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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I went to Gatlinburg, TN to attend a metal's workshop at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts! I signed up to take Small-Scale Metal Spinning something I have seen done but had no opportunity to try or learn.
I decided to drive because who doesn't like a good road trip. It was a 2 day drive though some wonderful scenery and another 2 days back.  I signed up for a single room since at my age I can get up several times in the night to use the bathroom AND I did not want to be kept awake by a roommate(s) talking or coming in late if I had gone to bed very early.

I arrived Sunday afternoon and settled into my room. After dinner we had a school orientation and our workshop introductions.  There were 10 of us in the workshop.  Six women and four men. 8 of us were metalsmiths and 2 were wood turners. Our teacher is a Professor at North Texas University and he's a master metal spinner.  We were using small wood lathes that had special centering chucks and wood forms (also called chucks) that we form the metal against. We had a tool kit of: 5 disks each of aluminum, copper, and pewter (3" 20 gauge), wax for lubrication, an application brush, a wood form/chuck, follower chuck, spinning spoon, another "blank" chuck, and a wood turning kit for when where were ready to make our own chuck.  I did bring some extra copper of 18 and 20 gauge and 2 - 3" disks of 20 gauge sterling silver.

Monday started with demo's on how to spin and lots of questions from us. We were to start with aluminum. We first annealed the 3" 20 gauge disk and put it in our lathes. We learned about centering the disk, lubricating the metal and how to hold and where to put the spoon tool against the metal so we could push and apply pressure to fold the metal over from the base and form it into a "hollow form". There is more annealing along the way, more lube, and how to smooooooth out ridges that can result. All of this also stretches the metal and IF you push too much your thin the metal and then it will rip. It can also rip if you haven't annealed again or need more lube.  Yes, to start you make lots of scrap!  Some of my aluminum started off good but most eventually ripped - IT IS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE and a frustrating one that had me wondering if I could do it at all. 

It's a matter of thinking of what you are doing, going slow, annealing and lubing more than you expect and then it ALL WORKS YIPEEEEE and then it doesn't. Think of Hans Solo saying to Luke Skywalker in the Millenium Falcon: "Don't get cocky kid."

Tuesday I finished spinning my last piece of aluminum and started on the copper.  I actually made pieces with no rips or tears. We had another demo, in the metals tool room on how to use some stakes, hammers, and anvils to smooth out the ripples one can get at the un-spun edge if pushing the metal too much. I was drooling over all the stakes and hammers, yes it was major tool porn.  Then some of use started to work on a wood lathe, to make our own form/chuck. I went for a wide base with semi-straight side. The side must be slightly angled with NO indents or you can't get your metal off the chuck.  There are chucks that have indents that do come apart like a puzzle so the chuck can be removed from the narrow parts.  I was able to spin a disk of pewter and copper on my chuck that resulted in a nice shallow round dish.  We also had a demo on not just making vessels but turning them into art pieces by adding thing to them. We were shown regular and pop-rivets, micro-hardware like nuts, bolts, and screws, and soldering or welding the pewter using a micro-torch. I took one of my ripped copper pieces and put a pop-rivet band aid on it. I also took a ripped pewter piece and welded some 3 pieces of scrap pewter to the rim and turned it into a crash landed UFO. 

The remaining days were all spinning and talking to everyone about what they figured out. Some of us traded chucks, to make different shapes and forms. We had another demo on back spinning and rolling the edge. I tried the back spinning, which was a success, but did not roll an edge. I also took a 4" disk of 18 gauge copper and spun it. DAMN, 18 gauge is hard and required not only so much force but again, more annealing. I was able to finish this without rips or tears, again YEAH ME.

Late Thursday I decided to try SILVER which even the teacher said he wouldn't do but another student had brought silver too and she, despite having ripped one or two pieces, was making pieces. I had to go slow and think about what I was trying to do; I also made the decision to anneal quite often.  With my chuck I was able to spin another small dish - YEAH ME. Then using someone else's chuck that was smaller on the base than mine and had more taper BUT was bigger than the chuck I started on I used my second piece of silver. I got a good base and annealed to then work forming the body but ripples started to form around the edge; had I pushed to much metal up too fast??. I was so fearful of ripping I took it off the machine and annealed a third time and while looking at it I realized that I liked what had happened and so I decided to stop. As my final piece I went with a 5" 20 gauge copper disk BUT we all had run out of the wax lube and had to use dish soap which does work but many of us found it it wears off faster thus allowing the spoon too to grab the metal and rip it - as I found out on this last piece of copper. 

