This is the last project for my Year of Repousse personal challenge.  I knew that attempting 12 projects would not be possible and my goal was to complete 6 and with this final piece, I have completed eight.

This was started as part of the FB group (Chasing & Repousse) Challenge #1 - Octopus. 

For this months project, I decided to do an altoid tin as a present for a friend.   I used a palmette which is a palm leaf design that go back to the early Greek and Egyptian civilizations. 
  
This project was completed over the course of 2.5 days.  The lining was done Thursday night, Saturday I started the repousse. Today I finished the repousse, a bit of re-lining and the texturing around the design. 

Project Name:  Tenacious Tentacle 
Material: 18 g (0.40") Sterling Silver

Related Posts:  Take that Sucker!, Disaster, Panic, Call 4 Help, Plan of Action and 2 Diversions, How to Transplant an Octopus Sucker, 
Back to the Octopus, Finishing the Octopus Tentacle

Major Points:
The design was hand drawn and figuring out how to form the suckers was a good practice point. The members of the Facebook group were wonderful in providing ideas, suggestions and support during the set backs and moving forward.  This project was completed over the course of 7 months - it sat for almost 3 months due to other priorities, but I never gave up. I knew I would finish it and holiday weekends are just the time to regain focus. 

Lessons Learned: 

• High relief cuffs are hard to bend and form!
  
• How to solder to repair.
• 18 gauge cuffs are hard to form,  anneal as needed.
• If a challenge presents itself, it is ok to step away and to let the project sit for a while until you are ready to finish it. 

Last weekend I finally got back to the tentacle and on Thursday (Christmas Day) I was able to finish over half the remaining suckers and the planishing and some of the texturing. That left only 6 more suckers to do on Friday. 

I finished up the suckers around 2pm and then removed the cuff from the pitched and cleaned it up. I then did a bit of trimming of the metal around the cuff and at 4pm the shop elf and I went to the vise with the bracelet mandrel to start the forming (which is bending).  The shop elf would hold the metal against the mandrel and I would use a nylon tool i made, to hammer the cuff down and on to the curve of the mandrel. 

TWO hours later and several annealing, the cuff was formed.  

I still had some (cuff) forming to do and some more trimming of excess metal but I decided to leave that until today. Yesterday I took a break and went wine tasting with my metal friend Lisa Kim - we both needed a day of fun. 

Today I have completed forming the cuff, the final trim of the metal, pre and final polish. 

Currently the cuff is in the ultrasonic cleaner.  I am off to take the pretty pictures and they will be in the gallery soon

Enjoy the process pictures below, as usual

You can now purchase some items made by me!

I am starting off with the items I have made over the past few years and only had for private purchases. 

I am starting with the jewelry items - Wire Wrap pendants and soon, Chains, Earrings and some bracelets

And over time I will add Vessels, Other Wonderful Items,  some cabochons I cut,  and maybe a tools I made and even some supplies I have found to hard to source (which are better for me to buy in bulk and share with you). 

Here is a link to the store. 

Earlier in the year, the FB chasing & repousse challenge was an octopus which I did not finish due to work and having a small problem that required me to perform some surgery on my piece.  

And there the piece sat, on my floor, in the pitch bowl, afterwards until this weekend.  With  the holidays about to happen I figured these days would be an excellent time to finish the piece. 

Yesterday I started the planishing of the tentacle and the and the final shaping of the sucker.  Along the way I decided that it needed another small addition so I added a sand dollar which I am currently pushing out from the back which we all know as repousse.

But along the way, while forming some of the suckers, one of the "fixed" ones popped off.  After closer inspection, there was almost no solder on the joint so when I started to use the tools on it, the joint broke off.  I then took my tools and tried to close the hole as much as possible so when I flipped the piece, to form the sand dollar, I could solder it closed and have it look like a scar from the front.

Here are some pictures from yesterday and today. 

I have formed the sand dollar so it is off to remove from the pitch...  and then to flip the metal and to then finish the detail work on the front. On Christmas day I am planing on adding the wire frame, on the back, to then cut off the excess silver. Over the following weekend the shop elf will assist me as I form the cuff.

Then of course there is the question of patina???

Over the turkey day weekend and beyond I took that road trip to Texas which I kinda mentioned here. And one of those days, two actually, I was able to do some antique hunting. I was not looking for anything special but I do like to wander and comment that stuff from my childhood is not antique but "vintage". 

Here are some items I picked up. 

A art nouveau style tray from Belgium. I don't think it even qualifies as vintage because it looks like something from the 1960. The label on the back has an address and using Google Maps and street view, there are shops there but nothing that looks like it would sell a pewter tray. 

Next I found this great wood mallet. I don't think I will use it but damn, it is big and impressive looking 

And lastly the best find was a another art nouveau item. This is a vase and it is stamped Kayserzinn 4168.

Here is some info on the manufacturing house: 
In 1862 the Dusseldorf based Kayser family, already in the tin industry, opened a new foundry in the Bockum district of Krefeld. The firm reached its maximum size in 1899 with a workforce of 400. 

The Krefeld foundry run by Jean Kayser was devoted to mass production, whereby the designs originated from the Cologne studio of Englebert Kayser.  At the world exhibitions in Paris (1900), Turin (1902), Dusseldorf and St.Louis (1904), the company enjoyed great success with its "Kayserzinn" or "Kayser pewter", a special lead-free alloy of tin and silver distinguished by its lasting gleam - success which it owed to its outstanding designers: Karl Geyer (1858-1912), Hermann Fauser(1874-1947), Karl Berghof(1881-1967) and others, but their main designer and artistic director was Hugo LEVEN (1874-1956), a name to be compared with that of Liberty's main pewter designer, Archibald KNOX. 

The decors they designed were inspired by both floral French Art Nouveau and by linear Jugendstil.  It was the Kayser company's aim, through its use of the methods of mass production, to make artistically designed, contemporary Jugenstil objects of daily use (such as candlesticks, ashtrays, lamps, beakers, vases, tea and coffee sets) accessible to a broad selection of the public. The artistic significance of Kayserzinn died with the death of Engelbert Kayser in 1911.  

Kayserzinn objects in pewter are numbered from the (fictitious) number "4000" onwards and marked with the word "Kayserzinn". All objects were marked this way, either in a circular or oval frame, or horizontally. The model number "4000" was introduced in 1894-5 and the last, number "4999" was produced in 1925. 

So I guess, based upon this information that this vase was made in the early 1900's. I have looked for more into on the model number but have not found a picture YET. I did find a book on their work and that is now on order.

I am back from my Thanksgiving break and a road trip to Texas. 

I am now going to start some new projects and even (finally) make a few items for sale in the store.  

First up, I am starting to raise (another) tumbler because I have been taught how to do it, I have done my technical drawings, have one wood stake with two different shaped ends, and a planishing hammer that I made.

While doing the raising on weekends, I am also starting a large copper logo panel for Wes over at The Firehouse Collective, who did my new logo design.

Here is an image of the logo. I see it all copper - 
There would be holes drilled in the corners so the final piece can be bolted to some wood (I see it sitting above the wood) and the corners cut in an inward semi-circle.  The background would be an arts & craft hammer (dimpled) finish so the words and flames pop out. The letters would be bright, smooth copper, and lastly I see the flames with a green patina (like you see on the statue of liberty) The flames and lettering would be raised by repousse.
 
But that has to be approved by Wes.