After I completed my Art Nouveau cuff last month, a friend asked to make one for herself (she is a cuff person, like me) so we scheduled a private session for her but I should note that she is a metalsmithing novice having only made a small bowl back in June. Barbara was aware that making the cuff was going to be intense with lots of information about technique and tools to absorb as she worked on the cuff but she was game.  Oh, and I would be making a cuff, as well, along side her since I had received a commission for one.

We started off measuring her wrist so we could size the cuff and marking it. Then it was time to saw the outside and do the pierce work. I only broke 3 saw blades but Barbara broke 12 but she now knows how to saw. 

Next up was the filing and sanding - along the outside edges and inside the pierced areas. 

After that it was on to the polishing, forming the cuff, and then patina. Barbara said she wanted a traditional LOS patina which is to get the silver black/gray all over then polishing the high points back so the nooks and crannies are dark; to which I said OK but she was getting a lesson in how to work with LOS which, if you do it MY way, will results in some colors ranging from golds, raspberry, purples, and blues - before you ever get to the gray and black.    We mixed up the LOS and started dipping and rinsing. First Barbara got golds and was surprised; then a hint of raspberry, still commenting that it was interesting but would like it to go black - I said "Patience Grasshopper!". The colors then started to darken and she had purples and blues - and she stopped! Barbara was amazed at the color and was now reconsidering. We quickly polished up the high spots, put her cuff on and decided that she was DONE!!

Here is a mini movie I made, with music, from pictures I took, of her making her cuff.

Several weeks ago I bought a fine silver stamping from PotterUSA, this was made from a die (female) that was made from the vintage hob (male) that was purchased when the Frank Morrow Company closed it's doors last year; the hob is over 100 years old. This stamping is from a die that requires a massive amount of tonnes because the die is so big and deep  and to get a good result. Kevin used 5 ounces of silver resulting in the piece being 16 gauge thick! 

So what was I going to do with it? Make a cuff, of course; even though I could do something like this via chasing & repousse, it was a challenge for me to take the stamping and turn it into something - so I started to ponder what I would do. I figured I would do some piercing but how much? What would I do to the side sections of the cuff so they weren't plain?  Would I screw it up having not done something like this before.

I started my ponderings by making a copy/scan of the stamping and drawing on it - where was I going to pierce, how long did I need to make it so the cuff would fit me, how wide would it be.  I did 3 or 4 copies with ideas. 

It was now time to stop pondering and to start the project!

So yesterday, was the day to start the project and my goal was to have it finished by this afternoon - which I did, yeah me!
I tracked the hours it took - 14 from start to finish.  I went through 5 saw blades but having never done this much piercing before, I think that is pretty reasonable. I had to use many needle files to get into all the nooks and crannies from the sawing and I had to stay relaxed by keeping my shoulders down, not using the grip of death on the saw and breathing through my mouth; this prevents you from clamping down on your jaw and that results in overall body tension.

What skills did I use that were not ones I normally use because I don't make much jewelry:

• Sawing a.ka. piercing
• Filing
• Sanding
• Drilling

When I was all done, I weighed the piece and it was almost HALF the original starting weight of 5 ounces; the final weight ended up at 2.4 ounces; that's a lot of material cut away but it will be recast into sheet for another project.

When all the sawing and filing was done, I did a pre-polish to smooth all the edges and to see if I needed to get rid of any major scratches, I did not. Then I coated the silver in flux and annealed; the flux goes glassy when the silver gets to annealing temperature. Then I did a real 3 step polish, inside and out - white, green and red to get everywhere nice and bright - plus a good cleaning in between each polish.   Once all that was done, it was time to pull out the bracelet mandrel and time to bend the silver into a cuff and my anneal was good enough that I was able to do it with my hands!

Lastly I mixed up some Liver of Sulfur thinking that the antique look would add some depth to the flower details but as I am working the piece, I see the patina going gold and I knew that I had to keep this as the patina; I slowly kept swirling the cuff in the LOS solution and knowing that LOS can go dark at a moment's notice, I worked slow and ended up with a great gold color TIME TO STOP! A rinse and dry with a clean cotton cloth and it was done.
​ 
 I also took loads of pictures, as usual so enjoy them.

