I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Click to open in an larger view, read the caption and scroll to the next.
Last weekend was the 3rd and last session of fold forming with Pat. Actually this last session was not really fold forming at all but was about Patina and we used our fold formed pieces or other scrap to apply the patina too.
During the first hour or two of the class Pat explained natural patina's as well as commercial products that could be used to apply a patina to metal work in lieu of waiting week, months, or years for a natural patina to develop. Pat also showed examples of using secondary materials to affect the patina so a pattern - even if random, would develop. Here are some pictures of my completed pieces. One technique of metals I’ve wanted to explore is fold forming and months ago I purchased the definitive book on the subject – Foldforming by Charles Lewton-Brain http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1929565267/theganoksinpr-20 I figured this would be something I would eventually explore with Deb as there were so many other subjects and techniques to learn, it was quite a ways down on my list. When I was down at the Vista Antique Gas & Steam Engine earlier in the month, I found out that they were having a 3 one day classes in fold forming and patina with each class being on a Sunday. I signed up for it immediately. Two weeks ago was the first class and I had a great time. Pat Downing is teacher and he is a fun and very relaxed man – he spent the morning talking basics and demonstrating various folds. You can see some of his work here http://www.patdowning.com In the afternoon we attacked the copper which he supplied as well as many hammers and other tools. Everyone in the class help each other with annealing the copper, ideas and great conversation. (you can see pictures of my fold forming here) I started off with just playing with some scrap so the first two aren’t really “anything”. I just made some practice folds with no ideas as to what or where to go with it. The third piece I made is a sample mini cuff, it might fit a small child but not an adult. I started off with the pulled fold and then saw it as a possible cuff design, so I worked it up with the material I had. After the mini cuff, I did a fold where the folded edge is forged to make longer and thus the piece will curve when opened. My next piece was a M fold (imagine the metal folded like the letter) a and this time I forged the bottom edge of the M which is the center fold and the legs on either side – just keep pondering this and when you see the picture, you will understand it. This past Sunday I went to the second class were we learned how to do bowls and boxes and lids. I only made 2 pieces but since one is a box with a lid, you could count it as three. When I started the ‘cup’, Pat told me how he would do make it; then I told him how I wanted to do it and he could not see my idea. The conclusion, before I started, was hey, that was what experimentation is about. He went off to help another student and I set about to making my cup. When I was done I found Pat outside eating his lunch and showed it to him. He just shook his head in disbelief – because he really did not think it would work. I then made my box. It is does not have a square footprint, it is actually more of a trapezoid with one of the short sides even shorter than its opposing side. I used a dapping punch on carpet to make the bumps on the box walls. Because of the trapezoid shape I had some difficulty cutting the bottom to fit inside and this resulted in me using a few more rivets to attach the bottom. Pat had spent some time during the demo to tell us about making lids. He stated that placing a fold formed or flat piece of metal across the top of a box was not a lid if it was not fitted; nor was making a fitted lid that flat would not make the box interesting. Lids should add something to the box or bowl being made. When I started the lid Pat commented on the folding, thinking I was making another piece like I did last week – no, I said as this was the start of lid. When I had the forging done and had opened the folds some I then flattened the legs, placed the piece on the box and told Pat I was done which resulted in a mild look of shock as he thought I was serious. At that point I relieved his fears and said I was just making a joke of what he had told us NOT to do, earlier. I went and annealed the piece so I could then fold down the corners to make a fitted lid. This bending also pulled the fold formed section down and opened it a bit more. Once done I again showed Pat and he was pretty amazed at how I forged the M-fold and turned it into a lid; he also commented that maybe my background in raising has allowed me to see how to form the metal a little differently than him as he does not know how to raise. After class, I offered to be his teaching assistant the next time he teaches the class. He is not teaching again until September and said that he would keep it in mind. During this week, I will cleaning the pieces I made in class as well as a few other pieces including one or two from Haystack. Why? Next Sunday is the third and final class with Pat. We will be doing patina, coating and sealants – some made from household items and some commercial patinas. We will be using some of our work from the prior 2 classes to apply the patina to. My husband Erich has decided to come to that class with me as the subject of patina and using household products to make them interests him. He is my chemical go to guy and he can mix up a mean pot of pickle! When we last saw our Adventurous Silversmith...........
On March 19, I had a class with Deb and because I was still having some problems with stretching and thinning of the metal this session was to focus on resolving what ever bad habit was causing this and why. To be honest we thought we had figure it out during the session in January and yet I was still thinning the walls of my pieces. A few days before this session, I took some of my stakes and placed them in their respective holders and had my husband take pictures of me, at the stake, with a hammer. After we had taken some 2 dozen pictures, I sent them off to Deb to look at. Why? This was to see if I was striking and my arm/body was in the the correct position. When I am at Deb's I use my stakes but I am working at her tables with her stake holders. At home, my tables are at a higher height, so I stand on a box hoping to achieve the correct position. At Deb's she commented that she did not think it was my setup/position at home, though it could use a slight adjustment. But Deb thought she knew what the problem was as we had almost exhausted every other reason. What was the conclusion? I am over working the metal. I am striking it too much during each course and round of raising. After much discussion and analysis, we then had me start a new piece doing what we called "SPEED RAISING" to prove the theory. And, it did. With out a lot of detail - let's just say it is amazing how fast you can raise a vessel with so few blows. I came home with 2 assignments - finish the speed raising and with another piece of copper do a similar exercise with sinking. My next class was to be on March 5th as I was to bring my homework back then. We all know what happened next, and that March 5th class was canceled. And here we are. I can not believe that I have not picked up a hammer or done any metal work in over 6 weeks. Today I am straightening up my office and studio and hopefully sometime this week, I hope I can get reacquainted with my hammer, if they will even talk to me. Last weekend was another "2nd Saturday" with Deb. I took down my silver dish to solder the base on to it and to work on a piece with curves.
Before we got started, I showed Deb the smashed vessel from the "Put The Hammer Down..." event. We discussed what I was doing and the events that transpired that resulted in me smashing it. I mentioned that I had changed to MY stake which was similar to her Dixion 13 but the dimensions were smaller; and Deb agreed that the stake change cause the shape to change and I would not have "recovered it" unless i was willing to continue and change the vessel to match my stake OR I could have stopped, gotten Deb's stake back and fixed it then. BUT of course this is after the smashing - hind sight is great but NEXT time, you DON'T change stakes mid-stream while working on a curve UNLESS YOU ARE CHANGING direction! I also discussed how on the new piece, there was still a small bit of stretching occurring and I felt that she should also look at my hammering technique to see what I was not doing right (wrong is such an ugly word). In Deb's studio, I set up my stake at what I thought was the correct height and place my copper vessel on the stake and proceeded to land a few strikes on the wall of the vessel. Thats all it took for Deb to see what was going on. First: my stake was positioned a bit to high Secondly: my blows were not landing the hammer face flat onto the metal. Together, these two things were resulting in me doing more forging versus compression. You need the compression to bring the walls in but the forging was also pushing material forward from the hammer face, thus stretching the metal ever so slightly. Basically in very simple terms what was (not any more!) happening was the bottom edge of the hammer was hitting the metal and the stake before the majority of the face of the hammer did. This mid-course correction has made my work easier as I am now getting more compression [that's thickening of the matter] and less stretching. It has also made me work a bit slower but more exact resulting in more symmetry around the diameter as well. As Hans Solo said to Luke Skywalker, after Luke hit his first target and was whooping it up, while in the Millennium Falcon.. "Don't get cocky kid". My next post will be about my new fascination with fold forming and the experiments I am doing |
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