Stringing Caught My Eye, Wirework Sucked Me In

Time keeps slipping past me! Classes begin this week at The Workspace! I so enjoy teaching there and am ready to play and explore.  Resin class is this week and Wirework is in March. Both are full. I am looking forward to the wirework class as that is what really got me interested in tools and metalworking.

A look back at one of my earliest samples of work.  Strung bracelets and an early wirework piece

I have been playing with jewelry for over ten years. I can't remember when I first began but I think one of those little project books caught my eye at the local fabric/craft store. Stringing is fun and I soon became obsessed with collecting natural - no dyes etc - gemstones. That is where I came up with the name "Silver Leaf". Silver leaf is a name of a type of jasper. Jasper is one of my favorite stones. But stringing led to looking at magazines and Step by Step Wire caught my attention with Connie Fox's work on the cover.  Her wirework was stunning and fun and I learned about base metals, silver plate and sterling.  Oh and tools! First there were the pliers.  I started out with cheap pliers. Then I could see the marks from the pliers on my wire. That is no good!! I worked on tight even coils, neat spirals and filed all ends of every wire so there would be no discomfort against the skin or snagging of sweaters. But tool marks on the wire was not cool so I bought some of that tool dip, to coat the pliers and that helped. But what helped the most was practice and the right touch and some new, more expensive pliers :) Then files and cutters and HAMMERS! weee!  So much learning too! The glossary grows - Gauge of metal, types of metal, hardness of metal, more tools and how to use them.  And since Connie Fox doesn't seem to leave California, my best bud and I drove up to Minnesota for a really fun weekend taking a class from Sharilyn Miller. She has her own fun style and I learned how to go crazy on a bead.

Crazy fun wire work on jasper and turquoise!

Have I mentioned polishing? There are so many ways to polish. You can buy stuff in a bottle, rub with a special polishing cloth, use finer and finer grits of sand paper, even hit metal with a polished hammer to planish the metal. But my favorite method is tumbling with steel shot. All of this lead to even more learning and growth and true metalsmithing. Cold joining, soldering, foldforming, ...so much fun! And still there is so much to learn.  And with classes coming up, I will learn more, hopefully my students will too. Call The Workspace at 515-294-0970.

Check out Connie Fox -although she has also "graduated" to metal work, her site is educational and beautiful. I hope to add more in depth education to this blog. But time flies!!

For wirework I also recommend Sharily Miller's book "Bead on a Wire".

Beginning Metals!

I love teaching Beginning Metals at the ISU Workspace and I am so pleased with every group! This last group really worked on different techniques and I would like to show them off here with some pictures.

The last night of class and experimentation in foldforming also invloved air chasing and sewing!  I love how organic this piece looks. It has great line and color, I think it is fabulous!

This student mastered sawing and did lots of experiementation with texture.  The ring is cut from the textured copper in the back and soldered. The "J" is riveted.

Foldforming was a hit the last night. This piece is foldformed and riveted and patina is flame.

This piece was foldformed and then the student experimented with sinking and raising and considering we didn't have a nice depression in wood to work on, she did very well. Again, flame is a favorite patina.

Exploring Nature for Inspiration and Rejuvenation

Rarely taking vacations can really make you cherish every moment of your trip.  Our family took a real -longer than a weekend - vacation - the first in 11 years this summer. We drove to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park via South Dakota and some dinosaurs and hot springs. It was wonderful. Everyone got along and it was precious time spent together as a family. Our children are getting to the age where we will soon be empty nesters so it was a last chance for us to travel together.

We hiked and explored and kept a tally of the wildlife we saw, which included TWO black bears. But as we traveled I tried to pay attention to the colors, and flora, and fauna. The landscapes and horizons. Views near and far can give ideas for projects. I took my sketch book along and also took over 2000 pictures.  I miss kodachrome but digital pictures sure save me money!!!

Flowers are a common inspiration for many and one of my favorite inspirations.