When "we" start learning to do chasing & repousse, the first metal we usually work with is copper. It is easy and cheap. Then after much fear, we will usually move on to sterling and fine silver - harder to move than copper and certainly more expensive than copper.  Others move to brass which while cheaper than silver, behaves like sterling silver in the pitch pot.   A lot of people stop here and never move into working with gold, yes GOLD that wonderful metal that is very, Very, VERY expensive these days. Gold is not a metal you start with.

Plus, because of the cost, it is intimidating. There is the "Oh, no! what if I f*uck it up!!" thoughts whilst shaking in your shoes and biting your finger nails. 

Yes, if you start off as a jeweler/goldsmith, you learn to work with gold - annealing, soldering, casting, milling. Yet if you come from the traditional silversmith/hollowware side of things and you don't go to a professional school, the only way to learn to work with gold is to have someone teach you or you go it alone. Which can also add another level of being scared to the process.

After my foray into fusing gold to silver on the Squash Blossom & Vine cuff, I knew it was time to get some gold and do the chasing & repousse dance with it.  I knew from having spoken to a few other C&R artist that they like 22K gold and that it behaved like sterling silver even at a thinner gauge. So I not only bought some 22K at 20g sheet, I bought some 14K rose gold at 22g. I bought some solder and a bit of wire; I was going to make some ginkgo leaf earrings and the wire would allow me to make the ear wires and some jump rings to solder to the leaves and from there, hang off the ear wires.  

I also contaced Metalsmith Deb to get a lesson in working with gold - soldering, annealing, etc... This workshop with a few other gold virgins is NEXT weekend. My rose gold arrived yesterday so I decided to get started on the chasing & repousse, why wait.  I will admit I went cheap, $350, with the rose gold and only ordered a 1"x2" piece which I now realize is just too small to have any edge held by the pitch and I ordered it easy (annealed) hardness and now I know it wasn't.   To cut a long story short, I lined, flipped and started the repousse and that metal just wouldn't move.   I asked some questions in the Metalsmith's Coffeehouse on FB and got some great advice on how to anneal which I did this morning and NOW I am moving metal.  

Many people have a misconception that working in gold is easier than sterling - from a hammering stand point. Trust me, 22g, 14K gold IS HARD and it feels like I am working on 18G hard sterling silver. On the plus side, I am not (as) afraid of working in gold now.  I almost have the repousse on one leaf done and will move on to the second leaf later today or tomorrow night.  With luck I might get the chasing done by next weekend.  

The 22K 20g gold sheet is due to arrive this next week and IF I have to redo the ginkgo leave on that sheet, I will and all of this is chalked up to learning. Enjoy the pictures and more will be posted when I have more to show next week. ​

Just a week ago I stumbled upon a juried exhibition here in San Diego, California at The Studio Door. The exhibition is titled
ENDANGERED, A celebration of artwork which showcases the beauty of endangered and threatened species or habitats.

I read the prospectus which was as follows:
ENDANGERED is an exhibition of visual art running from August 5 - 28, 2016 produced by The Studio Door.
A celebration of artwork which showcases the beauty of endangered and threatened species or habitats.  The exhibit will cultivate an appreciation and understanding of the diversity of art inspired by nature.  10% of the proceeds will be gifted to the San Diego Zoo.
CATEGORIES ACCEPTED 
Painting, drawing, photogaphy, printmaking, assemblage, collage, mixed media, fiber art, artist book, ceramics, stain glass and sculpture.  Oversized jewelry that can be defined as fine art is acceptable for this show.
This exhibition does not accept jewelry (as defined as craft), video, film, performance art, installation and works requiring an external electrical source. 

Submissions must be the artist’s original work.

I figured that if The Tenacious Tentacle just took First Place in the Art Jewelry category at the fair, when then my cuff was FINE ART and by golly, I was going to enter it. 

For my artist's statement I wrote the following:
The Tenacious Tentacle is a piece of art jewelry that is a cuff. When worn, it looks like the tentacle is wrapped around the wearers arm. On the cuff is also a Sea Star (starfish) and a sand dollar (which is a type of sea urchin). Though all three are not currently classified as an endangered species their environments are being threatened. All require clean sea water, none of these three have fresh water relatives. All three mostly live on the sea floor. With their sea habitats being threatened these amazing creatures are threatened too.