I was now done. It was Friday and despite many other students trying to finish pieces I cleaned up my pieces, machine and work area.

Over on Kernology you can read about the other stuff I did, outside of workshop.

I am back from a 15 day road trip (more details here) but I did take an unplanned side trip to Colonial Williamsburg JUST to visit the silversmith shop; I did this because Liza Nechamkin suggested it because I would be nearby when visiting the Shop Elf's brother.

Turns out it was less than 5 miles away so after breakfast I went and arrived just as the shop was opening. I went in, introduced myself and said "Liza Nechamkin says hello and that I needed to visit!"; well, after that we were immediate friends (just kidding). We started talking about WHY Liza sent me; then what they were working on and more. Preston started as an apprentice in the early 80's and is now a journeyman; I did not find out when he can become a master. He showed me trays, bowls, ladles, spoons, tea pots, etc. Then we went into the other rooms - the amount of hammers and stakes was amazing and sadly many needed the rust and grime to be removed; yes I volunteered. I was even taken on a "behind the velvet rope/curtain" tour to see all the tools, stakes, and equipment in the basement; into the other workshop, a back building, where tasks like spinning a ladle handle on a lathe is made, plus other modern equipment is used to finish pieces.   I was ready to move in and clean everything for free!
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I did buy myself a pewter spoon because the silver one I wanted was over $400. 

As I was driving back to my brother-in-law's house I realized I was very excited about going back to school and had a renewed sense of enthusiasm for learning and making things. 

After almost a 2 year break I am back!!  
During that time I survived the pandemic; retired from the 8-5 grind despite Engineers never really retiring; visited friends in Scotland I had not seen in 10 years and walked almost a hundred miles on the Speyside Way; got COVID; and then The Shop Elf passed away this past January. 

My studio is a MESS and I will get to a complete re-org and cleaning of it later in October and November; the studio does not have A/C (nor heat) so right now it is quite warm in there. 

So let me show you two things I have worked on yesterday and today. 

First up - a copper knitting cable needle for a friend. She has one out of sterling silver but the size is a 2.x mm needle and is too small for the baby blanket project she is working on.  The project uses a US 13 needle (9mm) which is in between 0 and 00; that's thick wire which is normally used for automotive or solar power battery setup. That gauge is sterling can't be bought from a Jewelry supply house, you have to cast it yourself and then there is the cost which made me turn to copper. Also she will need at least 2 because the baby blanket has 2 sets of cables.

I went into my knitting needle stash and selected a 9, 7, and 6 mm needle and then raided the copper wire bin. I found 2, 3, and 5 gauge wire and cut pieces for the prototype. Then it was time to anneal and straighten followed by filing, grinding, a bit or polishing and lastly more annealing so I could then bend to shape and even more polishing. I only made 1 needle from the thickest wire because it needs some work but from this one those can be determined before I make the final ones.

Secondly, I worked on this hammer head today. It is a vintage French Pattern cobblers/book binder hammer I picked up over a year ago at a vintage tool sale north of Dallas.  I am not fully refurbishing it, I will clean off the grime and do a little bit of resurfacing on the large round hammer face and then get a new hammer handle for it. I started with just the White Diamond compound which is good for steel and along the way I found a makers mark which I will do some research on with help from my other metalsmith friends.  I then took a more agressive compound to the big face to just remove a few of the larger gouges but not all of them. I went looking for a replacement handle and couldn't find one that would fit, they were too small so I wrote to customer service at a hammer supplier and asked which one would be larger and closer to what I need and I would trim it to fit. 

Last weekend, I went back to Jan's to play; it was a three day weekend so it was the perfect time for us to get together. Not only were we going to PLAY but Jan asked about a few techniques she wanted to learn.

We started off by showing her how to use a snarling iron - this for when you need repousse on a vessel and it is too small to get your hands and tools inside - think cup, vase and such. I brought a cheapie copper cup that I got off of eBay for her to practice on.  

Then I showed her how to put a vessel into her pitch bowl so she could chase on it while still moving/rotating the vessel when moving on to the next section.

