Quick post update...

Oh how the time has flown. 5 months since my last post.

The less said about the last 5 months the better. I survived it.

Onto the updates.

Our lease is up (has it been a year already?) and busy looking for new digs.

So that is (not) fun.

Got some summer projects lined up, which has me excited.

I was regifted a small enamel kiln, which after I finish refurbishing I will doing more plique-a-jour pieces.

Also I have been inspired by the cool little blog called Knock-off Wood. So after I get moved in I am going build this.

From Furniture pics

Lastly, a chance encounter with a lovely lady has put me on the trail of new tattoo artist. I'm terrifically impressed with his portfolio, now I just need to finalize my design (and finish my green belt.)

Thoughts on Etching ( much delayed.)

Ething a metal can be used to add texture, transfer imagery, or deepen existing imagery.

Rule 1: Etchants will etch you. Take precautions. They will also etch clothing, tools, and surfaces.. Strong etchants like Nitric Acid will cause permanent scarring and blindness. Even weaker ones can stain skin and clothes. Wear appropriate protection for the strength of the etchant, my minimum protection is safety glasses, nitrilite gloves and a shop apron. I etch with ferric chloride... if you use plan to use a stronger then upgrade to chemical gloves, arespirator and a rubber apron If you are using an acid keep baking soda around to neutralize spills and splashes .

For an effective alternate etchant not as dangerous as Nitric... but supposedly more effective then Ferric see this indestructable:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-using-Ferric-Chloride-etchant!--A-better-etc/

Rule 2: Store and etch in appropriate containers. I etch in a pyrex dish, used etchent goes into an HDPE bottle for later disposal. Since I don't know, how ABS or other plastics react to Ferric I avoided them.

Rule 3: Cleanliness is next to godliness. This mean you metal MUST be clean. Any surface contamination can act as a resist, which can cause result other then anticipated. This ALSO means clean up/neutralize your spilled etchant quickly to avoid staining/etching something other then the target piece.

Rule 4: Anywhere there is not a resist will be etched. Resists can be anything that prevents the etchant from touching the surface of the metal. Examples of etchant: PnP blue transfer paper, fingernail polish, tape (waterproof), and even sharpie mrkers.

Rule 5: Shake it like you aren't supposed to shake a polaroid picture! Okay...you don't actually shake it. But if you place the piece to be etched with the side to be etched face down and occasionally agitate the container there are two benefits. First the etched material will occasionally form a precipitate which can stick to the piece and slow down etching. Agitating allows that to follow away from your piece. The second advantage is it keeps fresh concentration of the etchant in contact with your piece.

Rule 6: Rinse! Rinse! Rinse! When the proper etching amount is reached you need to wash the piece or otherwise neutralize the etchant.

Here is a scenario of the steps I go through while etching.

Materials needed:
Tweezers (copper), Etchant, Electrical tape, Pyrex dish, needle probe (made out of heavy gauge copper wire), safety equipment, and the piece to be etched.

Step 1: Put on saftey equipment.
Step 2: Clean the metal.
Step 3: Transfer the image (either drawn on with a sharpie or PnP image whatever...)
Step 4: Cover every part Not currently being etched with a resist.

*whoops Time for Math test... To be continued...*

Metalsmithing Collected

I realized that all my metal-smithing stuff was sorta scattered around and some people may not realize you can click on the tags below to see all the items.

In any case I collected all the metals schtuff in one place in it's one web folder.

Metalsmithing

If you want to book mark that link or something, I'll try and make sure any additional work I do gets posted there along with the blog archive.

Metalsmithing final projects

I will replace these somewhat crappy pictures with better ones once I am moved into my new place and get the photo booth set up.


Second to final Project: Enameling. I did prayer beads / rosary.


The total length of the piece is ~2.5 feet.



Here's a close-up of the colored beads. There are actually two beads fused into one to create a shape reminiscent of Tibetan prayer wheels. There is also supposed to be text baked on... it didn't take.


Here is the disk at the end. It has the phrase "god is great" rendered in different languages. The etch isn't as clear as I would like but in person gives the piece a worn well loved look.

I have had an offer from a classmate to buy this, and a second classmate who wants me to make one similiar but in different colors.

Final Project: Pewter-smithing. It is a single serving tea-pot.



Brushed pewter and copper balls. Holds ~ 10oz max. Really only 8oz comfortably.


I really enjoyed the pewter-smithing. I found that most of the problems the other students were having resulted from them being to heavy handed while soldering or fusing.

I intend to make a set of matching tea cup and saucer this fall.

As a matter of fact, I am supposed to take independent study Metals in the fall and focus on these two techniques: enamel beads and pewter-smithing.

Secrets of the box.

You all remember the box, yes?

How about a close up of that lid?


Shall we look inside?

How about a close up of the inner plaque?


What could be nestled among those dividers I wonder.

Lets look...


Oooh... Airship tokens! Where on earth could they take us?

Victoria Station - Shibuichi alloy, nitric etched and tumble polished.

