seal properly. It was mostly a work night, and I discussed my idea with Shona. This project may be a little more ambitious than the time left allows, so I think I'm going to focus on the silver bird cage part the most, which means I have to order more silver. 50 grams of silver just barely covered my necklace :S
Our necklaces were due last night and everyone else's seemed more creative than mine, but I got some very nice compliments on it. The senior student had three pieces, two of them made with itty bitty jump rings about 4-5 mm wide. Oh, it was beautiful, two rings were connected to one ring and connected together they made a lovely flowing pattern. Another classmate makes her own beads, and incorporated some purple lentils into a simple chain design. Every piece was so unique, and even the simplest pieces had wonderful qualities, such as another woman who was a little insecure about her design, but the piece had such a nice weight to that was also attractive. |
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| Mr. Jill ACEO |
[Feb. 25th, 2008|09:17 pm] |
I liked this enough to spotlight it here. My necklace didn't get into the polisher this weekend as we visited my MIL who lives two hours away. Le sigh!
Mr. Jill ACEO by ~calzephyr on deviantART
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| Forging ingots |
[Feb. 20th, 2008|09:57 pm] |
One of the nice things about working with pure metals is that they can be remilled, unlike plated pot metals. Sterling silver, brass and bronze are ideal for melting down and pouring into molds to make ingots. After watching the huge amount of flame and co-ordination required, I'm glad this one isn't on the list of samples!
Once the ingot is made, it can be cold forged into a point with different hammers for drawing wire using the drawing machine, which looks like some medieval torture device.
Oh, and hallelujah, I finished my necklace. Just over half the class (now down to 12 students) was present, so there was plenty of torch time for everyone. Shona gave me the thumbs up, so now I can pre-polish with Palmolive and toss it in the tumbler on Saturday. Woo! |
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| Free project |
[Feb. 17th, 2008|03:32 pm] |
The final project for my class is a free project. We have to incorporate at least three skills that we learned over the class and provide drawings and a task list. I think the task list part would have been better introduced at the beginning of class, but my project at least is going to be quite involved. ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mrs_dragon would probably love doing this project - I'm going to have to put a lot of effort into the technical drawings. Before I could do that though, I really need to build the wood cage part of it. Sometimes I find things on paper don't always translate well, and the whole piece revolves around this wood cage. |
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| So close, yet so far away |
[Feb. 13th, 2008|10:21 pm] |
It hurts to be just a couple of links away from finishing my necklace. I just want to get the pre-polish over and toss that baby into the tumbler! I was very mindful of not soldering the wrong rings to each other, and in fact, it seemed the universe was on my side tonight. One jump ring refused to solder together, and then I realized it was the wrong way. I also pushed around a little piece of solid solder and it skipped all over the brick. One last push resulted in it flipping right into the gap of the jump ring. Perfect! What a once in a lifetime thing.
We learned two new skills tonight, married metals and sweat soldering. Married metals is similar to marquetry, or artwork made from different pieces of joined wood. I can't say I'm too enthusiastic about married metals since it involves a lot of precision. Each half has to match perfectly, which requires some filing and mindfulness of the different properties of different metals. Soldering the halves together looked quite tricky too.
Sweat soldering could be really useful. Basically you place solder on side, heat the piece, place the other side on top, and heat around it to melt the solder completely. This also looks quite tricky - I'll find out when I make the sample. |
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| Necklace so far... |
[Feb. 9th, 2008|07:18 pm] |
This week's class was cancelled, which I found out when I got there :\ It was kind of sucky because we were supposed to learn the mysteries of "married metals" and I was hoping to run my new necklace design by the teacher. The pic of what I propose is behind the cut, although nothing has been soldered yet.
My left eye is still twitching, just not as much or as bad as before, but I still wish it would quit it.
( Read more... ) |
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| Make Way for Thing A Day! |
[Feb. 1st, 2008|05:43 pm] |
I caught wind of this just in time to register. It's like an artsy NaNoWriMo. Don't worry, I won't be spamming the f-list every day - you can see my posts on the Thing A Day blog or Flickr.
Alas, my necklace will not be going into the polisher this weekend. I decided to do normal people things instead like getting a haircut, spending time with my family and taking my overdue books back to the library. I was asked to consider reconceptualize part of my necklace, so I have to figure that out. I don't think I'll take another night studio class if I can help it...there are some things I can hear at 9am and be OK with, but that I can't hear at 9pm after a full day of work :-P The unvarnished truth always sucks at the time, but it helps in the long run. |
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| It's all coming together |
[Jan. 27th, 2008|05:19 pm] |
I just want to do nothing but sit here and bask in the warm glow of the laptop and drink this big mug of green tea. I can't see anything outside, it's foggy and snowing. It's so good to be home after four hours in the classroom today! Man, I'm going to have no sensitivity left in my fingertips.
Everything was just motoring along so well, except for the odd jump ring that didn't solder here and there. I made the clasp today as well. I just need to figure out how the front of the necklace is going to work. I have some lampwork beads that I want to use, but I just couldn't envision how they were going to fit without the rest of the necklace made.
I can probably finish and polish on Wednesday, fingers crossed! I have a few soldering bumps to file off and make a couple of iffy links flush. There are a couple of pre-polish as well. One of them is to take a steel brush dipped in Palmolive to burnish the links. This really brightened things up and I was very impressed, as the links were so yellow from being in the pickle. The other is to take a pair of rubber gloves and massage the links for a few hours by hand!
( Peekture ) |
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| Not a good soldering day |
[Jan. 23rd, 2008|10:27 pm] |
Some days are just not meant to be, and this was one of them. On top of work and everything else, my left eye would not, and still has not, stop twitching. Then I was dropping everything and breaking my fingernails. I gave up soldering for the evening after about 10 links and made the rest of the medium sized links instead.
We learned how to make twisted wire effortlessly with the Foredom which impressed everyone. It can be done by hand as well, but it's not so even or quick. Maybe I should get a flex shaft for my Dremel...Shona called it a "cheezy" technique, but you know, some people like cheezy effects.
We also learned how to polish chains. Polishing chains with the big scary polisher is a no-no, and is cause to be expelled because of the danger. Instead there's a giant tumbler in the lab. It can hold up to four tumblers and has three speeds! Each tumbler is filled with steel shot that can become rusted and damage metal rather than polishing it. Shona put a few sample items in and after three hours we were oohing and aahing at the result. I can't wait to polish my chain...the senior student in our class says that it fixes a lot of mistakes :-) |
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| A good soldering day |
[Jan. 20th, 2008|04:52 pm] |
Man, I'm all sore and bent from soldering for three and a half hours. I had to call my husband to pick me up because my back felt like it was 100 years old. The torch stations are on regular tables, and as the saying goes, tables are for sitting, not standing. I *could* sit and solder, but I'm more comfortable standing.
I soldered 48 rings today, which is absolutely amazing. I could have done the last bunch, but my eyes were seriously going kooky. Plus I cut my finger and burnt my thumb - when will I learn not to touch hot metal! I'll definitely have to bring my glasses next time. Soldering on sterling silver is harder than brass because, well, the solder is silver as well and there's no contrast. Even when I thought I had soldered successfully, a few minutes in the pickle to eat away the flux showed that I had missed the gap. Only a couple of rings became destined for the dud pile, which also made me happy.
( More lip flappery and a picture ) |
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tired
accomplished