This being Thanksgiving weekend and I could have 4 days in the studio, I planned on my biggest box to date and the next step in this journey - 4 corners. 

The box would be 3" wide by 3" long by about 3" tall. 

I set up my metal last weekend, a 12" by 6" of 20 gauge brass by drawing the scoring lines and clamping it to the table with my guide.   And then I went to the day job for three days....

Thursday, I woke up at 6:00 am with the shop cat (Boots) announcing her presence at the bedroom door (the shop elf was fast asleep) so I got up and went to have my cuppa coffee. I went in to the studio and turned on the lights and the heater as it was about 65 and a wee bit nippy.  Then it was to the kitchen to brew my cuppa and feet the cat. While having my cuppa, I read a sci-fi book I started on Monday was getting rather disappointed with how the author was ending it. By now it was 9:00 am and it was time to go to the studio which was a comfortable temp.

I took off my wedding ring and my good glasses and put on my safety glasses; sat down at the work table and started to work on the first of three scored joints. After a few minutes I realized I was not staying on the line and was making a real mess of it as the scoring tool for 90 degree had a very shot arm and my cutting point really wasn't 90 degrees. I tried to fix it and decided it was just easier to make a new one from another old rat tail file I had. That took over an hour and finally I was away and scoring and creating lots of nice brass curls. I did a check of my cutting and found I was a hair under 2" from the end so all my other scores would have to be moved to the left and a sliver of brass cut off one end.  I stopped scoring at 5pm, as I knew I would not get the third one done and I was very tired.  It was time to make dinner and relax for the evening.

Friday morning, a certain cat announced her presence not only at 7am but at 2 am.  I was able to roll over and go back to sleep for a bit but when a cat walks on you and purrs in your ear it it rather impossible to go back to sleep. Once again I went downstairs, fed the cat and coffee-d myself. I headed into the studio around 9 am and sat down to finish the scoring and beveling of the outer ends. 

I will mention that when scoring, which is done on the inside, you watch the outside for a line to appear. This is from the pressure the tool puts on the metal because it is so much thinner having been scored. When you see this line you go very slow as removing too much will result in the joint giving out resulting in one part separating from the rest. The scoring continues until you can just begin to bend it by hand.

Finally it was time to solder. I started with the center joint, then doing each of the other two. I then cleaned it and then using binding wire, closed up that last corner nice and tight. 

After soldering and cleaning it, I drew a line at the top as to where I would cut the lid from the bottom body. I also cut the top and bottom plates. After I soldered the bottom plate and the bottom was in the pickle, I took the top piece; annealed it and used the hydraulic press to form a design.  The design, having lots of little details required me to anneal the brass three times and to use lots of little pressure pieces to push it all out.    

Using a cut off wheel I cut the lid from the bottom and soldered the top, with the design, on.  It was now time to file and mate the two parts; fit the bezel and polish it. 

Of course, along the way I had a few unintentional learning experiences (documented below) which I am a bit disappointed with but now I can see that doing something this big is not easy... It may not be perfect but I did make a box with FOUR corners and lots of soldering, filing, sanding, measuring.  The next one will be sooo much better. 

For the next part of the box project, I will continue to make a box but this one will have a hinge which will require me to make many samples of hinges before I add one to a box. That starts next weekend!! 

Big Learning Experience Number 1: 
That is a machinist square so that is a true 90 degrees.
I have a side wall that is bowed inwards, this happened while soldering the base on and I didn't see it until I cut the lid off! And my walls were square when I was done soldering the joints because I did this with the square, hanging off the side to check. 

The silversmithing books warn of walls warping either when quenching or while soldering. The book makes mention of getting it up to temperature and clamping it and letting it air cool but since it was soldered I don't know what could have been done except to start over. 

Big Learning Experience Number 3:
Yes, the top seperated from the wall; this happened while soldering in the bezel. Originally, it was just at the corner and as I tried to fix it but it opened more which is what you see here. I stopped while I was a head. 

... and reflections.

This weekend I tackled another box shape - a leaf which has 2 seams. As with last week’s boxes, I first made one in brass, on Saturday, and then I made one in silver on Sunday.

The brass box, with its two end seams requires beveling so the edges line up properly. The beveling is done using sand paper after the wall curve is formed. I used a large tapered mandrel that is oval in shape to form the sheet and then gently held on to the pieces and used 220 sand paper to create the bevels, checking every few minutes to see how the edges match up. Once that was done, I used a small amount of binding wire to keep everything together, which I then fluxed and soldered. After I pickled the brass, I then placed it in super pickle to remove the copper layer; I mixed up a small plastic tub of the super pickle, to just cover the brass.