E.R. Burroughs Barsoomian Zoo - White bronze, nitric etched, brass brush polish.

Jules Verne Naval Academy - Shibuichi, nitric etched, brass brush polish.

H.P. Love Craft Aquarium - Copper, ferric chloride etched, liver patina.

Lemuria Crystal Mines - Copper, ferric chloride etched, liver patina.

All of them etched pretty well except the bronze, which wouldn't etch at all in the ferric chloride and etched really fast in the nitric acid. However, since I wanted the coins to be representative of survivors of some temporal holocaust from bygone age/alternate timeline I didn't mind. Same with the chew/claw marks on the Lovecraft coin. Started off as a flaw and I just went with it.

A huge thanks to "The Girl" for doing the finished artwork for the etching and "The Dad" for doing the typography.

*Edit* Corrected for spelling and Answer.

Shibuichi is a Japanese alloy that is 1/4 silver to 3/4 copper. It is a grey pink in color and patinas a variety of different colors depending on what you use.

*Edit 2* I forgot to include the lid close-up. So there it is for Ook.

What is in the box my Preciousssss?

My last project has been returned to me. I'll make you a deal, if you can guess what is in the box I will make you your very own Steampunk something. However, if you helped me with the construction/design work you don't get to guess. (Sorry dad.)

You have 48 hours.

Lego Necklace

I finally got my project from last semester, which immediately after grading, was placed in a student art show. The poor person for whom it was a Christmas present only was able to wear it for about a week before it was whisked off to another town for two months. However, it has finally returned and have taken some photos.

Some background before the pictures.

We were doing an plastic/organic burnout project. In the project instead of spruing up wax models to be burned out and cast you sprued found objects, pine cones, insects, seeds, green army men and the like. My plan was to make clockwork dinosaur pins. I spent nearly a day chopping up and modifying little toy dinos so they looked very steampunk.

They didn't burnout. Apparently even though they felt like plastic they were actually rubber.

I bought more dinosaurs, different brand.

Same thing.

Repeat for third and fourth batch of dinosaurs.

However, in the midst of all these failed castings I had cast some Lego and Lego knock-off bricks with the thought of someday doing something with them. But after wasting three weeks on failed dinosaurs and only having 5 days til I had to turn in something.... thus the necklace was born.


Some notes about the necklace. The chain/torc/thing articulates to lay flat on the chest, angle up across the collarbones, and then conform to the neck. Since the hinges are rotational, that meant the hinges on either end of the spacer bars had to be at different angles. I managed to get it right in spite of doing it at 3am the night before the project was due. I actually had a minor little panic attack in the middle of the night when I realized I had lost track of which ones were supposed to have which angle. As luck would have it, I didn't screw them up.


Also you might notice a slight bend in the left bar. The morning of our crit one of my classmates dropped it onto the cement and then kicked it while trying to pick it up. In addition to bending that bar it bent the center bar and broke a hinge... all of which had to be fixed in less then an hour...

Click picture below for center closeup.



The picture below is a close up of one of the hinges. As you can see it only rotates around the center pin making free movement around the neck impossible. Also those flat bits, if you look at them wrong they tend to break off. Flush face solder connection not the brightest idea I've ever had.



Below is the the clasp for the necklace. I nearly melted it in a moment of inattention while soldering it together. The clasp is pure silver and has a loooow melting point.


Things I would have done differently:

1) Since I was extremely rushed for time the finish (solder spills etc...) are not cleaned up to my satisfaction.
2) It is fragile. Since the construction I have figured out no less then three different ways to make nearly the identical necklace with the same movement and do it in a way that was not so prone to breakage.
3) There was supposed to be a set stone in the center piece and in the clasp, but I ran out of time.
4) Steampunk dinosaurs! I mean it's a pretty necklace but I really really wanted the dinos.

The good news is the girl loves it.

Metalsmithing Teaser

I took some pictures of our crit today and there is picture of my work on the table.

Mine is the little box with a brass top in front of the coffee cup... not the coffee cup (which actually was part of someone rather cool metal smithing project.)

Oh... and the medallion to the left. Pure bling. In fact, since I was the one critiquing it they made me wear it.

Umm... yeah.



I have no idea what my hands are doing, I just held my hands how the told me too.


The real owner of the piece...

Snow, etching, and madness

We have had an extremely weird week weather wise. Monday it was sunny and 60's/ Tuesday Sleet. Wednesday it dumped 8 inches of snow and white out conditions. Today... cold and windy. Supposedly more snow this weekend.

In other news, it's midterm season and I'm pretty certain I've done well on all of them.

Also my previous metal-smithing project was a stylistic success but actual mechanical failure. It actually broke into component part falling 2 feet onto the seat of my car. I'll post pictures and let people guess what the hell it was.

My current project (etching and turned in today) however was a huge success. Not least of which because only a 1/3 of the class seems to have actually gotten their project finished in time fore the crit today. I will get pictures of it too when I get it back.

