Before I tell you about the last part of the second assignment I want to share that the class was finally given their grades for the first module - and I received a 125 pts out of 100 because I did extra work that was for the advanced students and I am an *Intermediate* student. YIPEEEEE

Now on to this this assignment. We finally took our waxes, put them in investment plaster. For doing the plaster, everyone helped each other mix, pour, vacuum and clean up the casting area. We did this last Tuesday and the lab assistance took care of the wax burn out on Wednesday.  The class as a whole, on Thursday, helped each other and assisted the teacher in the casting process. There were two of us doing sterling silver and I was the only one also doing gold (18K) so we went last because the crucible had to be changed out.   After each casting, again we helped each other remove the cast by cooling the investment container and removing the paster from the container and our pieces. And of course the casting area was a mess so we had a lot to clean up and put away.

Then starting Friday, over the weekend, and on Monday, I removed the sprues by sawing them off and then grinding down the button joint left behind. After that it was grind/sand/polish/patina, and set the stones.  

The first pictures show the teacher demo-ing the casting process. Then the casting of my pieces. I worked on my gold ring first and the meteorite ring and earrings last. 

The assignment was due yesterday and so many students were NOT finished, they have until Tuesday to finish and for me, I get to start on the next module, more on that in the next post(s)

The second, of three, project for Intermediate Metals is about lost wax casting and a continuation of stone settings. 
For the stone settings we are to do a tube or a flush setting. I have done tube settings before but again, I did both. The first pictures are of my flush settings in an eight gauge hunk of copper with 3 mm CZs. The tube setting is still at school so I dont have a picture of it.

The major part of this project is the wax carving. We have been tasked with carving a ring and another "object" and at least one will have a stone setting. 

I decided, for my ring, to make a big honk'n one that looks like a meteorite. The other object will actually be a pair of meteor earrings and each will have a tube set 5 mm peridot because sometimes they, and other gem stones, are found in meteorites.  

I first sliced a piece of wax of the block we were given and then went at it with various sized burrs to make the divots and holes. Next was the ring block. I used a wax ring sizer to make the hole just slightly smaller than my middle finger; this is so I can get a good fit during the refinement stage. Next up were those burrs to make the surface look like a hunk of meteorite. I even put divots on the bottom of the band and inside.  Before we put the waxes in the investment medium I will gently go over the waxes with a butane torch to give the surfaces a more "melted upon atmospheric entry" look 

Lastly is my bonus round. I really wanted to carve a ring that would be made from the gold from both of our (the Shop Elf's and mine) original wedding bands.  But the teacher felt that the two pieces for the project should be related and the gold ring can be a bonus project. After caving the band and casting it I will flush set three small round faceted topaz in the band. Two will be Imperial, brown, topaz - for our birthdays and then set in between the two will be a London Blue topaz. This will be for our wedding and the engagement ring that Erich gave me was a blue topaz.

Next week I will attach the sprues and then it's Spring Break. When school resumes the class will cast their pieces and finish them.

The last part of Module 1 was to make a brooch with a set stone and a pin back - building upon the two prior experiences.

We started by sketching and I had already gone through my stone collection and selected a large trillion cut cabochon of Mookaite Jasper, from Australia, that I had bought at the Tuscon show almost 10 years ago.  I also have a collection of deer bones - vertebra, jaws with teeth, scapula, tibia, fibula, and skulls with and without antlers which I have found in the woods (don't worry they were picked clean by the vultures and I washed them when I got home).

I sketched a large piece with the stone in a bezel setting with an pierced back, a vertebra would be prong set over it and I would place silver beads on wire around it all. I planned (note the tense) on using Shibuichi I had cast and rolled a long time ago. 

I cut out the back plate, made the bezel and cut the bead wires. Then I went to solder it all together and that's where it went wrong. The bezel setting soldered to the plate fine but those damn wires would not solder and then 2 broke off at the joint and I melted the bezel. FRACK.  I gave up as it was a Sunday and I did not want to do this all over plus I did not have more shibuichi. I emailed the teacher and said we needed to talk on Tuesday before class. 

On Monday, before my appointment, I selected a few other stones I liked and wanted to work with and did a quick layout of them. On Tuesday, during the meeting, the teacher and I discussed next steps and he liked my idea of NOT doing the same piece again but doing something else that was a new design.

