In the blog post prior to this, I gave you a brief hint about my bowl for the Super Bowl Challenge.
I have tried TWO times to participate but the first time I burned my hand and gave up. The second time, I stretched the metal as I was raising it to too much and I gave up again.
Then for the past 3 years I was in Tucson during the challenge and did not even try to participate.
This year, I wanted to and have completed the challenge
Since the challenge can be started before Super Bowl Sunday, I started to raise the bowl about 4 weeks ago. It is not a big bowl, it actually fits in my hand BUT with so many other things happening, I wanted to give myself plenty of time.
And then, with the new house being renovated, we are in Texas at the moment to do some design selections and a walk through. THUS I really could not finish the bowl today. THUS I finished it last weekend.
I went in a different direction and didn't even do any chasing and repousse on the bowl. I enameled it. I learned torch fired enameling in 2012 and I made a ring, and had not done any other enameling since despite having bought the basic supplies. Thus, I wanted to play with enamel and see what I could do on a small bowl. It was about having some fun.
After I finished raising the bowl last Saturday. I went into my copper scrap pile and got some pieces of copper I could do some tests on as I had a sample box of enamel and color names but no clue as to what they would look like. I did about 6 test firings and on Sunday, I went into the garage with TWO plumbers torches (one was MAP and the other Propane) , the bowl and the enamels. I first did a counter coat on the outside in a nice bright green. Then applied a cobalt blue to the inside of the bowl and a deep blood red to the rim.
Despite using TWO torches and forming a bit of a box with my fire bricks, it did take some amount of time to get the bowl hot enough for the enamel to melt and fuse. Yet, overall I do like how it turned out and YES, I did have fun.
Here is my bowl and of course, some process pictures which include some of the bowl cooling and you can see the enamel colors come out.
I have tried TWO times to participate but the first time I burned my hand and gave up. The second time, I stretched the metal as I was raising it to too much and I gave up again.
Then for the past 3 years I was in Tucson during the challenge and did not even try to participate.
This year, I wanted to and have completed the challenge
Since the challenge can be started before Super Bowl Sunday, I started to raise the bowl about 4 weeks ago. It is not a big bowl, it actually fits in my hand BUT with so many other things happening, I wanted to give myself plenty of time.
And then, with the new house being renovated, we are in Texas at the moment to do some design selections and a walk through. THUS I really could not finish the bowl today. THUS I finished it last weekend.
I went in a different direction and didn't even do any chasing and repousse on the bowl. I enameled it. I learned torch fired enameling in 2012 and I made a ring, and had not done any other enameling since despite having bought the basic supplies. Thus, I wanted to play with enamel and see what I could do on a small bowl. It was about having some fun.
After I finished raising the bowl last Saturday. I went into my copper scrap pile and got some pieces of copper I could do some tests on as I had a sample box of enamel and color names but no clue as to what they would look like. I did about 6 test firings and on Sunday, I went into the garage with TWO plumbers torches (one was MAP and the other Propane) , the bowl and the enamels. I first did a counter coat on the outside in a nice bright green. Then applied a cobalt blue to the inside of the bowl and a deep blood red to the rim.
Despite using TWO torches and forming a bit of a box with my fire bricks, it did take some amount of time to get the bowl hot enough for the enamel to melt and fuse. Yet, overall I do like how it turned out and YES, I did have fun.
Here is my bowl and of course, some process pictures which include some of the bowl cooling and you can see the enamel colors come out.
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