afmetalsmith

While poor Fabio still is living in hois box, I got a bunch of other stuff done this weekend.

I made excellent progress on some commission work.

The gift piece I'm working on for a friend is heading toward completion. I decided that the bail was too off-center, so re-did it and now it's good. I then put it in the timbler for a bit for a pre-polish, and next need to polish the inside of the setting, since the stone is translucent; I will then "cure" it for an hour at 250F (or whatever the appropriate temp is), to pull up a germanium oxide coat on the argentium backing that will prevent it from tarnishing under the stone- and THEN, I can finish the puppy! :)

I also made a pendant wingnut, like my wingnut tie tacks/lapel pins on Etsy. I'm debating what color stone to put in it; right now I'm leaning to black onyx, for the noncommittal (plus, black and silver look so nice together!).

I had a bad seam on an Argentium mobius ring, so I cut that part out and re-soldered it- so I now have an extra Argentium silver ring. I've been playing with a different setting style for stones in this ring, and plan to use this one as a prototype/test piece; I want to be SURE the setting is secure before I offer it for sale!

I also played with a couple of experiemental pieces; once they get done, I'll probably put them up on Etsy.

And tomorrow- I should get Fabio's cabinet stand! and then we can figure out how, exactly, to mount the dude on it... Eep.

WOEZ!

We cannot erect Fabio until we have the key to his cabinet-stand.

And while we have lots of add-ons to that stand- they do not include THE KEY.

I will be calling Rio Grande tomorrow and whingeing about this.

I mean- sending a LOCKED CABINET and NOT sending the KEY??? Ridiculous!

Also: I can has a Facebook!

Yes, I have been dragged kicking and screaming (OK, more like cussing) into the 21st century.

If you are on Facebook, you can see my brand-new page be searching for "AFMetalsmith". I will be doing my best to update it and add photos and other content as I can.

Productive day today, despite it beeing Halloween and all. :)

I mailed off 3 things to the people who wanted them, and I made good progress on 3 wedding ring commissions, plus a bit of other stuff; I'll get progress photos of the latter tomorrow and send them to their respective people.

I'm really looking forward to habving more time for my own experiments, AND to update my sady neglected website!

Also: I am getting my dream rolling mill on Wednesday. While i don;t usually name tools, I think this dude needs a name; when I said that to 2 separate people, both suggested "Fabio" as their first impuls. So I think that's his name. :)

Good day in the studio today, and yesterday, too! meaning, this morning I mailed off 2 finished pieces, and tomorrow I can mail off a third. This gets my commission list down to very manageable, so it's probably time to start trying to get more. :P

I've also been getting stuff done on a gift piece (which will remain secret until the recipient gets it), and the final scent locket- I worked out a different bail-catch technique for this one which seems to be working OK, so now all I need to do is make some pads, set it up in a box, and get a good photo or 2.

And as far as commissions go- yeah, I love doing them! But I also love working on some of my own stuff (and there's a pin for my mother-in-law that I need to get DONE before she visits over the Xmas holidays). So, if no more commissions are in the offing right now, that's cool; I can maybe finish up some of my long-ongoing projects, maybe start a new fun one or 2, and do some prototypes and Learning Experiences. Sounds like fun, either way. :)

I had an excellent day in the studio yesterday, though today was a bit meh. I did some work on some commissions, tweaked the fit of the fianl scent locket (so all it needs now is the finishing), etc.

I also unpacked my Rio order (NOT including the rolling mill!). I now have nicer boxes for fancy pendants, plus some nice but less-expensive boxes suitable for, say, 2+ Trinket Rings.

Also: the wherewithal to try out the new bronze PMC stuff- meaning a small package of it, plus a stainless steel covered box for firing it, plus 5 pounds each of 2 kinds of treated charcoal with which the vessel is filled- and the fork to get the box into and out of the kiln.

The fork came separately, since it's long and bulky. UPS did a fine job of mauling it, too, though J was able to put it back into shape. But when I was unpacking it, it seemed like there was something else in the box. Weird! So I opened the whole thing up- not that hard, since UPS had done at least half of that work for me- and lo! there was in it a totally random t-shirt. It is pink, with a cute cartoon of a tail-wagging dog on the from, labeled something like "Instant message"- it's not a Rio t-shirt or anything.

I am baffled by the shirt.

I've been mostly making progress on various commissions, so there's not been much to write about lately. For example, today I gor 1 DONE (except for the engraving), and 2 more with significant progress- all ready for photos to go to their people, and tomorrow I expect to do similarly...OK, maybe without anything getting DONE. :)

My big news is- if we can find a place that carries them, it looks like I can order my dream rolling mill! Woohoo! I have SO many things I want to do with it... It's the big Durston double-combination one, that'll roll a full 6-inch width flat on the top and has a bunch of wire-rolling options on the bottom and sides- and with an **11:1** gear reduction ration, my dears, on the flat. :) For contrast, my current one has a 4:1 GRR, and won't do stuff anything like as thick as this one will, which is causing me some angst and whingeing at the moment.

Oh, PLEASEpleaseplease...!

Pretty productive day again today. OK, I ran into yet another problem with that commission scent locket- but I fixed it, and now it and its siblings have been pre-polished; I hope to finish the polishing and/or harden them all tomorrow, and then they will be DONE, or very close to.

Also worked on various rings, all commission, and put together a couple of pairs of Celtic earrings made from previously-done castings, one of which I have sold.

I did have some time to work on some of my own stuff: a gift pendant for a friend (since the stone is translucent, I decided to scrap the sterling backing I'd cut and go with Argentium instead; I will bring up the germanium oxide on it before setting the stone, so it won't tarnish); and a couple of pendants I've been prepping for resin inlay. My Sat. student is intrigued by inlay, so I've promised to save the actual inlaying part for next Sat. when she's here.

The pendants are 2 square-ish Dublin rose designs, one in bronze and one in silver. I know I'll use reds (bright and dark) for the silver one, but am undecided about the bronze; anyone have any color ideas that are better than that one to go with a golden-brown metal?

I've been busy lately! It's both due to necessity, and to the fall weather making me more ambitious; I LOVE fall- the weather's so nice (I like cool more than hot), plus we're heading into the Season of Holidays!

So: I've finished up several commissions that had been dragging on longer than I'd like- mostly because they were idiosyncratic, and thus I ran into problems that i don't tend to hit when I'm doing stuff I've done lots of times before. Still, all's well and they're done, and mostly sent off, and now I'm back to commissions with indiosyncratic variations on themes, but nothing quite as sui generis as the former ones.

In other words, I'm back in my comfort zone (except for some experiemental stuff I'm doing that's NOT commissions), and that is definitely more comfy.

Today I mostly did prep: I forged out and annealed a bunch of ring blanks, so they're all ready for the next step. (And it's cool enough that having the kiln on for an hour or so was attractive!)

Yesterday I got most of the 1 remaining not-ring commission done; I'll do the final soldering tomorrow, and then can start the finishing. I do have one more set of wedding rings to add to the queue, but they are gifts and are sterling silver, so that's pretty different from the others all gold and/or palladium). I would like to finish these gift rings soonish, though.

While things were annealing, I sorted through some of my in-process work on my bench. I'm going to finish some of these ASAP.

Ouch! and also Ye gods!

Gold is up over $1000/oz again. OK, proportion-wise, that's not THAT much more than the middle to high $900s, but still.

Owie.