Kilt Pin

I was recently asked by a good friend if I could come up with something a bit more contemporary in the way of a kilt pin ahead of his impending nuptuals...something that better reflected his interests...

Something like this...

It is, of course, still a work in progress and will require a lot of cleaning and polishing and the 'blade' will be enameled with a personalised colour.

Variation on a Theme

I've had a lot of positive feedback about the last piece, a lot of connected to a festive event towards the end of the year. I therefore tired another version of the pendant.

I'm not sure if it is quite as successful and I think it might need turquoise rather than amber, but I'm quite pleased about how it turned out. It needs a bit of polishing to finish it off, but that can wait 'til tomorrow...

Finished Pendant

Here, at last, is the finished pendant, with chain..

Amber Pendant

Here's a quick project I set myself this afternoon...a silver pendant with piece of amber inset. I started with a few rings of silver.

Then soldered and polished to end up with this

Still work to be done obviously... :)

...and finally.... The Locket Box

After some time, I think I've finally completed the Locket Box.

There's been some speculation about what this is, so I hope these pictures will clear up any questions...

Here's he finished box...or locket. There's a chain which can be fitted to allow it to be worn around the neck.

The wooden piece is the outer part of a small 'drawer' which fits inside the metal locket box;

Inside the drawer is a small silver box into which could be put a picture or keepsake...which slides...

Into the locket box.....

 

Until the whole drawer is hidden from view...

oh.....and by the way, the silver disc in the last update....has nothing to do with this...sorry :)

Getting There

Another 'Under Construction" sneak peak...

Still Under Construction

Here's another mini-post just to show you where I'm going with the wooden elements of this new piece. Afer a lot of work messing around with slivers of wood, I've arrived at this...

Still a bit to go, but I think you can see the general idea...

Wood

I'm thinking of adding in some wood to the locket box...

I've got some interesting pieces to play with. Comments greatfully received... 

Silver Locket/Box

Hello...it's been a bit of time since I last posted. To be honest, the teapot (see previous posts) has been taking up a lot of my time as it requires significant sanding and filing as part of the very long process of finishing it off - the construction, the bit I like the bet is over, so it's taking me a long time to finish...

so

I decided I needed a break, so, since I had to be around the house a lot this weekend, I decided to get going on something new.

I decided it was going to be silver, did a bit of design brainstrorming and then began work on my new silver...box...locket....thingy....

Here's progress so far;

Starting with a flat sheet of silver, I cut a strip to form the side of the box...locket...thingy.
I formed the roughly elliptical shape through a combination of formers and digital manipulation...i.e. I bent it...
I didn't want a true ellipse so it's slightly 'flattened'

Soldering the side wall to the silver plate forms one side of the box as shown below. I cut away part of the side wall to leave a slot opening in the side.

 For a while, I toyed with putting a double hinged lid.....

......but had a couple of soldering disasters, which left me with the lid pieces, but almost melted the box itself....so I changed my design idea...

Inverting the box and placing it on another flat sheet allowed me to form the complete box;

 Then, the long process of sanding and filing to trim off the excess and start to smooth out all of the scratches my clumsiness has added during the past couple of days;

 

Now.....for phase 2.......which I'll start tomorrow :)

Fold Forming pt2

I've tried a few more experiments with the Fold forming technique. Here are a few photos of an abstract shape I made using a forging hammer.

 

 

 

 

Fold Forming

I was planning to make a second handle for the tea pot this morning, but got sidetracked by something else. I've been having a go at Fold forming and here is my first attempt. More to follow I think :)

Tea Pot Update

Here are a few photos to show progress on the Tea Pot....still a long way to go. I think the pot handle may be too big for the pot...comments welcome.

Show-Off and Tell

This week I am going to a semi regular event that my Smithing Tutor holds in the local pub near the studio. It's a chance for her pupils to display their work to the other pupils...we now call it 'Show-Off & Tell'.

I've had trouble selecting some pieces to take along, espcially as the teapot is so far away from completion.
Here is what I'm thinking of taking...I'd appreciate any comments... :)

 

A Lid.....Finally

Today, I finally embarked on the tricky job of cutting to form the lid of the tea pot. You may notice the addition of the mounting tubes for the handle which I did during the week.

The first part of the process is to mark out the lid using a combination of a scribe and saw.

and from head on;

With the shape scored out, the process becomes a long laborious process of going round and round the outline of the lid to gradually cut through.... This takes a long, long time....but here is the result;

Time to tidy up the ragged edges and work on the internal besel.

Back to Square One

I posted about this box some weeks back particularly about the hinges and getting them properly aligned. Then I decided to enamel the inside... This led to a few problems....with the hinge. Cutting a long story short, I had to rebuild the stand-off hinge from scratch and here is the result....

Tidying Up

I started the day with the intention of doing some enameling work on the copper box I made a few weeks back and I did indeed do some tests with enamel flux and a couple of candidate colours, but I realised that the sheer messiness of the workshop was stopping me from getting on with things. So...I've spent quite a bit of today tidying. As a result, this is probably not the most interesting post I've ever put online, but you can now see what the workshop looks like and probably ponder just how messy it must have been if this is tidy... :)