The shapes of flower petals and leaves constantly add to inspiration. One of my favorite artists is Monet who was an impressionist so his paintings used light, texture and shape but not in high detail. But when I draw for myself I want to have realistic images. Often wondered if I should have tried my hand at bio-illustration. So now when I work in metal, I am finding I want to do the same thing and obtain a realism in my shapes.

 

I am trying to challenge myself to become more abstract and stretch my creativity into an area I am not comfortable.  But still, nature is my base.

Simply being in this place is inspiring on many levels, not just artistically.

Get outside. 

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!

The Science of Work Hardening and Annealing

I had the wonderful opportunity a couple weeks ago to work with Iowa State University Program for Women in Science and Engineering K-12 Outreach Program. They have several opportunities throughout the year for young girls to experience activities that create an interest in science, technology, engineering and math. So they contacted the ISU Memorial Union Workspace where I teach metalsmithing classes and we developed an activity so they could make something and learn something and hopefully even gain some self confidence!

I chose Foldformed Copper Bangles as their project. They turned out great!

These are samples I created for the class

Each of the 54 participants (ages 8-14 in 4 groups) received a 6x1 inch strip of 26 gauge copper. I used 26 gauge because I wanted to be sure that the youngest girls could be successful hammering and unfolding their bangles.  It worked great and if we did it again I think we will use 24 gauge, although 26 is a bit cheaper.

Now the Science

Copper is an element found on the Periodic Table of Elements.  It is a noble metal. It is made up of atoms that line up in a regular pattern that repeats, forming a crystalline structure.  Copper can be soft and it can be hard. Metals can be made stronger by deforming the crystalline structure of the molecules. This is what happens when you hit copper with your hammer. You change the molecular structure of the copper and make it hard. --Work Hardening --  To make the copper soft again, you Anneal the copper.

So as you hammer away on your beautiful copper, you notice it gets stiffer, harder to bend and the sound of your hammering will become higher pitched. The molecular arrangement of the copper has been deformed thus making the copper stronger. If you continue to hammer, the copper will become harder but also brittle. This is why paper clips are easy to break. The metal is hard, but brittle. I also learned from the ISU Engineering Students who were helping the reason why the Titanic broke into two pieces. Apparently the metal that formed the ship was too hard and brittle and that is why the ship broke in two and sunk. wow.

I later watched a documentary on the Titanic and not only was the metal too brittle but the rivets of the Titanic were made of a weaker iron in the front and rear of the ship. When the ship hit the iceberg with the bow, the rivets did not hold and six seams came apart on the ship. The weakness came because there was a larger amount of slag in the iron that made up the rivets. Slag weakens the metal and in tests, metal with a higher amount of slag will not stretch as far and is more brittle than metal with less slag. I also watched a NOVA documentary about the making of viking swords. It was very interesting and helped me to understand more about work hardening and annealing and what happens at the molecular level of the metal. A sword is made of steel and worked by a blacksmith but educating yourself on a variety of art forms only adds to your own knowledge. Also the blacksmith was from nearby Wisconsin and I am now a fan. His knowledge and workmanship was remarkable. Here is a link to the NOVA episode: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/secrets-viking-sword.html

Annealing is the process of heating your copper up which helps the copper molecules get back into their nice, tidy, crystalline structure and like magic it is soft again.  I don't know about you but this blows my mind.  I love how you can work with copper over and over and over again and as long as you are careful while annealing you can work with it indefinitely.

When you anneal the copper, turn off your lamp that you use in your torch area. Dim light helps you see the color change of the copper, and that tells you the temperature of the copper. Heat your copper to a dull red. Keep it at a dull red for 10-15 seconds. To do this, keep moving your torch around and over your piece. I have to move the flame off the piece so I can see the color of the metal. You will see that the copper will first start to turn dark and then the dull red. When you move the flame away the dull red will quickly disappear as the metal instantly starts to cool. Immediately put your flame to the metal again, making passes over the metal and watching the color. Then turn off your torch and quench your piece.  Be careful though because dull red can quickly turn to bright red and that is too hot.

