Chasing tools and sculpture in progress

hollow branch form in progress, base of a future sculpture, now in rush mode

chasing tool blanks laid out, next to the grinder, waiting for shaping, also in rush mode
I'm teaching a class next weekend...

I started making the tools a little longer this year. I find that blacksmiths want their tools to be a little thicker and longer than jewelers do, perhaps a matter of the type of tools and work they are used to.

examples of finished chasing tools from last years workshops. This year I will be selling individual chasing tools, as well as sets, during the workshops.

For the particular style of chasing that I teach, derived from Japanese high relief chasing, the chasing tool tips are primarily shaped like fingertips, from very small to large, but all based off the same rounded rectangular form. We are shaping the metal with our chasing tools as we would shape clay with our fingers. It only makes sense that the chasing tools would need the shape of a fingertip.

I always tells my students that if they are working efficiently and smoothly, their metal surface should look as if it were sculpted by fingers. I shouldn't see stamp marks or hard edge tools marks. It should look all nice and squished.

Grass inspired Cupboard pulls

The cupboard pulls are done!

Work in Progress

Ten pitch bowls are filled and ready for work

An ice cream pail full of chasing tool blanks are ready for annealing

Custom Cupboard pulls in progress, about 12 inches long

Two of these 3 pieces are in my Etsy store. 

and finally, a welcome sign of spring in our yard

Oeey Gooey Workday - Melting Pitch

First I cooked this- Pitch! I'm getting ready to teach a workshop in a few weeks, so I needed to prepare at least 8 pitch pots for the students to use. I provide pitch pots and chasing tools that the students can use during the class. At the end of the class, the students can purchase the pot and tools, or give them back, no strings attached. This is such a specialized technique, that I feel it's not fair to ask the students to spend so much money right away, before they've even know if they'll continue with it.

Here's the bowls, filled with chunks of cold pitch, going into a 275°F oven. Temperature varies by each oven and even by each batch of pitch. Safety glasses and heavy duty hot pads are a must. Follow the directions and safety precautions that come with your own batch of pitch. Read the msds, and so on...

After about 15 minutes

After nearly an hour and out of the oven

We'll still need to add little bit more pitch on top when we start the chased relief work, to fill the back of the metal pieces.

Those are nice sturdy pitch pots, about 8 inches across and 4 inches deep. I fill them completely with pitch, quite expensive. A lot of jewelers, who aren't tapping hard at all, will fill their pitch pots 2/3 with plaster or lightweight concrete blends. For myself, and in my workshops, the plaster or concrete would pop out at an inconvenient time. I guess I tap a lot harder with my hammer.... Hey, if you're not tapping it hard enough to break out the plaster, you don't even need a pitch pot. Save yourself a little money. Just stick a lump of pitch on a depression in a block of wood and go for it.

As if that wasn't enough ooey gooey, I also melted down a bunch of pig fat and made suet cakes for the wild birds.

This fat has been waiting in the freezer for months, since we got half a butchered pig from one of our neighbors. It really wasn't as hard or messy as I thought it would be. Maybe next fall I'll try making lard.

Main St. Station display (and dog)

I like this picture. I'm not sure how my quite regal lovely Irish ancestor would feel about it.

I've recently put up a display at Main Street Station, a public market in Viroqua. It works a bit like an antique mall. They charge a small booth fee to the artist and a reasonable commission on purchases. Here's my display so far. I made the screen to hang my hooks, bracelets and some leaves. It also helps to create some division between my work and the stuff around it. I've got some wallpieces hanging on the wall behind. I am in the process of making some more tabletop displays to create different levels. I'd like my displays to be a bit more portable than the existing screen, so I can take them and use them at art festivals. I'm going to get rid of the bunny pins (which you can hardly see in this photo) and focus strictly on ironwork. The bunny pins are still for sale on Etsy!

I know that white desk lamp just doesn't fit in. Some well-intentioned person must have put it up to help illuminate the pieces (which I appreciate). I will have to find a small lamp that fits into the display theme better. I'm taking this slowly, making and acquiring display items as I can.

This is a great space for me to develop my display ideas, support local commerce, meet other artisans, and make some sales at the same time. I hope that more one-of-a-kind creative artists start displays and that the owners start grouping those displays closer together.

Oak Leaf wallpieces, patina, bronze bamboo segments

A Joyous Easter to all of you

I suppose I'm doing this in a backward order, but here are the segments of bronze pipe, flared, before welding together into the bamboo.

Now for more patina/color photos. I made two more oak leaf wallpieces, smaller this time, about 12 to 14 inches high. The first photo shows them with un-sealed patina. The second shows them soon after I applied the tung oil varnish. You can see the distinct muting of the colors. This time, I made the color less subtle in the first place, so it would still show up somewhat after sealing.

I've used some Prismacolor pencil on them in the house and have a few detail shots. I may still lighten up the darker blue toned piece with some pencil work. When the light is right, I'll put them on the wall for full shots.

And finally, during this return of winter in the midwest, I leave you with a picture of my indoor tropical gardens. The problem is- I can't enjoy the climate myself!

I had two orchids on the verge of death. In a desperate attempt to save them, I purchased the biggest glass jar I could find and turned it into a terrarium. The two plants very quickly revived and have even put out new growth. Yesterday, I added another terrarium to the collection, with 3 mini orchids. I hope they all bloom next winter! I don't know what I do about the lids when they bloom, maybe slowly open the lids for longer and longer periods each day in order to acclimate the plants as the flower stems grow. Bloom time is usually in January or February, so I have plenty of time to figure that out.
I should make my own extra tall terrariums, but it may take me a few years to get to it.

What's going on in my recent short studio worktimes?

I'm working on some tabletop display ideas. This one is a funky rusty screen with pegs on it (that you probably can't see) for hanging hooks, leaves and/or bracelets.

Here's some bronze bamboo. I started making it as a sample. The method I'm using is far too time consuming. I cut the thick-walled bronze pipe into segments. Then I stretch out and upset the ends of each segment. Then I weld the ends back together, with about an inch long piece of bronze rod stuck between them, to leave the space between the segments. That's the tricky part, getting the bronze welding rod to melt in the way I want it to, so it connects the two pieces, but still leaves a lowered area between 2 ridges. It doesn't always work quite right and then I have to go back to texture some more. It looks interesting, so I used up the rest of my pipe for the "samples." I'll probably finish them up as smaller bits in wallpieces.

I should be able to make a steel bamboo much more efficiently, using an anvil-top fullering tool. I don't know how well it would work with bronze, as bronze is still much more "squishy" than the steel. Look for more bamboo samples in a week or so, in steel next time.

My husband dug out some of my silver jewelry, lost in his office.
My favorites are the monkey earrings, small little guys.
I'll find measurements for all of these when I put them up for sale.

I've always liked the bird pin. This one is a pin, but the birds are beautiful as pendants.

An itty bitty iris pin

An itty bitty egret pin