Rustnstuff: Pods

Showing posts with label Pods. Show all posts

Friday, July 19, 2019

Finishing pod vessels

Quite some time ago I started a trio of pod vessels - but many other creative demands sidetracked me. Today a I got a few hours to finish making the third pod; and then polishing all three. A few process photos of the third pod follow.

The finished trio - all are made from different recycled silver-plated copper; and all are different sizes.

I am pleased with the outcome.

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Mini pod and bone

As the title says this blog post touches on the mini pod I completed over the weekend; and the preparation of bone for carving.

First the mini pod. Called a mini because the finished pod is about 45mm at its widest point and 39cm in diameter across the top. The most difficult thing about hammering out a small pod is being able to hold it firmly on the metal stake and not hit one's thumb or finger. A few process photos follow.

As you can see from the photos below this pod is quite small compared to the earlier hand shaped pod. I was pleased with the outcome.

Recently I saw a book on bone carving in one of the local second hand book shops. I thought it would be interesting to give carving a go since I have used bone and horn in jewellery. I also wanted to see how one prepared the bone. Of course it sorted with buying a couple of large beef bones and getting the butcher to saw the knuckles off. All the surplus meat and coating on the bones had to be scraped off and marrow removed. I thin cut the bones into rectangles to enable me to finish the scraping and brushing before soaking in detergent and bleach. the dried bone looks ready for carving.

The bone I have used in the past for jewellery has usually been through a cooking process. According to the book this results in oil etc penetrating the bone. Processing it as I did is supposed to produce whiter bone - we will see.

Friday, June 7, 2019

A pod in the hand

I started making a series of pod vessels last weekend; but did not have time to get back to the task until today. My goal was to all but finish one of the pods. The good news is that I achieved that goal.

After a couple more rounds of annealing and hammering on the steel stakes you can see how the shape of the vessel is being tightened.

Along the way I found that the metal was developing a split - turns out the stamping process for putting the pattern on the silver-plated tray had created a small fault line.

But all in all the pod has turned out beautifully. The pod started life as a 10.5cm flat circle of silver-plated copper cut from a vintage tray. In the end the pod is 5cm in diameter and about 4.5cm high.

©2019 Barry Smith - The form underneath is the 10.5cm circle of metal after being sunk into a shallow bowl; and the pod on top is about 5cm in diameter - achieved by 10 rounds of hammering and annealing.

The pod looks and feels gorgeous in the hand; and the worn hammered silver-plated inside looks great - bit of copper showing through.

I will give the pod a final grind and polish when I have a few others to take over to the polishing bench.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Fun with fire on Friday

Today has been a balanced day - about half on art and half on house maintenance (scrubbing and painting the last of the decks).

Artwise I got back on to hammering larger Starburst bowls and pods. Though I had two sets of Pods on the go I only managed to complete the small set of three pods.

After seeing the colours the annealing flame can make I decided today that I would maintain some of the colour on one of the Starburst bowls and on the small Pods. Photos below show both the Starburst bowls and the small Pods on the annealing pit before taking them off for grinding and polishing. The photos are not great as they were taken in a bit of a rush with the iPhone.

And then this is how the larger Starburst bowls turned out. I took a photo with the small Starburst bowls to just show the contrast in size.

And they fire treated Starburst bowls looks great with the unpolished interior and polished edges and back.

And the small Pods look like some ancient things I found. I deliberately finished these Pods in different ways: one still slightly open; one egg like; and one that I flared a little. I deliberately also cut and hammered the edges to give them a ragged texture

Of course I just have to share a bit more of the colour and texture of the inside of the heat coloured Starburst bowl.

Now I think it is time to make a roast pumpkin and blue cheese risotto - accompanied by a red wine of course.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

I was supposed to be sorting my studio areas ….

I promised myself that over the weekend I would finish sorting my studio areas because they were in chaos after pre holiday and open studio work, recent commission and purchases in Arizona and NYC. I did make a good start but yesterday afternoon I succumbed to the lure of metal; and this morning was given over to a printmaking 'play day' with a couple of fellow artists.

I just had to finish the pods I started on Friday; and I wanted to test a new stake I purchased from Greg Wilbur in Portland Oregon. I wanted to see how the stake dealt with making tiny raised bowls. Well you can see from the photo below that the stake worked well. The tiny bowl in my hand was hammered from a square scrap (about 3.5cm square) of brass from an old jardiniere.

The copper rivets on the bases of the Pods have worked a treat - a good way to fill the holes and create a design feature?

I also used the stake to round in the edge of the more conical of the 3 pods in the photos. The Pods look great - all are quite small - all about 40-50mm long and 43-50mm in diameter. Two of the Pods are silver plated EPNS and one is silver plated copper. The small brass raised bowl looks good with the group.

I gave the larger Pod another polish and made a small brass stand for it out of a slice of brass tubing.

A good art weekend; as well as a good social weekend of catching up with friends. Oh well - I guess I will sort the studio areas during the week!!!!

Friday, January 17, 2014

Reciprocity

Over the last couple of days I have been sorting out my working areas and also sorting metal; but I have also been doing a couple of pieces of work that are to repay other artists for their contribution to my work. In the first instance I made a name badge-brooch; and in the second I made a Pod. These pieces repay folk who give stuff to me to recycle for my art. In the first instance crystals and metal; and in the second watch and clock bodies and parts.

My post tonight focuses on Pods. I had committed to make a Pod out of a baptismal cup that belonged to the clock part giver. I decided to make several other Pods from bases of goblets and a trophy cup as part of my Friday art. The recycled goblet bases all had holes in the centre so I decided to experiment with the inclusion of a copper rivet and copper washer to fill the hole.

In the development stage the Pods can look pretty ugly as you push the metal from almost flat or shallow bowl forms into a deeper bowl and then pod form.

With a little more hammering and polishing they take on a beautiful form and lustre. The small Pod is shown with the copper rivet on the bottom. The larger Pod made from the baptismal cup was silver plate over copper. The silver plate was thin so the copper shows through with hammering and polishing.

I hope to continue work on the other pods over the weekend. The baptismal cup Pod has worked out well; and I think a lovely bit of reciprocity for the watch and clock parts.