If you heat your copper to bright red you risk making your copper very hard -the complete opposite of annealing! So watch the color change very closely. Practice on scrap and have fun!

Trying Out Patinas

Turning Copper Green and Blue

Patina is what happens to copper and silver and other metals over time. The color of the metal changes because of the chemical reactions between the metal and the environment.  It takes many years for copper to turn green, especially where I am from in Iowa. I discovered this a few years ago when I made a rain chain for my mother-in-law and the copper turned very dark and even black in some places.  Eventually it will get some green but now I know how to speed up the process!

I have had a lot of fun learning about how to speed up patinas on copper. I have to give thanks to all the free information on the internet and in my books and hopefully this information will help you too.   After researching many recipes, I found some that I thought I could actually try with stuff I had in the house. I also wanted to work with ingredients that were not toxic and I really like the idea of creating the recipe myself as opposed to buying a jar of something pre-made. Please share what you have tried and let me know your results.

Ammonia, vinegar and salt and surprisingly saw dust are the ingredients used in different combinations to get copper to turn green or blue/green.  So far, they all turned out great, but I can generally scratch off the green with my fingernail so all material will probably need to be coated with a lacquer.

Buried Patina:
*I apologize that I can not find the actual web site that I found this information from, however I have found many others with slight variations of the bury method.  I will keep looking because I want to link to the site so the proper person gets credit. Even though she didn't invent the method but like me was just passing the information along in her blog.

 If you want a textured patina try easy, kitchen friendly Buried Patina For Blue color on copper: Add 1 part Vinegar to 4 parts Ammonia and saturate hardwood sawdust until media clumps together in a sandwich size zip-lock baggie filled with saw dust. Bury metal in media and seal the bag. Place in a warm spot and check each day to see if the color appears and is to your liking. When the color is right for you, let the piece dry out before using or sealing.  The "texture" comes from where the saturated sawdust comes in contact with the copper.

For Green color on copper: Add 1 part Vinegar to 3 parts Ammonia and saturate until media clumps together in a sandwich size zip-lock baggie filled sawdust or rolling tobacco. Bury metal in media and seal the bag. Place in a warm spot and check each day to see if the color appears and is to your liking.

For Bright turquoise color on copper:  Add 1 cup ammonia, 1 cup rock salt, ½ cup tap water to cotton squares until media clumps together and bury metal, seal bag, place in warm area, check each day

If you want a transparent patina to be able to see textures or etching try Liver of Sulphur (LOS) or other transparent patinas.Some of the above info came from books by Jinks McGrath

Painting vinegar/salt and ammonia/salt on copper works too. I simply painted the liquid on the copper, let it dry and reapplied. I did this at least three times and came up with some great results.

I was able to remove some of the patina with my fingernail. You can resolve this by working with  this method longer and making more applications and then seal the copper with lacquer or a fixative.

Ammonia with salt also gave a similar shade of green. This was really fun!

Intermediate Metal Techniques

HI! I started a post over a month ago about patinas and I still haven't finished it! I did however work on a handout for my "Intermediate Metals Class" which starts tomorrow so I thought I would post that. I worked a long time on it and think it might be helpful. It includes a bit on foldforming as well because foldforming is cool.

Intermediate Metal Techniques
The Workspace
April  2013

Terrie Hoefer
515-231-0841
terrie@silverleafshop.com

Welcome to Intermediate Metal Techniques! This class requires that you have taken the Beginning Metals class or have experience with several metal smithing techniques such as sawing, filing, and knowledge of terms such as hardness, gauge, annealing, etc.  This class will focus on Foldforming, Soldering, and Bezel Setting.