Time to measure the base, stamp my makers mark, solder it to the walls and file/sand all the edges flush.

The design of the box, which was based upon an article I have from long, long ago, has the lid sitting on top of the base walls, with the bezels for the slip fit, soldered directly to the top plate which also over hangs the box by a scant 1/8”. It was now time for me to make the lid of the box. I traced the box outline on some more brass, then marked 1/8” outside of the lid outline to mark the edge of the lid. From there I cut the lid out and did a pre-polish on it. Then I had to mark where the bezels would be soldered – 1/8” (0.125”) in from the outside edge of the lid PLUS the thickness of the wall which was 20g (0.032’ ) totaling 0.157”. I then used extra brass rolled to 22g to form the bezels, which were fluxed and soldered to the lid. After cleaning it up, I then tested fitting to lid to the box base – at that was a problem, the bezels must have shifted on the lid or my math was off because it would not seat. This was solved by a little bit of sanding on the bezel and the inside of the wall in the box base but eventually I did get them to fit AND because the box is not perfectly symmetrical, the lid only fits on in one orientation.

Next up was the little “handle” which is on top of the lid. I used a 1” disk which, because it is polished to a high shine, can’t be gripped such that you can pull the lid off the box.

But the brass box was done and for Sunday it was time for a silver version.

On Sunday morning, I started the silver box with a few executive changes:

• I decided to take a small amount of the bottom wall and add it to the lid;
• I would to use my rolling mill to add a texture to the walls and the lid;
• A tongue shaped agate cabochon would be used for the lid accent/handle.

It was all going very well – walls soldered, base soldered, lid wall cut off, lid and lid wall soldered and then I fit the bezels into the wall that was attached to the lid and I went to solder them in – and this is where it went horribly wrong.
One of the bezels split; it must not have been fitted properly and when I applied heat, it gave way.
Then one of my solder clips got soldered to the wall which I was able to eventually remove but it left a solder blob on the texture.

While waiting for the various pieces to get clean in the pickle, I made a bezel to set the agate in the lid. Despite the problems that occurred with the bezel for the slip fit, I was still going to mount the stone to finish the project. This bezel soldered on perfectly and that is when I realized the bezel was a little too big (another learning experience!) , I mixed some epoxy to help set the stone and then pushed in the bezel to complete the box.

Yes, there are pictures of these issues, below. I am more mad at myself than embarrassed; remember making these boxes is for learning and I certainly am.

Observations and What’s next:
I will not use the tapered mandrel to form the walls, the taper makes the top opening slightly smaller than the bottom. I have stepped mandrels that I will use for the next one and I am also hoping that this makes the box more symmetrical and the lid can be put on easier.

I did not like the lid just sitting on top of the base, so I added a small amount of wall, to the lid which just looks a bit better as I did on the silver box.

The accent on the lid will no longer be a “handle” but just a decorative stone or maybe enameled dome. If I do make a handle, it has to be bigger and have some texture so your fingers don’t slip off while trying to grip. Also make a bezel and check it again and again, even again just before soldering so you know it is not too big or too small

I am still struggling with the bezel added to the inside of the wall for the slip fit, as evidenced by the mess I made in the silver box lid plus last week I did struggle a bit with the bezels on the oval/round boxes. I need more practice with technique/skill so this coming weekend, I will a few lids, only, and practice cutting, fitting and soldering bezels.

As an adventurous silversmith, making boxes should be a part of my skill set; but was not up until this past weekend.

Two weeks ago, I set about planning how I would accomplish that skill set via planned projects and every increasing difficulty.

Here is the progression of projects done in bras as brass is the closest to sterling silver in how it behaves so I can work out the process before committing to sterling.

• Small round box with a flush seam and slip lid
• Large/Tall “round” box with a keyed seam and slip lid. The taller the box, the harder it is to heat resulting in the flush seam possibly shifting where as a keyed seam locks it in place.
• Square/Rectangular box with mitered corners and slip lid
• Square/Rectangular box (mitered corners again) with a hinge and a small clasp which has yet to be determined if I can make – I have a book on various clasps
• A round box with a hinge and small clasp

I will eventually do some chasing and repousse on the boxes, not these but others made for a C&R project but first, one must learn to make boxes. To that end, pulled out my silversmithing books and read up on box making. I also sent a list of questions I came up with after my reading, to my mentor Liza, the Silversmith.

