I finished the FOURTH Sea Urchin this morning. This is the last one in the BIG commission I was given back in May when I sold my first one and basically this is the majority of my work since then. Yes I squeezed in a cuff or two and a few workshops - given and taken but this has consumed my free time around all of them.  I promised I would get them ALL delivered before Thanksgiving as they are to be holiday presents; so thankfully I have met that promise and then some. 

Follow this link to see the other posts concerning the Sea Urchin series.

This sea urchin is an EXTRA LARGE where as the first and third were small and the second was medium/large.  I started with a 7" diameter 18g copper disk which was raised. I had to bring in the walls a bit or else it would not fit IN the pitch bowl. YES, IN IT. I removed most of the pitch from the bowl so I could literally get the shell into the bowl and then back fill around it. This allowed me to do all the repousse without having to remove and reposition it as I worked my way round the inside.  I finished the chasing last weekend and then I had to raise the edge more to roll it under. I then applied a Liberty Green patina to give it that "long under the sea" look. 

​Enjoy the process pictures. 

By now, I hope, you have seen my two articles in the November issue of Art Jewelry Magazine. 
And if NOT here is a picture of the cover so you can go get it . 

And the second article is a supplement to the first and it is oriented to getting beginners started; explaining tools, hammers, pitch bowls and pitch. My editor for the article suggested we split the original into two and since she supplied some of the equipment foe row pictures, she also gets credit for it. This article starts on page 68, right after the project article.

As part of my visit to Nechamkin Silver Studio, two weeks ago, I spent 3 days working on low-relief chasing and repousse. 
This is a style that Liza is very proficient at and which I want to do on my teapot. I started to learn this style last year when I was at the studio and this session was to move my skills along. 

I like low-relief chasing & repousse yet I found it frustrating; I felt like a beginner - AGAIN. I knew what to do but the habits of "regular" and "high" kept wanting to take over and as a result, a couple of times I had to go back and push areas down or out as I had move them too far.

I will not finish the piece you see in the mini-movie below. I am going to start it again so when I do finish it I have my original and a completed piece which, I hope, will look much much better. 

​As usual, watch and enjoy!

Two weeks ago I was Nechamkin Silver Studio to start what I consider to be an essential project for silversmiths. I am going to say it is a must on the silversmith's "bucket list"  - THE TEAPOT.  

Note: we are talking traditional silversmith, not a present day silversmith who makes jewelry out of silver.  A traditional silversmith how makes hollowware such as bowls and other vessels, trays, dishes, cutlery; and other functional items.

Making a teapot has been on my list of things to learn and make since I started on this path over 5 years ago. Actually it was on my list since I was a little kid and read about silversmiths and now I am finally starting the project.

I have read as many books as I can get my hands on about raising and the various parts of the teapot - the body, the spout, the handle, the lid and the feet or support on the bottom. Then there is the making of the parts - the raising, sinking soldering, making patterns and more. BUT until you start planning and making one, the concept of how much time and effort it takes starts to sink in (yeah, that's a metal pun) and unless you have someone to guide in mentor you, the teapot can be an exceptional failure. 

That brings us to earlier this year when Liza Nechamkin and I started to plan this project which will take many visits to her studio and a lot of homework on my part afterwards to either practice what I learned in each studio visit or to move the project along. 

Which brings us to two weeks ago, which was the first session - Making the body of the teapot.  Way back when, many teapots had raised bodies but raising a body can take time and can be tea-dious (see another pun) and so the body of this teapot will be seamed.     The best seam for long tubes is lapped and keyed which is what I learned to do on the first day of my visit along with forming the sheet into the tube and wiring it for soldering.  On the second day I soldered the tube with hard and I mean HARD solder.  Trust me hard solder does not like to flow and getting a 6" long seam soldered is difficult - imagine that easy solder flows like butter when melted; then hard solder flows like frozen cheese!  Plus the tube started out as 12" long and is 18g (0.04") thick which requires massive amounts of heat to just bring it up to temperature and THEN you have to solder it with hard solder.    

But before I soldered the silver tube, I made a practice tube out of copper with the lapped and keyed seam so I had twice the practice of doing it all including the soldering. 

The soldering was done in three phases - tacking it, the soldering and then the fixing of areas where the solder did not flow or did not flow enough.  The entire process was nerve wracking to say the least but I did it with Liz's wonderful instruction.

Now I have a massive tube of silver on my workbench.  Next time we will clean up the solder and planish the seam and THEN we will raise the top and bottom in.  Until that next session, which will be sometime next year, I will be practicing making lapped and keyed seam and soldering the seams closed.  Hmm, tricket boxes?

Here is a video of the process, enjoy. 

As when learning anything, learning  chasing and repoussé, has a progression of skills such as the basics of getting the design on the metal;  learning how to create volume and definition; adding details;  and then saying you are done "LEARNING" - and now you just DO IT.

As time and your experience progress, you will either strive to advance your skills OR be content where you are, with your skills.

l knew there was more to learn... I always feel there is more to learn.

For me, I have spent this year working to push my skill set to a new level.  One might not consider it a skill but adding those fine details that make a piece POP and how to do it was what I was hoping to accomplish. It is one thing to make practice pieces and struggle with choosing the right tool to make hair look real or pushing up, down, left and over with the curl of a leaf only to have it crack. It can be frustrating knowing what you want to do but never quite getting it.

I decided to short cut the frustration and take some lessons to teach me HOW TO SEE what I wanted to do. The instructors were teaching me flowers and details and textures but I was learning to see how to get there. And with so many of the classes I take it is not the project but a process and technique I can walk away with. 

Earlier in the year I went to Davide Bigazzi (my Dogwood Flower cuff) and this past week I was with Liza Nechamkin who does some amazing low-relief chasing & repousse and fine detail work.

But Friday I went back to the MET to look at the details of pieces and what it was that added that realistic touch. This is the 4th time I have been to the MET 3 years and like advancing my skills as a Silversmith; each time I have gone and seen what I needed to learn at that time.

Here are two movies - what I saw and what I went to see.