The cuff is made from sterling silver using the technique of chasing & repousse. This is an ancient technique where the metal is stretched using small tools and hammers to create volume, texture and detail. Initially the cuff is worked flat. After all the chasing & repousse, it is then bent into the cuff. After polishing the patina is applied, this allows the highlights and lowlights to be accented.

AND...
Just a few hours ago, I got an email stating that my piece had been accepted - unfortunately it is not going to be in the physical exhibition but it will be in the on-line exhibition and it will be in the published catalog. 

This past Saturday, I worked in the Fallbrook Gem & Mineral Society booth at the San Diego County Fair at Del Mar.
I have worked in the booth, for one or two days, over the past 10 years, since I was a member of the club.  Though, I am no longer a member of the club I still have many friends in it and so when they called, asking if I could fill in one day, I said yes.   I was to work the morning shift with B.J, Orville, and Lester, who I have worked with many times.

As we were getting the booth ready for the days visitors, one of the people who work in the Hall of Gems & Minerals came up and congratulated me on my wins; or so I thought.  

It was not until I took my lunch break and decided to get one more picture of my cuffs that I saw that my Squash Blossom and Vine cuff had won a donated award for excellence.  I was shocked, I could not believe it because  this honor had not been presented (yet) when I had been at the fair the first week it was open, when I was there for exhibitors night.   

I had been awarded the Cinderhill Award for the Best Single Piece of Jewelry.

I guess you could say I was reeling at the realization. 

Turns out the independent, donated, awards are presented some time after the fair opens so those who make those decisions can have time to compare and ponder their choices.   AND the Cinderhills who presented the award had a booth in the room (but I had never met them), so I went over and introduced myself and while asking what it was about my cuff that they felt had merited this award, I realized every other phrase out of my mouth was either "thank you" and "I am shocked". I then shut up. The Cinderhills explained what their process was for selecting the recipient and then I thanked them again, and again, and again. 

I then left their booth and went to lunch.  Let's just say the rest of the afternoon was a bit of haze. 

So here it is, a picture of the cuff and the "award".  I have also now accepted the realization that I am an "award winning artist". 
​

After 2 other cancelled play dates, the etching of the musical cuff finally happened this past weekend.  Lisa, the awesome DBA and muscian, drove the LOoOoonnnNnggggG distance to my house (it was a 50 minute drive, and it really isn't that far!) and arrived at 11 am. It should be noted that she should have arrived at 10am but her day job got in the way.

We got started right away. We walked through the design in Illustrator, the export to Photoshop, import to PS and the inverting of the drawing,  printing on the paper, cleaning the silver and applying the mask to silver.  Oh, trust me I had every thing laid out - silver, iron, hot plate, etching bath, rectifier, gloves, paint pens, tape - all in the kitchen by the sink. 

The first and the SECOND application of the mask did not work but we got it on the third time and then it was the fixing of the mask, applying the electrodes and applying the power.  

IT's ALIVE!, IT's ALIVE!!!

Every 10 minutes we checked the progress and after 40 minutes, out of the etching bath it came.  We rinsed and then found that some of the masking had not taken and had come off during the every 10 minute check when we brushed off the surface with a soft brush.   But we moved on to remove the electrode and tape that masked the back. After cleaning it was then into the garage to do a preliminary polish; trim with shear and sanding sticks; and back to the garage to finish the polishing with the soon to be cuff having many baths in the ultrasonic cleaner in-between the various compounds.  After all the etching, trimming, and polishing Lisa applied some solvent dye to color the bars and notes and then we shaped it for her wrist.   

THEN we popped a bottle of champagne, celebrated and went out for dinner.    Here are LOTS of pictures but not all of them as we took over 143!

Now that the workshop is done,  I was able to finish MINE.  I was behind on making mine because I was so sick in February.  
For my cuff, I added the gold to the blossom bodies and put tube set CZ's in the center of all 4 of the small flowers. I originally only set two and after I bent and formed the cuff I realized that it really need to have 4 set stones. 

​As usual, lots of process pictures for you to look at. 

