My Pony -- Making Bronze Pony Necklace

Bronze Balls

Container for  bronze.

Pouring the bronze balls

Bronze pony emerging.

Thing that spins the melted metal into the "mold."  

Casting a small piece was a new experience...different than the sculpture process, yet same idea.

Shaped the pony in wax. Invested (surrounded by liquid compound). Burned out (wax pony figure melted), leaving negative space (where wax pony was).  Little bronze balls poured into a ceramic container, melted by torch (held in my hand).  Once it melts, the thing spins around, throwing the melted metal into mold. Dip it in water, the composition dissolves, leaving the bronze pony.

Saw off spurs, file, polish, voila. 

(Certainly would be nice if Picasa would let me line up the photos)

Mount Tamalpais Ring -- Silver

Silver ring with outline of Mount Tam . My first "more designed" ring, second ring I've made. Two layers of 20 gauge silver...cut the mountain out of one sheet, solder it onto the other. Form the round ring, solder.  Dip in liver of sulfur to oxidize, polish as desired....in this case I polished the mountain for contrast.
Mount Tamalpais jewelry.

My first bezel...

Practicing skill still.  Bezel not quite adhered to the stone, but is soldered in place, and next steps should be easy.   Still using copper since I am beginner here, but makes for a good experiment element.  

Steps:  a. sketch design, b. rubber cement to copper plate,  c. cut interior  (the interior of "petal" here)...first drill small hole so your blade can fit through, then cut as desired d. cut outside lines e. file edges...bevel as desired f. measure and cut bezel as desired g. solder bezel together h. solder bezel to piece i. pickle k. polish l. place stone m. bend bezel to conform with stone.   

Some of my polishing needs work near the bezel, so I didn't bend bezel so I could pop out the stone while I worked further.  I like that this is "3d" in that the petals bend...interior and exterior. Took the idea from a pin my Grandma used to wear...wasn't this shape, but the petals undulated. 

Bear Costume Drawing in Copper

Totally not my drawing...illustration grabbed off google search for a bear...illustrator is Sophie Blackall.   I am practicing, this is not for
commercial purposes....would be nice to be able to draw like she does when I want to....my people tend to be glorified stick figures.

Anyhow...this is still raw, not sanded, beveled, or polished...but, I like what it can lead to ---so lovely to be able to cut metal by hand. Using a bench pin, jewelers saw, and this illustration -- cut out the image in about 15 minutes. The finishing part will take longer -- will texture the bear part, heads, etc....but, to cut metal by hand relatively easily....yippee.  Will move to silver once I practice more.  Update: I textured it...including adding their faces.

Necklace -- Copper

Ok, still a rookie.  Used cuts and soldering. About 3" x 3" at widest parts.  Trying to make a bezel to wrap a stone for another project ....seems simple, but my edges aren't soldering right...so more practice.  Soldering does seem a lot more easy than welding....not good at either yet, but soldering is just melting really, dainty steps, yes, but not quite as much precision, and a lot less heat needed for soldering. 

Will move to all silver once I get skills a bit more polished.

Silver Ring

The first ring I made out of metal...well, if one does not count those aluminum pop top rings that used to be on canned beverages.  This one is real silver, soldered together two pieces of top rounded wire, made the tiny ball (easy peasy but fun), then shaped into a ring, and joined again via solder.  My new skills mount! 

Copper Bracelet -- Lace Imprint

Playing with adding texture to metal...in this case 20 gauge copper sheet.  Took a piece of lace, and then ran it through the roller. Four holes, some leather string, and a bracelet is made.  The lace is subtle, but does show up in contrast to the part I kept smooth...photography makes that a bit hard to tell.

Here is another do-dad I cut out by hand...love using hand tools ...goes slow enough to allow a good deal of control, but still cuts metal! Fine tooth blade...think my "unorthodox" sewing experience helps...I've done a fair amount of bizarre movements with the Bernina when working on Solvy projects...the movements to get the needle (or blade) to move where you want.   Note: I have broken a lot of blades, but my rate of breakage is improving.