Saturday morning, I went into the studio, pulled out some brass and got to work. I was in the studio about 8 hours though not all of it was making the box. First I had to design the box and figure out what I could make with the brass I had and cut it. Then as the box construction progressed - soldering, sawing, filing/sanding, and polishing, there was quite a bit of down time as I waited for the metal to have the oxides to be removed in the pickle, then washing and scrubbing; calculating the size and making of the bezel to fit the lid. I normally track my time but for this I did not since I knew that with all that thinking, the manufacturing time would not be valid. At 5 pm I was done and I was quite proud of what I had made and accomplished let alone not screwing it up! I was also so focused on making the box, I did not take any process pictures but here is the box finished. It is about 1.7” in diameter and just over 1” tall, with a slightly domed top.

With my first box under my belt, I decided to make another “round” box, on Sunday, using sterling. My brass box was made with 20 g but the silver box would be from 18 g and I would have to coat all the silver pieces, with borax when I did any heating or soldering to prevent fire stain. When I first went into the studio at 9 am, the first thing I did was turn on the hot plate with my enamel pot filled borax water to re-dissolve the super saturated solution as the borax which had precipitated, as crystals and fallen out of the solution over the past few weeks as it had cooled. I found a good piece of silver and made my measurements and cut the pieces for the walls, top and bottom plate, and the bezel. I stamped my makers mark on the top and bottom plates marking that for the bottom, the mark was on the outside but for the lid, the mark was on the inside; and I marked the material as “sterling”.

First up was borax-ing and then annealing the piece that would be the walls, pickling and cleaning. I filed the edges where the side seam would be, formed a tube and used binding wire to hold it tight, against heat expansion; I then coated it in borax, soldered the seam, and put it back in the pickle. I formed the shape of my tube, into an ovoid so there was only one way to put the lid on. Next up was soldering the base plate with more borax coating of course. I then cut what would be the wall for the top, from the part that was the bottom of the box followed by borax coating the top plate and soldering it to the wall for the top. Then everything was cleaned, again.

Now that both parts of the box were soldered to their respected plates and separated it was time to file and sand the mating edges to get them flat as and smooth as well as filing and sanding the plates flush with the walls – that took some time. After that was completed, I created and soldered the bezel into the top of the lid, again applying the borax coat and cleaning afterwards in pickle and finishing with warm soapy water.

The box construction was done, time to polish it all up BUT I had a problem, there was a lot of fire stain all over the box. This was rather annoying considering the care I took to coat my surfaces with borax and it then required me to do a “polish” with an aggressive compound to polish it out which removes the silver on top of the oxides and the oxide layer to get to un-oxidized silver below it. I probably spent almost an hour polishing, cleaning and verifying each surface until I had it all removed; then I could finally do a 3 step polish and be really really done.

Overall I was in the studio over 8 hours on Sunday, I remember to take some pictures and record the actual working time which was about 5 hours but I know that with every box I make, the time it takes will go down as I now know the basic process.

Yesterday I held the inaugural class in my new workshop/studio. The class subject was sinking a simple copper bowl for beginners and was aimed at learning basic skills - working with a torch (annealing), using a jewelers saw (rounding the corners of a copper square), sanding, polishing, hammering (sinking and basic planishing) and observing soldering (adding the ring bases).   We also discussed shop safety, the tools and equipment used and assembling a toolbox to take to classes.

My students were Barbara, Irma, and Nancy. I know Barbara and Irma and Nancy is a friend of Irma's so it was a friendly and relaxed class. 

I started the day, before they arrived, annealing, winding, and sawing the ring bases for their bowls. The ladies arrived just before 10 am and into the studio we went!  After "The Safety Discussion", the ladies stamped their initials in the center of one side - this would become the bottom/outside of the bowl. Then they learned how to use the jewelers saw to round the corners. We moved on to sanding the edges and how to make sanding sticks. I then demonstrated polishing the copper to soften all edges and to remove the scratches, while the copper was flat so there was less work to do after the bowl was formed.  Then came the hammering - sinking into the custom wood forms I have had made over the years, and how to anneal in-between each round of going deeper.  When each was happy with the shape and depth of their dish it was time to go to the stake stump and they learned planishing and after that I worked with each of them to solder a ring base on; I did the soldering but they assisted by watching for the flow of the solder and turning the turntable, so I could focus on heating and soldering; they also quenched their dishes and put it in the pickle.  Lastly, they did a final polish and their bowls were done. 

