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. 

Over on my About - Artists Statement page there is a section titled Answers to Other Questions. In this section I actually rant on about the term SILVERSMITH and how making jewelry in silver is NOT silversmithing.  

This weekend, I challenge myself to make a set of Napkin rings in brass so I could prototype a design and working in brass is very similar to working in sterling silver due to the work hardening nature of the material. Copper is easy to work in but too soft to get an idea of how long it might take to make something or how the metal moves.

Oh, and YES this is still silversmithing due to the nature of the item not the material.

I was experimenting on Thanksgiving day with synclastic and anticlastic forms because on my trip to Haystack back in 201, you can see the two copper forms I made while there on this page, and I have wanted to do napkin rings with this shape since then. 

From the first anticlastic shape, I ended up actually turning it in to a cuff.  I then make a synclastic shape and did an all over hammer texture.  I liked it but I was looking at it and I thought that the curve along the top and bottom edge had to be more pronounced so I annealed again and raised the edges more. I did three courses of raising and had a nice shape. Then it was off to polish and they just sparkled. It is a goal to do chasing and repousse on the napkin rings but to start, you have to form them and then I started to work more with a hammer textures and I really liked the way the first one came out - with it not being all over but just in the center and I loved it. I showed the idea to the shop elf and he agreed that it was an elegant look. I finished up the texturing at 7pm. 

Next I will be making these napkin rings in sterling silver and both the brass and sterling silver will be for sale in my store

As usual, here are some of the process pictures. 
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I finished the FOURTH Sea Urchin this morning. This is the last one in the BIG commission I was given back in May when I sold my first one and basically this is the majority of my work since then. Yes I squeezed in a cuff or two and a few workshops - given and taken but this has consumed my free time around all of them.  I promised I would get them ALL delivered before Thanksgiving as they are to be holiday presents; so thankfully I have met that promise and then some. 

Follow this link to see the other posts concerning the Sea Urchin series.

This sea urchin is an EXTRA LARGE where as the first and third were small and the second was medium/large.  I started with a 7" diameter 18g copper disk which was raised. I had to bring in the walls a bit or else it would not fit IN the pitch bowl. YES, IN IT. I removed most of the pitch from the bowl so I could literally get the shell into the bowl and then back fill around it. This allowed me to do all the repousse without having to remove and reposition it as I worked my way round the inside.  I finished the chasing last weekend and then I had to raise the edge more to roll it under. I then applied a Liberty Green patina to give it that "long under the sea" look. 

​Enjoy the process pictures. 

Yesterday, I had a private session with Deb. I have not seen her in over a year yet it was like only a few weeks had gone by.  I brought several items to work on and to discuss since so much had happened in-between this session and the last.  I brought the following to work on:

1. The crumpled bowl which has been sitting there since November of 2010. I am hoping that it could be saved and finished.
   
2. This fold formed bracelet   - I needed to form the shape into a cuff and solder the end pieces on it
3. These two vessels -  which I want to also finish and possibly use for the chasing & repousse class with David Huang in May
4. Another 4 corners dish that needed its base soldered on.
5. A hand cast, hand rolled sheet of shibuichi that I want to use for a bracelet in the chasing & repousse class with Nancy Mega Corwin in March. Deb has a great shear that I used to trim and square up my blank.
6. Items I made at Haystack for us to talk about plus pictures to look at.
7. Lots of hammers and stakes to use

The reason for some of these items being taken to the session is that I STiLL don't have a good soldering setup at home and Deb has 2 wonderful stations with torches and tips.

I did all of the soldering with some great assistance and pointers from Deb and while the various items were being cleaned and pickled we talked Haystack. It was so great to catch up and share with Deb. Deb also told me about her time at Haystack.

Then we moved onto the vessels. For the crumpled one, I trimmed off the top and now I can finish the raising and plannishing. The vessel without the curves I brought in more and trued up some.  I will take the walls a bit more vertical and then have it ready for the David Huang class. the vessel with the curves was also trued, then the curved section finished - but along the way I changed the upper portion of the curve, is now more of a angle and turned (literally) up a straight rim. The rim needs a bit more work and I have some plannishing to do here as well. Then this piece will also be ready for some C&R!

Enjoy the pictures.