Kenpo is also doing well. I have completed blue belt, and now we are doing review and ramping up to blue-belt test. That's going well, but I need to schedule more time for practice since my retention currently not doing so hot.

Oh... and a building blew up downtown. Never been to any of the shops mentioned so I have no particular opinion about it but it was the talk of the campus today.

Metalsmith at work.

A friend of mine had to do a photo shoot for his design book and took a bunch of pictures of me at work.

I particularly like this one because I think I look weary, beatdown and tired. In some of the other pictures frankly I look stoned, which anyone who knows me knows that was not the case.

But I was tired when he took the picture...
And here's one of me making some casting grain.

Ring a ding ding

I finally got the camera and the ring I made back in October in the same place at the same time.


Ring shank is cast bronze, cogs are brass and the stone is a Tsavorite Garnet.

Steampunk Jewelry

Here's a quick picture taken by my prof of my most recently finished pieces. I'll try and get picture of the ring soonish.

Metal-smithing Pictures

In spite of numerous set-backs, I actually got my final enamel piece done ahead of schedule. Most of the rest of class was still in the fabrication stage when I packed up, wiped down my bench and left early Thursday afternoon.

By numerous setbacks I mean I totally ruined the piece and had to start over again.

Twice. On the third attempt I nearly ruined it again but turned the mistake (melting all my silver cloisonns down) into a plus.

A quick review of my posts reveals that I only provided a teaser picture of my last enamel piece, and none of my goblet. So in order of completion...

Baba Yagga's Goblet. Raised copper bowl, forged brass legs and toes. (Don't ever try and forge brass... just don't)


Half-life Pendant. Copper tube and enamel on copper.

Catey's Mandolin. Cloisonné on copper, sterling silver hardware, pure silver back and pick.

For the record, I made the pure silver sheet and sterling wire used in this assignment. I'd also like to point out that the last time I had to buy silver it was $7 an ounce and now it is $17.50 an ounce.

Busy busy busy

So as the semester draws to a close I am a little swamped with work. My final Architecture assignment needs to be done by Monday, with the jurying for my group occurring on Wednesday the 24th.

Couple that with planning for next year, my orange blet test, and trying to finish my cloisonné piece for metalsmithing...

Well I'm a bit swamped.

However in the near future you should expect to see pictures of my raising/sinking project (Baba Yaga's Chalice), the finished half-life bead necklace, my finished model from the last architecture assignment and my finished model for this final assignment.

Your patience will be rewarded.

How geeky am I?

This geeky:



My first enameling piece.

If you get what game the symbol is from.... you win geek points.

If you know what symbol means from a physics standpoint... you win serious geek points.

Overheard in class...

Girl 1: "So like I totally went home this weekend, and my dad had totally made an all metal bong! He was so proud of it he wanted to make me one too."
Girl 2: "Gross! My dad did that once too, doesn't he know it makes like the weed like, totally taste bad!"
Girl 1: "Yeah and like who wants to be smoking in metal fumes from vaporized metal? Ya know he like made it out of brass!"
Girl 2: "That would totally kill your lungs!"

I almost turned around to point out that since they were sitting in a FRIKIN advanced metal-smithing class I would hope that they would know that would have melted almost 500 degrees before it vaporizes... and if the bong is that hot they've got a lot more serious problems to worry about.

Then I came to my senses and realized what an utter waste of my time trying to talk to the two of them would be.

Doomed and Dinner

Whilst getting signatures for my other spring classes I wandered into the art building to see if I could sign up for a metal-smithing class. Like the architecture classes, there are fixed number of seats and you need faculty permission to sign up for the classes.

Upon speaking to the admin-assistant for the department I discovered the beginning metal-smithing class was full. When I attempted to retreat gracefully she snagged a passing man in apron, told him that I was trying to sign up for the beginning class and I apparently had some metal-smithing classes in the past.

He began to grill me in earnest, asking me pointed questions about what I could and could not do. I tried to answer honestly, admitting to only having basic skills in everything except mokume-gane.

He grunted, turned back to the admin, and said "Put him in the advanced class."
He then looked me in the eye and said "It's been a while since we have had an architecture student in our class, they frequently turned out to be our best students."

Then he walked away.

Confused I turned to the admin, and seeing my the look on my she simply said... "That was the professor."

Sooo, I am signed up for a 5 credit advanced metal-smithing class, and quick perusal of the gallery shows that I will have to bust my butt to even come close to the level of skill displayed.

~~~~

Since I arrived down here I have been eating a lot of Costco salmon and brown rice. About every other meal has been salmon. But it's cheap, it's good, it good for me and Costco is convenient. Last night I made salmon tacos, and while munching on the leftovers this morning I went digging through Grandpa's cookbooks looking for a salmon chowder recipe. I didn't find one, but I did find a salmon taco recipe that was nigh identical to the delectable dish I was currently munching on.

Great minds think alike.

Anyone got any salmon chowder recipes they want o share? I have about 4lbs of salmon, and bunch of fingerling potatoes that look cute.