Pat Accorinti came over to spend the afternoon making silhouette dies. She created a shield shape and cut it out of brass and masonite.
16 ga brass and 2 pieces of tempered masonite cut into shield silhouette die by Pat Accorinti, thinnest red urethane sheet, and 24 ga copper sheet pressed in 20 ton hydraulic press
Second attempt with thicker yellow urethane sheet. 24 ga copper sheet pressed in 20 ton hydraulic press.
We switched to a thicker softer urethane and pressed again. Voila! A nice first press result for the 20 ton hydraulic press.
(left) 16 ga brass and 2 pieces of tempered masonite cut into shield silhouette die by Pat Accorinti, (center) yellow urethane sheet , (right) 24 ga copper sheet pressed in 20 ton hydraulic press
Electroformed etched glass and organic objects, and objects to be electroformed. Artist: Susan Shahinian
My friend Susan Shahinian was kind enough to give an in depth demonstration of electroforming to the local metal clay guild, her second time doing so. When I saw the first demo I didn’t take many pictures; this time I did. And, I took note of the equipment needed to electroform, so this first post is dedicated to sharing that information. Note that these lists are short and there are many places who sell equipment and supplies for electroforming.
The priciest piece of equipment you’ll probably want is a bench DC power supply with which you can vary the current and the voltage to the piece you are electroforming. The power supply is also known as a ‘rectifier’ or ‘linear variable power supply’ or ‘full wave rectifier’ or ‘variable bench power supply’. You can find instructions to make your own AC to DC converter. Off-the-shelf units, such as the one in the photo below, make it easier to get started as they are already built and tested.
Last Sunday I spent a couple of hours as a show docent at the ACCI Gallery in Berkeley, California.
My piece “The Earth is Our Ashtray” Ashtray is in the show along with the work of over 40 artists from the Metal Arts Guild based in San Francisco.
Copper ashtray edge detail: grass and plants trying to take root
I was very pleased when a friendly woman told me that the ashtray made her think of ashtrays she remembers from when she was growing up: styles from the 1940s and 1950s. The ashtrays she remembers often had a tall center and curved and angled sides. I was pleased because those are the ashtray shapes that were in my head when I was creating the copper ashtray.
Forming copper over large mushroom stake
To form the tray, first I used shears and a large mushroom stake, then I moved on to using a shot bag ,and then an anvil with a nice pointy horn.
Adjusting the copper ashtray on a shot bagAnvil used to sharpen fold of copper. The anvil needed some cleaning before it could be used….
The large school of fish swirled around us for our hour long SCUBA dive, from the surface to depth and back to the surface
On a recent SCUBA dive, bottlenose dolphins kept a very large school of sardines swirling around us for the entire dive. The school moved around circling at different levels in the water and changed direction in all three dimensions. The amazing experience is something I wanted to capture in a jewelry design.
Earrings sketches made on the beach with recycled sterling silver pieces in process
Sitting on a beach after the last dive of the trip, I drew up some sketches. The sardines and the reflections on the surface of the water, from both above and below, were crudely represented. Originally I was going to use filigree wire to represent the fish; knowing I wanted independent wires, I evolved the design to be made with flat wire which is sturdier when sections are left exposed.
Pelicans diving into Sea of Cortez, frigate and seagulls circling and the jagged landscape
Recycled sterling silver, flattened and annealed for the second time
I knew I’d want to start the designs with flattened recycled sterling silver wire, and that they would need frames to contain the designs.
Gear jig for creating zig zag wire by hand
Zig zag wire would give me the repetitive yet uneven look of water surface reflections. Fitting the wire into the frames and soldering it in place is tricky even after annealing the wire for the 3rd time in this process.
Annealed and unanealed zig zag wire
The zig zag wire needs tension against itself to hold it’s shape and thus becomes a spring constantly trying to jump out of the frame. Soldering the edge of the form into the frame first helps, then it’s another one or two or three tries to solder all the joints together cleanly.
Flattened sterling silver wire becomes frames and fills the frames
Flattened wire coiled up inside the frames makes nice random shapes that can be coaxed into being 3D to mimic the schooling fish.
Annealing again prior to soldering
As with the zig zag wire in the “Reflections” pieces, the flattened wire in the “Swirling Schools” pieces needs three or more annealing steps while going from round wire to the final form.
Layout of necklace to determine how many handmade small square wire jump rings to create and solder on
Finding the balance between tension and annealed wire is tricky with these pieces as well. The 3D swirls have much exposed single thickness flat wire, making the soldering a bit of a daredevil feat.
Side angle of "Swirling Schools" necklace
One of the final steps previously unmentioned is a good clean in an ultrasonic bath to clean off all the filings from the ‘finishing’ of the pieces.
"Reflections" and "Swirling Schools" recycled sterling silver jewelry heading into the ultrasonic bath
When I saw the pattern created on the water surface, I had to take a photo because the type of surface patterns were exactly what I was representing in the “Reflections” pieces.
"Reflections" and "Swirling School" jewelry in ultrasonic bath for final cleaning
Three rings set with three different stone setting techniques: flush, channel, and prong.
Three “Bottleneck” Rings set with three stones setting techniques. Sterling silver, white topaz, sapphire, peridot, aquamarine.Tool parts for flush setting small round stones
The steel part was made from a spent flex shaft mandrel. The business end of the steel is the part closest to the handle. Below is the tool put together.
Flush setting tool for small round stones
The first ring with flush set stones was made by carving wax into the shape of an ocean tumbled glass bottleneck. The lost wax casting process produced a sterling silver ring which I molded. The original ring was set with stones as seen below.
“Bottleneck” Ring: sapphire, peridot, white topaz, sterling silver
After making more wax bottleneck rings with the mold, I modified the waxes to produce a ring to which I could add a prong setting. The first ‘real’ prong setting project for me was this peridot.
“Bottleneck” Ring with Prong Set Peridot
The channel set ring below was created from the same bottleneck mold; this time I cut the wax in half before casting the piece in sterling. The aquamarines are set on 2/3rds of the ring.
“Bottleneck Ring” channel set and flush set aquamarines
By creating an organic shape for the channel I made the work challenging for myself. 🙂
As mentioned on May 18th, the flush setting technique for setting large oval stones requires quite a bit of strength compared to setting round stones in the 2 to 4 mm size range.
And, it also requires these special tools made from a finish nail or a flexshaft tool mandrel.
After many many months, the hydraulic press is in it’s final home. Now it looks like a very tall person with a white shirt on; the white shirt is the fancy dust cover. Yes, I’ll need a foot stool to place items on the press; luckily there’s one out there because the cabinets are also too tall for me to reach past the first shelf.
Without the cover, the hydraulic press looks like this (in it’s old location taking up workbench space.)
The vacuum caster is also in it’s permanent location. All that’s needed is a mirror so I can see the oil level while it’s running.
The used vacuum caster I purchased started leaking oil after I turned it on the first time. So before turning it on again a revamp was required. The newer models are now built for servicability and for easy access to the oil input port. My older model required some modifications in order to make adding oil easier.
A trip to the hardware store seemed in order, and these are the parts from the plumbing and irrigation aisles that we thought would work.
Here are the parts installed, and below is a closeup of the modification to the oil input port.
Once the mods were made and oil was added, we ran the pump. If the pressure is low enough, water will turn to ice.
The pressure reached the max for this unit, and the water was very cold. Need a more powerful pump to make ice!