I chose a large cab or Larimar from the Dominican Republic, Opalized Dendrite Agate from Wyoming, and a small Black Opal from Australia - again all purchased during the Tucson Gem & Mineral show, oh and a small torch fired enamel bead, on copper, that I made. I would put a pin back on the Larimar and join everything together with links, ending with the bead. I started on Friday and had all the components made by Sunday and attached the pin back. On Monday I polished all the settings and set the stones then added the pin wire.  I was ready to turn it in on Tuesday to find out that since everyone else was sooooooooo far behind, we were given a week's extension! I used the free time to make two more fish pins.

I am glad the first piece had issues because I like the second piece more

The second part of this unit is to make a brooch with a set stone and pin back.
This week we had a demonstration on making pin backs - using draw plates to get the tubing the right size for a string steel wire, cutting two pieces of tube to hold the pin wire, bending the wire and sharpening it, making the catch and soldering it all in place.

I decided to make a sample pin, for me, so I could practice the process before actually doing it on the brooch I am making.  Let me tell you cutting tiny tubing to 3mm and 6mm is not fun because if you are not careful it will fall on the floor and you will NEVER EVER FIND IT!!! 

For my pin, I decided to us an impression die I have of a small fish. I pressed into 18 gauge copper and cut out an oval. Then polished it to about 600 grit. I did not do a high shine polish because some texture enhanced the fish because, I super heated the copper and quenched it very fast to get the Red, Copper II Oxide on the front face. I then had to use a coarse grit spider wheel to remove the oxide on the brooch back, around the fish but NOT the fish.  I then soldered the catch and the pin tubes onto the brooch back, bent and set the wire and TA-DA I have a new pin to put on my winter hat.
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The first unit in Intermediate metals is to make a brooch with at least one set cabochon and other items and a custom pinback. But before we do that we had 3 demonstrations on Tab, Bezel, and Prong settings. Then we were to make sample pieces using a tab and either a bezel or prong settings. Of course I did all three since doing so results in 10 extra credits. I did the tab setting last Friday and started on the prong setting using an Ammonite that I got at the Tucson gem show eons ago. I finished the shaping the frame and then soldering it closed and added the prongs and ring on Monday. Today I finished setting the Ammonite and did the bezel set stone.  It is due Tuesday.

Now I can start the layout of the brooch, I did the design yesterday. 

The semester ended, for me on December 8. I had both of my *finals* that day. 
First up was Beginning Metals where I presented my spinner ring. The brief was to create something that represented a social norm dysfunction and oh, it also had to have a hollow component. I decided to make a artsy-fartsy ring that was also a fidget/spinner. A person could wear the ring when at work or out an event and play with it and (hopefully) not get looked at for playing with a spinner *toy*.    I drew my prototype in Rhino as an personal challenge.  Then I set out to make it. Even though I knew I could do make it during class time since we had over 3 weeks to work on it, I did most of the work at home, in my studio because I found the noise of the class distracting when I really needed to focus - such as when soldering. What I did in class what sawing, filing, and some prototyping.   I received an A in the class and here is a picture of the ring

The next project in Beginning Metal is to use mixed materials which mean metal and something that's NOT (non-ferrous?) metal - plastic, leather, wood, fabric, or food perhaps???? 

Which means there has to be rivets involved. I have not done any riveting in oh maybe 15+ years. Let me correct that, I have riveted but I have used pop-rivets or 2-part rivets or prepared rivets that will flare; most of these were on leather project.   For this project we have MAKE OUR OWN RIVETS out of wire or tubing.  And because it's mix material we have to make really, really, really tiny washers to go between the rivet and the non-metal material. 

As a warm up exercise we were given the assignment to make a charm or small pin using rivets and of course mixed materials.  This weekend I pulled out some 20 gauge copper and brass, some leather scraps, and some left over ends from colored cable ties.  I started with cutting out some pieces from the 20 gauge as my pin/charm base. I then drilled holes in the base and my other materials. I even drilled holes in other 20 gauge to fit my wire and tubing so I could then punch out those washers. I drilled holes equivalent to 14 gauge as that's what I had in the wire and tubing.  I cut 2 leather circles out and punch holes in them, and again drilled holes in the cable tie ends.  Next up was figuring out how long to cut the wire and tubing for the various riveting attempts. 

