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Oct. 20th, 2007 05:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
afmetalsmithI had a productive day in the studio today!
I finished an experimental ring I've been working on, and having some trouble with. It's a mixture of silver and bronze, with a silver lining, and the two metals expand differently when hot so the soldering was a bit tricky, to say the least. Thanks to a careful use of binding wire, and medium instead of hard solder for the final seam, I pulled it off. Then I did the usual filing and polishing, and I'm pretty pleased with the results- plus, I learned a lot!
I also did quite a bit of engraving on a blank I'll be using for cloisonne. I wanted some sparkle and texture under the enamels, even though it probably won't show through all that much. And, of course, engraving practice is a Good Thing! I'm definitely getting better, though I still wouldn't call myself "good"; I have fairly decent control over the graver now, and what I did was pretty much what I was trying to do. A good start!
I do need to spend some time readying several more gravers for use. They're shapes I really need, and can't get in the already-shirt style. So I'll have to break them off, then grind and polish the faces. Blech- not really my idea of a good time- but it's necessary, so I ought to just get it over with. Sometime soon.
I finished an experimental ring I've been working on, and having some trouble with. It's a mixture of silver and bronze, with a silver lining, and the two metals expand differently when hot so the soldering was a bit tricky, to say the least. Thanks to a careful use of binding wire, and medium instead of hard solder for the final seam, I pulled it off. Then I did the usual filing and polishing, and I'm pretty pleased with the results- plus, I learned a lot!
I also did quite a bit of engraving on a blank I'll be using for cloisonne. I wanted some sparkle and texture under the enamels, even though it probably won't show through all that much. And, of course, engraving practice is a Good Thing! I'm definitely getting better, though I still wouldn't call myself "good"; I have fairly decent control over the graver now, and what I did was pretty much what I was trying to do. A good start!
I do need to spend some time readying several more gravers for use. They're shapes I really need, and can't get in the already-shirt style. So I'll have to break them off, then grind and polish the faces. Blech- not really my idea of a good time- but it's necessary, so I ought to just get it over with. Sometime soon.