Foldforming is a fun technique that you can spend years learning and experimenting with. It gives wonderful texture and depth to metal and can add life and a story to your piece. Copper is wonderfully suited to foldforming. Copper can be folded over and over again, almost infinately. It anneals beautifully and can be the focus of your piece or an accent or it can be an entire sculpture.  I recommend the book “Foldforming” by Charles Lewton-Brain.  There is also an active Foldforming group on Facebook, and if you are serious about Foldforming they will let you join J

Annealing – Anneal after every fold. You can pickle but it is not necessary. Make sure you rinse well after pickling so you don’t have pickle trapped in the folds that could continue to damage your metal or your skin etc.

Hammers – There are lots of different hammers and mallets around. To begin, you can use your basic chasing hammer, ball peen hammer or even a mallet if there is a texture on your copper you want to protect. As you practice and learn how the metal moves with your hammers, you can begin to practice with forging hammers and raising hammers.  Brainpress.com has great information: http://www.brainpress.com/Foldformingtools.shtml.

Pliers – You will sometimes need flat-nosed pliers or a knife to pry open your folds. Usually you want to open them without leaving unwanted marks on your metal.

One of the most talented artists at The Workspace solders a ring

Soldering is fun to learn but takes practice. We will practice on scrap copper so you can get a feel for the heat of the flame, the different types of solder, and dealing with fire scale and other tricks to creating successful solder joins.  Safety first! Make sure you solder in a ventilated area, know and understand your torch, tie back loose hair and clothing, keep flammables away from torch area.

Solder – Solder comes in Hard, Medium and Easy. Hard melts at the highest temperature and has the most silver in it, easy melts at the lowest temperature and has a higher alloy content. Because hard solder has more silver it will tarnish slower. Always use hard solder first if you will be soldering more than once on a piece. For instance, use hard solder to solder a bezel closed. Then use medium or easy to solder the bezel to a back plate.  Medium solder melts at a slightly lower temperature so it will flow before the hard solder will. That way, your first seam won’t melt!

                Solder will not fill gaps. The two items that will be soldered together must fit tightly. When solder flows, it actually becomes part of the metal that is being soldered together. So a tight fit is very important.

               Your metal must also be very clean. Dirt, oil will prevent solder from working properly.

                Solder comes in wire and sheet. You can also buy solder that is in a syringe or already in a paste. The kind you use depends on what you are making. For most joins, wire or sheet solder can be cut into little pieces. Make sure you keep the solder labeled and separate from silver wire or other silver that you can confuse it with. Also don’t mix up hard, medium and easy solder. Keep the solder labeled and packaged. You don’t want someone to use easy solder when they need hard!

Flux – Flux prevents firescale by protecting the solder and metal from oxygen. Too much flux can bubble in the flame and cause your solder to bounce out of position. Prevent this by heating very slowly until the flux dries and turns white. We use Handy Flux, if it is dried out add some water so it is a paste and spread on your metal. You can coat your whole piece to help keep your piece from discoloring from the flame but is not necessary. Flux also needs to coat your solder.

                When flux turns clear you are approaching soldering temperature.

The Torch – We have a wonderful torch at The Workspace with four torch heads. Usually one of the smaller torch heads will produce enough heat for your jobs. If you are working with larger or thicker gauges of metal then you may need to use a larger torch head. However I am able to solder small rings with just a kitchen butane torch, but it took a lot of practice!  Please learn all safety procedures with the torch. Tie up hair and loose clothing. Keep paper and flammables away from the torch station. At the end of the night help make sure the torch tank has been turned off and the torch hose has been bled (emptied of gas). After bleeding the hose, make sure the torch head has been closed.

                The hottest part of the flame is right in front of the bright blue cone. Also a flame that is loud and hissy will have too much oxygen in it and cause firescale problems. Too bushy of a flame may not have not enough oxygen and may not be hot enough to have a successful solder.

                Solder flows toward heat!  Heat your entire piece so the metal that is farthest away from your join doesn’t continually suck needed heat away from your join. As you approach solder temperature you can focus the flame on the seam.