Last Sunday was day 3 and yesterday, Saturday was day 4 of the Squash Blossom & Flower cuff.  You can read about sessions 1 and 2 here. 

Last Saturday we only had 7 of the 8 students attends as one was out sick with that thing that has been going around (and I had in February). But we had to keep moving... we spent more time working on the repousse and most of the students were actually ready to start the chasing on the front.  

On Friday night, the day before yesterday, we met at the club shop for an open "studio" session from 6 pm - 9 pm. About half the students made it and they were able to continue to work on their cuffs and be ready for yesterday's session which was about finishing their cuffs. 

This last session allowed the students finish the chasing - texturing, planishing and relining of the design and to start cutting off the extra silver to the outside of their cuffs.  The cuff I am making was beyond this point so I could show them how to trim off the metal and then use shears to cut the metal away; use a saw blade to trim close to the frame; use files to get it flush and sanding stick to get it all square.  

I am applying gold to my squash flowers so I came to the workshop ready to show the students how to fuse and burnish the gold.  

I also talked about polishing their cuff - the different compounds, different types of wheels, a polishing station and using mini wheels in a hand piece, and then demonstrated the pre-polish so they can then determine if they can move on or have to go back and do more filing and sanding by looking for scratches and such. 

The 3rd demonstration/discussion was on how to anneal, bend, anneal, bend and form the cuff.  

And the final discussion was on patina - not just LOS but the various other ways to add color and accent to your piece such as solvent and alcohol dyes and pastes. 

No one actually finished their cuffs so we will work together over the next few weeks, on Friday nights, to get everyones done.   

Yes, in the future, this will be a 5 day workshop. 

Here are pictures from the last two days. 

This past weekend was the first two sessions of the Squash Blossom Cuff workshop. 

Diane, the workshop shop elf, and I arrived early to setup.  At 10 am the students: Karen, Stephanie, Laurie, Eleanor, Mary, Heather, and Sylvia arrived; ready to start. 

I started by discussing the steps to make the cuff:  Forming the frame, stick soldering the frame to the sheet, transferring the design, the lining, repousse, final chasing, removing the extra silver and clean up of the cuff, polishing,  forming and patina. Then a mention of the bonus enhancements - applying gold or tube set CZ's.

And so we began.

By the end of day one all the frames had been soldered, the designs transferred and the lining done.
For day 2  everyone was working on their repousse with a side discussion of tiny tools and tool making. 
Now they have home work to finish the repousse before the next session which is in two weeks.  To help them get to that point, I am will be available for the 2 Friday evenings at the club shop before that 3rd session. 

Here are pictures from the two day of them working on their pieces. 

Late last week a friend shared a picture of a geeky cuff - it was silver (or it appeared to be) Pi to many digits. I figured it was my style (being an engineer does help) and decided that I would make one. 

After looking at the original image, I think it was computer generated because the numbers are flat looking or they are just printed on the metal. 

I decided I would etch my numbers into the silver so they don't wear off.  I also wanted the number of digits per line to increase and to do that I had to to have the font size get smaller. I went even further such that the font size went to 1 for the last digit.

First I had to get Pi to many digits so I could fill up the cuff. 

Then I went looking for a monspaced font that had serif's to add character (get it??!!) to each digit. 

I then took my cuff template, in Illustrator, and pasted in the 100+ digits of Pi I had copied.

I had to bring up the character viewer so the symbol π would be the first character in my list,  it turns out π is Opt-P on a Macintosh
Then I counted out the number of digits for each line and added carriage returns.


Then you start adjusting the font size.. so you end with 1 and starts with a really, really big size, so it looks balanced, centered, and not strange to the eye.

After making the art work it was time to invert it and mirror image it so my resist would allow it to be etched properly. 

And then.... it was apply the resist to my silver, etch it, clean off the resist, shape the cuff, patina, bend and WEAR IT.

Below are some process pictures, of course, but it has me thinking about other things I could do...

How about:

• π -  Pi various formulas
• F(n) - Fibonacci sequence and the spiral representation of it.
• i - the imaginary number representation
• e - Euler's constant and formula
• c - the speed of light
• √2 -  Pythagoras' constant 
• ... other engineering and science formulas and graphs.

Ohh, this could get out of hand!  Off to do more art work!