As we sat around the table, after the class, discussing what they learned they asked what they could learn next! 
I guess I need to start planning another class.

I am trying to clear my to-do list of lots of little tasks - some are personal items, some for The Adventurous Silversmith.  

Thus I have come to the "make stakes" for the teapot project.  One of the prep items for this was to talk to Kevin Potter of PotterUSA, when I pass through Tucson, Az a few weeks ago when coming back from Texas. He said he would make the stake heads for me and to just send him the drawings. 

Which brings us to to now.  I have to do four drawings: The planishing stake, the rounding stake, the upper top curve, and the lower bottom curve. 

I use QCAD to do my drawings so I can then print them out - or send along and get them made.  I have templates for the curves but I must measure them, several times, before I actual enter the information into the program. 

Last week I took another trip to Nechamkin Silver Studio for the next lesson(s) on the Teapot Project.   

This week I learned many things.   1) cleaning the solder joint inside and out, 2) fix any pin holes, gaps, and under cuts,  3) heavy planish the seam, 4) truing the tube, and 5) planning the next step which is raising the top and bottom.

We started off with how to properly clean the excess solder off the solder joint which is lots of filing and gentle sanding but not taking off the silver; just the solder.   Once that was done we could evaluate the seam to determine what gaps and pin holes had to be fixed and why. Then we moved onto heavy planishing of the seam to get a consistent wall thickness.  All of this consumed 3 days. On the the 4th day and my last with Liza, this week, we trued up the seam and then we could get to work refining the design. We had to take measurements from the sketches and the tube to determine where to start the raising at each end and from there we made our templates. From the templates I can cut/carve wood stake models which I will then have cast.  Then the other design elements had to be considered - spout shape and size the handle shape and where to place both, the lid shape and how to fit the lid to the pot and the bottom rim or feet?  

One must not forget an important part of tea pots - how does it pour? Many a teapot do not pour correctly because the spout is too short or too long which can cause the tea to spill out the lid or placed to high on the pot wall such that the last bit of tea can't be poured.  And the pot handle - can you get the lid off and on easily? Does the pot have a vent hole to facilitate the tea flow?? 

I now have lots of homework to do before I return next year:
1) make 1 if not 2 more tubes, in brass,  so we can use them for practice raising. This means they have to be soldered and cleaned to the point where we ended, this week
2) make a stake for truing the tube(s) because when you heavy planish, the tube is no longer round.
3) get the raising stakes made - so I have to cut the wood and get them cast. Finding a casting house will be fun!
4) study teapot design and make some choices for the spout, handle, lid and lid finial, and the bottom - feet or rim?

Here are lots of pictures ... 

In the blog post prior to this, I gave you a brief hint about my bowl for the Super Bowl Challenge.  
I have tried TWO times to participate but the first time I burned my hand and gave up. The second time, I stretched the metal as I was raising it to too much and I gave up again.  

Then for the past 3 years I was in Tucson during the challenge and did not even try to participate. 

This year, I wanted to and have completed the challenge

Since the challenge can be started before Super Bowl Sunday, I started to raise the bowl about 4 weeks ago. It is not a big bowl, it actually fits in my hand  BUT with so many other things happening, I wanted to give myself plenty of time. 

And then, with the new house being renovated, we are in Texas at the moment to do some design selections and a walk through. THUS I really could not finish the bowl today. THUS I finished it last weekend. 

I went in a different direction and didn't even do any chasing and repousse on the bowl. I enameled it. I learned torch fired enameling in 2012 and I made a ring, and had not done any other enameling since despite having bought the basic supplies.  Thus, I wanted to play with enamel and see what I could do on a small bowl. It was about having some fun.

After I finished raising the bowl last Saturday. I went into my copper scrap pile and got some pieces of copper I could do some tests on as I had a sample box of enamel and color names but no clue as to what they would look like.  I did about 6 test firings and on Sunday, I went into the garage with TWO plumbers torches (one was MAP and the other Propane) , the bowl and the enamels. I first did a counter coat on the outside in a nice bright green. Then applied a cobalt blue to the inside of the bowl and a deep blood red to the rim.  