                Remove the flame as soon as the solder flows. Quench in water and place in the pickle pot with copper tongs. Please make sure the crock pot gets unplugged before the last person leaves!

·         Clean metal and solder with scratchy pad or sandpaper

·         Join must be tight and touch. Solder does not fill gaps!

·         Flux the piece and solder

·         Heat slowly and heat the entire piece, watch the changes in the flux

·         When flux turns clear you can start to focus the flame on where the solder needs to flow

This is a great resource to have while learning how to solder: http://art.jewelrymakingmagazines.com/Projects/Subscriber%20Projects/2010/07/14%20Soldering%20Tips.aspx

http://art.jewelrymakingmagazines.com/ is a great website with lots of free tips and projects. They even have videos that are well produced. 

Texture With A Rolling Mill

Last week in class we focused on the rolling mill. It is an awesome tool that can lead you into an infinite number of directions. A rolling mill can be used to thin metal. But for class we used the mill to add texture to metal.  Textured metal can become the focal point of a piece or the background of a piece.  Texture adds mood and character to a piece.

The rolling mill that we have at the workspace is a crude but well made tool. I believe it was made many years ago by an instructor. It is not as easy to use as a mill you could buy today, but the rollers are smooth and as long as you are careful, you can make good impressions with your materials.

Metal can be similar to clay when hit with a hammer or put through a rolling mill. A slab roller for clay is similar to a rolling mill for metal. I realize now I do not have a picture of our little machine. But because of the malleability of metal, it is pretty incredible what can be pressed into metal. See the picture of the feather below.  Two passes were made to show what a difference annealing your metal can make.

24 gauge copper with 2 presses from a  feather. Click on the photo to see a larger image and the individual barbs of the vanes in the feather. Sadly you destroy the feather in the process.  Also please note that you should only use store bought feathers. Pretty much every bird is protected by law and that includes their feathers.

The first pass can be seen with the vertical line running through the copper. The vertical line is from the shaft of the feather but the vane of the feather is not visible. But after annealing the copper you can see the second pass of the feather through the mill and you can see both the shaft and the vanes of the feather. Pretty amazing because a feather is very thin material. With a dip in liver of sulfur the vanes should even appear more clear.

Above you can see the other items I rolled through the mill - ribbon, paper ribbon, and index card cuts.

Here you can see a little sketch of buildings on index paper, then I cut out some of the windows and some of the lines with an exacto knife. I did not cut out every line or every window.  I also had some bits of triangle pieces of paper added to the piece. You can see that one of the triangles slid before rolling and looks like it is "sitting" on top of the square picture.  The other bits of white index paper are just loosely laying on the metal.

This blue paper is a ribbon that has the feel of rafia. I am not 100% that it is rafia but it made fun lines in the copper

Here is a piece of ribbon with the rougher side of the ribbon against the copper. It makes a nice texture and presses very clearly.

A student experiment. First after a few adjustments, the copper was rolled with the blue paper ribbon. Then another pass was made with a curly piece of brass wire.  The wire planished or burnished the texture of the ribbon so the curvy line is shiny and catches the light and makes a wonderful contrast to the paper texture.

This student cut out flowers from scrapbook paper and rolled her sterling silver with the flowers sandwiched between two very thin sheets of copper that she had. The copper actually pressed concentric waves into the silver as well, since it was so thin the rollers really crushed the copper.  But we liked the effect.  The results here are after a dip in liver of sulfur and a rub with sandpaper.

Not everyone worked on the roll press. Here a student is working on a sculpture of a flower.  Placing a dapping punch in a vise, protected from the vises teeth with blue painter's tape, the punch becomes a stake and he is able to get the curve he wants in the petals of his flower.

Lots of discs in copper and brass punched out with the disc cutter

Already a student has earrings finished after the third week of classes. Discs, shaped in a dapping block and large silver wire jump ring  and a splash of color with the crystal drop.  

The items are endless that you can use with metal and a rolling mill. Experiment and have fun!