The last thing we worked on and spent most of our time on was FORGING!  We started off with some basic exercises - different shaped hammers moving the metal in different directions; forging round stock (wire) into a square and a rectangle; and then tapers and cross tapers. Once that was done we made some large "jump" rings and forged some bangles. After Jan had the hang of it; I then pulled out some ..wait for it SILVER so she could make a forged bangle using a precious metal. It was her first time working in silver and to see her reaction, watch the small video below and then look at all the pictures I took.
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As a result of playing with the red oxide patina the past few weeks and having to make some presents for people, I thought that this past weekend was the perfect time to do so. I acquired some more copper sheet but it as only 1/8" thick, not the heavy 1/4" stuff. I forged and formed 3 dishes on Saturday and on Sunday I again, flamed on!   Here is a "music" (slide show) video of it all.
NOTE: click the arrows in the lower right corner and it will fill the screen.

Over the 3-day, Labor Day weekend, I was up in Arroyo Grande, California giving a private tool making workshop to Jan who makes metal sculptures and also does chasing & repousse.. Jan, I met via Facebook but we have never actually met until she attended the In-Saign workshop just a few weeks ago. It was during this workshop that Jan and I discussed a chasing & repousse tool making workshop, as she had never made any tools before; she had just seen demonstrations. It was after she went home, that we settled on having the workshop over Labor Day.

I arrived late Friday night so we could start Saturday morning, making tools.  We went over the basics and started her off making a tool and by lunch time Jan's first tool was completed. She was very excited to have accomplished this.  After lunch,  Jan completed a second tool as well. While Jan was working on her tools, I was working on a few for myself, all the while watching and instructing her. 

We finished up the tool making at around 4pm so we went for a walk with Sophie, Jan's dog and afterwards we played with learning how to get a red-oxide patina on copper which had been a topic we had discussed with Saign our awesome teacher, during the In-Saign workshop. 

On Sunday, day 2, Jan made THREE more tools and I made her a bonus tool too. As the day ended we took Sophie for another walk and just enjoyed the weather.

On Monday, day 3 or 2.5, I gave Jan as soldering lesson with the goal that we would make, together, a tool canister. Jan, being a metal artist knows how to braze and weld but not solder - go figure. We cut the canister bodies from pipe, the bases from sheet and then went for it and by lunch the can's were soldered and now she just has to trim the bases and clean them up. 

Here is a little side/movie of the days adventures.

In the Chasing & Repousse group we are having a challenge, our first one, and the subject is Octopus.  

Having come back from my travels and finished a few things, I am now focusing on the project for said challenge.   I won't tell you what my finished piece will be but I have been doing some practice work to figure out an important element - the sucker.

Here some items we have posted in the group for inspiration

First up a link to an exhibition at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Next two videos, the image I found that started the challenge  and then at the bottom my sample work

As I wrote in my last post  I had joined a project called "A Hundred For One" which is a project to benefit CERF+ 

A LOT HAS HAPPENED SINCE THEN

What is important is the project suddenly hit critical mass.  When I signed up, I was #81 on the list and the number of links was going to be limited to 100. Just before I left for Tucson (I went to Tucson for another chasing & repousse workshop but that will be another post when I put the finishing touches on the project. ) I mailed the link off to the organizer Peter D'Enbeau and soon after I arrived I found out my link was #60 on the chain.

And thanks to Peter's idea and people talking about it in the Facebook group, suddenly we had people from all over the world asking how to participate and could they still send a link and it looked like there would be over 100 links. 

Then Peter headed out to Tucson too and while he was gone, I think the postie went on strike and just gave up trying to deliver all the packages to Peter's shop.  It was two trips to the post office to pick up all the bins. (UPDATE: According to Peter there were 70+ waiting for him when he got home)

Now we have people who have volunteered to find out about crowd funding the printing of books and posters so more money can be raised for CERF+ plus some other ideas that are being tossed about. 

Here is a link to the public group, on Facebook if you want to find out more.  This should work for those of you who don't have a FB account.

And the work is amazing.
Here is a photo of the chain so far - this does not have all the links that arrived last week and links are still arriving. The number of links so far (on and off the chain) is over 140!

It has taken a few days to sort out but NC Black will be coming to The Adventurous Silversmith's studio in September to give a 2+ day workshop.

They will be teaching the Micro Shell Forming workshop, here at my studio, the weekend AFTER they teach their new workshop Raven Skull Interpretative Raising at Adams Forge in LA. 

Follow this link to find out the who, what, when , where, and how to sign up.  OR look up at the menu and select WORKSHOP....