Despite using TWO torches and forming a bit of a box with my fire bricks, it did take some amount of time to get the bowl hot enough for the enamel to melt and fuse.  Yet, overall I do like how it turned out and YES, I did have fun. 

Here is my bowl and of course, some process pictures which include some of the bowl cooling and you can see the enamel colors come out.

I have been working on the teaching samples for the Chasing & Repousse Cuff workshop I am teaching in March. The workshop is full and we will be doing a new design. This workshop is less about the chasing and repousse and more about the cuff and finishing it. 

Then I am assembling the design for an etched cuff that will have music on it.   The music has to be redone bigger and fatter lines so they etch really good. 

And lastly, I am also working on a small bowl for the Super Bowl Challenge hosted by Wendy over at Hammermarks. I have a bit more raising to do and then I am going to apply enamels that are torch fired.  

I am not big on New Year resolutions as I feel that is sets us to feel like a failure, when the next year comes around,  because life, the universe, and everything else has conspired to keep us from those promises. 

Instead, I set some goals knowing that some will be met and others will not but with some planning we are just a bit closer to accomplishing them. 

But before I talk about what I want to do this year, I will review 2015 which as of today, is last year. 

• I was accepted into the first juried exhibition I ever entered.
• I had more sales than ever before and even received a commission for THREE of my sea urchins
• I had another article published in Art Jewelry magazine. 
• I took first place at in the Chasing & Repousse category at the San Diego County Fair
• I taught two more workshops
• I also took a few more workshop on hollowware and chasing & repousse.

Which I think was a rather good year, don't you? 

So what's up for 2016?

• I hope to spend this year focusing on making hollowware 
• Decorating said hollowware
• Teach a few more workshops
• Sell more of my work
• Enter and get accepted into another juried exhibition
• Publish another article
• Sell some speciality tools and a fixture I am working to have made

It won't be too different from last year because of the day job but getting those tools and the fixture(s) made to sell will be the biggie for me.  So stay tuned for more.

Back in October when I went to the Nechamkin Silver Studio to start work on the tea pot, that session was to learn about seaming. Seaming a tube to then raise further is much faster than raising. I came home with assignment to seam some tubes not only for the practice of making and soldering the seams but to end up with some that I can then practice the clean up (of the solder) and the planishing. 

Now, once does not start off making a 6" tall tube unless you have your teacher/instructor/mentor there with you; which is why I was able to the the tube for the actual tea pot; Liza was there and she assisted with the difficult bit.  In other words, you work your way up to something that big. 

To get me started I went with 1 1/2" wide brass that was just under 6" long. This is close to what you would use to make a napkin ring. In this post I did make some napkin rings but I used brass tubing. So why solder a seam using brass if I can get and use tubing? Well dear readers, brass is close to sterling silver in how it works and you can't get sterling silver tubing - you might be able to but it is going to be very expensive. Thus I am practicing with brass and bronze before I move to sterling silver. 

There are several ways to make tubing. You can do a butt joint like you might do with a bezel set stone.  The second type of seam is a beveled seam which gives you more surface area to join and is stronger and better suited when there will be raising.  The third and best type is a keyed, tabbed or interlocked finger joint. This is where cuts are made in the beveled areas and the joined ends are interlocked.  If you have a copy of the Complete Metalsmith, refer to page 60 or look in the index for "seaming". 

Over the past few weekends I have been beveling the edges; they need to be the same width, taper and flat. Yesterday I finished that I cut the tabs and prepared myself for rolling the tube and interlocking the tabs. The tabs must be cut to the same size and the same distance from one edge or they won't match up. I almost got it to fit but I had to anneal again which I did and I let it sit overnight. This morning I finished the rolling of the tube and mating up the tabs and voila - I was able to fit the ends and it held together with only tiny pass of the file. I then put on some binding wire to hold it all while I did the soldering.   I prepped my napkin ring (tube) by fluxing it and getting out my hard solder. I positioned the fire bricks around the tube to hold the heat in and then brought it up to temperature it with my big torch. I carefully first soldered each edge/end of the tube and then focusing the head on the seam, applied more solder and used the heat to pull it down and up the seam; outside and then inside.  It was one of the best soldering jobs I have done and won't have much clean up to do.   

I have now setup my bench for another wider tube - this once in bronze. Overall I will make 4 tubes and the worst one I will attempt to clean and planish by myself (and probably do wrong) before I return to Nechamkin Silver studio next summer when I learn to do it the correct way. 
​
Here are my process pictures