even more metal

Anyhoo, here's another thingy I made on Wednesday, October 21. It's an example of what's called a hot twist. That first silvery thingy (in a previous post) was done by way of the controlled twist. The hot twist is all blacksmithy and such. You take a torch and make metal red hot in one spot only, then you can twist the hell out of it because it's so darn soft. The rest of the metal does not twist as it is cold, relatively speaking. So, you see how part of it's twisty and part of it is less twisty? Well done. Teacher's pet.

The ends are curved slightly and flat. Much like the junior high version of myself. The flatness is achieved by means of hammer and anvil that sits atop a tree stump. This is true. There are several tree stumps in the classsroom. They're set upon carpet squares. An anvil on a tree stump on a carpet square makes for quieter hammering and less annoyed administrators on the floor below. Have a jolly day. Wish you were here.

more metal

Here's more show and tell from jewelry class. This is the stuff I made today (not the little leaf ~ I made that last week.) Techniques pictured include: taking a straight piece of brass wire and turning it into a spiral; making serpentine-type curves without the use of a jig; making a pin and clasp on a spring; flattening the crap out of wire; pounding texture into flattened wire; twisting two wires together to make one long strand from which you create other things; flattening said twisted wire; fashioning one bracelet from the aforementioned twisted/flattened wire ~ and wearing it home.


The cool thing about that bracelet up there is that a person could make one of those from stuff you can easily get at a hardware store. In about 10 minutes (not including the shopping.) All you need is the wire, a sturdy door knob, one pencil, a hammer, and wire cutters. I guess when I look at the picture again, it kind of looks like something somebody made from stuff from a hardware store. But hey! Whoohoo for metal!

metal

One of the benefits of working where I work is that I get to take classes for free (provided the class isn't full.) Intermediate Jewelry had one available spot so, guess who took it. Not that I am, by any means, intermediate ~ the instructor figured I was pretty okay at cutting things so she let me in. So far, I have learned to cut metal with a saw. Behold my tiny oak leaf half liberated from a slab of copper.


And here are my feet, safely encased in proper footwear lest an anvil or pot of acid drops on them. The wooden contraption gets clamped to a work bench and allows you to support your chunk of metal with one hand while you saw up and down with the other. Kind of like a sewing machine except things come apart in the end rather than get put together.


Anyhoo, in addition to the metal cutting, I've also learned how to melt metal into a puddle using a propane torch, poke tiny holes through metal using a drill press, and buff the crap out of metal using a flexible-shaft dremel-esque drill. Yay metal!