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 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.
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