First up was just riveting a washer to base. Next was riveting a cable tie end to the base. I then riveted leather followed by leather and 2 cable ties. The last one was 4 cable ties. Oh yes, there were many failures along the way - either the tube or wire bent because it was too long, or the rivet fell out because it was too short and could not flare over the sheet metal,  and many many many dropped proto-rivets on the floor but along the way, while looking for them, on the floor, I found a CZ I lost weeks ago on the ring project YIPEE but I never found one of the proto-rivets.

Maybe when I get to the end of the actual project I will not hate them as much but I will probably never, ever love making and using rivets on my silversmithing projects!!

For the latest module in the Digital Fabrication class we have continued to work in Rhino to create tracings to cut vinyl with. Once we took pictures of ourselves, outside,  we decided what would be black and "white" - or clear. The picture is then imported into Rhino and the tracings made. From there we made them life sized and prepared the pieces to be cut; no piece of vinyl could be wider than 25 inches but could be as long as we needed so we had to plan wisely.  After cutting the vinyl we weeded, remove, what would be clear and then applied very sticky transfer paper. We spent an entire class working in teams to peel off the backing paper, position a piece on the wall, window, or floor - sticking it down and then peel off the backing paper making sure there were no wrinkles or bubbles.  My pieces are me stretching, the deer, and some grass which was also shared with the other students. I did not take my pictures in Sewell park but outside my house in Canyon Lake. The description of the exhibition and the Sewell park sign were made and applied by our teacher and teaching assistant.  The last few pictures show me applying the deer to the wall.

For the past 2 weeks, in Beginning Metals, we have been working on hollow rings or a way to learning sawing, soldering with hard, medium, and soft solder, filing, and finishing.  Yes, I do know these things BUT I have never made a hollow ring before so that was what I WAS LEARNING.

First we measured a finger for the ring hole and soldered it round and to one side of the ring, using hard solder. Then it was figure out what the side wall(s) would be and using various round pliers and round mandrels, form the side piece and solder it to the same piece of metal as the ring hole. It was on my way home that night that I thought I wanted to texture my surfaces so what did I do... I redid what I did in class and used my rolling mill to put a spiral texture on all the exterior metal; I unsoldered the ring band, cleaned it up and re-used it.  I drilled some air holes to be a decorative element and using a setting burr, counter sunk them.  I was getting ready to solder the other (shall we say back plate on) side on when I had the idea to do tube sets over the holes... This is when I realized that setting the stones would be rather difficult since it was a hollow ring. MY engineering kicked in and thought that IF I soldered a support wall, inside, and around the holes, it would provide the support I needed, which I did. And... then I realized I had more than enough 4mm CZ's but not enough tube settings and ordered them from Rio; I would have to use silver because they don't make brass one and I was not going to make them either. While waiting for the settings to arrive, I did the soldering of the back plate, trimmed and removed the extra metal. Yesterday the settings arrived and today I soldered them on; I had a little bit of solder creep and removed what I could because I forgot to mask the seams with white out; you can see it in the last few pictures. Then I set a green, yellow, purple, and lavender stone on each side.

First - Tomorrow starts the 3rd week of classes. I am glad I am only taking two classes as I have lot's of time for me, at home. In Beginning Metals we just finished our first project which was to saw and file a peace symbol. We were given a paper template with a round symbol on it but over the weekend I decide to make a bigger one based upon the one I had bought in Greenwich Village (that's in NYC) in the late 60's. In Digital Fabrication we are learning how to use Rhino 8 which is a 3D, and 2D, software package that can create files used by digital cutting machines, like a Cricut, laser cutters, 3D printers, or various types of CNC (Computer Numeric Control) machines like lathes, routers, etc. We really haven't made anything thing but that should happen soon.

Then this week on my non-school days, I made making things to sell via the Metals Guild (a.k.a. club) in a gallery in Austin or at the Market Days in San Marcos on the 2nd Saturday's of the month. Items for the gallery will be mostly silver and for the Market Days they will be copper and brass. 

​And today I made a large lentil bead for a friends daughter, as a pocket fidget thingy.

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