Weekend work
Sep. 10th, 2006 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
afmetalsmithI do love the enameling part of enameling! Yesterday I finished the enameling on the cloisonne smiley and started the clean-up on it. It's looking nice! Today I did the rest of the hard grinding down, and now just have to go over it with successively finer grits until it's smooth. Then it's back in the kiln for a quick fire-polish, then polish the metal...
And then the setting. But! I redesigned the setting today and am happier with it both aesthetically and practically. Aesthetically, it's now asymmetric, which I think is more "fun" and lighthearted, plus the forged "ribbons" will look more like floating ribbons now that they're larger. Practically, asymmetric is a lot easier to make than achieving symmetry. :P Also it's using 2 yellow sapphires- a 5mm and a 3mm- instead of the 5mm and 3 3mm, making finding a color match a ton easier. It's now got 2 instead of 4 black diamonds, and could probably live with none, but I like the idea of having both black and yellow stones.
Yesterday I got the filigree ready to enamel. First I gave it a gentle doming, during which the diamond setting fell off. Annoying! but better now than later! So I soldered it back on, more securely, and then depletion gilded the piece using about 10 rounds of heating and pickling. Then today I started enameling it! I think the black parts are done. The eyes and smile are the largest, and the black I used (Allcraft- which I think is Latham- O101)seems to be pretty forgiving which I needed in the smile. That smiley is pretty much a worst-case for plique! -long, skinny, curved, and with a couple of corners. But the black looks good. There were also a lot- 28- of tiny little cells around the outside that needed to be black. Tomorrow I can start the yellow. I'm using a Japanese translucent for this, since I think a transparent wouldn't display as well in the show without back-lighting, and I doubt that'll be happening. The cells for the yellow are a bit on the large side, but I'm hoping it will work OK; usually the Japanese opals are also pretty forgiving.
I got one more thing up on Etsy- a pair of chainmail earrings. J had gotten a really nice picture of them. Still, I REALLY need to get Halloween stuff up, including a better picture of the bat tie tack pins! I should probably head onto my main computer and work on those pretty soon.
And then the setting. But! I redesigned the setting today and am happier with it both aesthetically and practically. Aesthetically, it's now asymmetric, which I think is more "fun" and lighthearted, plus the forged "ribbons" will look more like floating ribbons now that they're larger. Practically, asymmetric is a lot easier to make than achieving symmetry. :P Also it's using 2 yellow sapphires- a 5mm and a 3mm- instead of the 5mm and 3 3mm, making finding a color match a ton easier. It's now got 2 instead of 4 black diamonds, and could probably live with none, but I like the idea of having both black and yellow stones.
Yesterday I got the filigree ready to enamel. First I gave it a gentle doming, during which the diamond setting fell off. Annoying! but better now than later! So I soldered it back on, more securely, and then depletion gilded the piece using about 10 rounds of heating and pickling. Then today I started enameling it! I think the black parts are done. The eyes and smile are the largest, and the black I used (Allcraft- which I think is Latham- O101)seems to be pretty forgiving which I needed in the smile. That smiley is pretty much a worst-case for plique! -long, skinny, curved, and with a couple of corners. But the black looks good. There were also a lot- 28- of tiny little cells around the outside that needed to be black. Tomorrow I can start the yellow. I'm using a Japanese translucent for this, since I think a transparent wouldn't display as well in the show without back-lighting, and I doubt that'll be happening. The cells for the yellow are a bit on the large side, but I'm hoping it will work OK; usually the Japanese opals are also pretty forgiving.
I got one more thing up on Etsy- a pair of chainmail earrings. J had gotten a really nice picture of them. Still, I REALLY need to get Halloween stuff up, including a better picture of the bat tie tack pins! I should probably head onto my main computer and work on those pretty soon.
