Monday, October 22, 2007

Spoon!!

M's:

Last week's class we sat and drew our designs to determine what kind and how much silver we needed for yesterday's class. Yesterday, we began working on our spoon handles using sterling silver. I began with a 6" long piece of round wire at 5.18mm in diameter. You can see that I'm drawing out the tip at one end and narrowing the girth. It's about 1 1/2 inches longer now.


Silver handle -to-be resting on the anvil I was used yesterday in class. Can't wait 'til next week's class!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Silversmithing Class at the 92nd St. Y

M's:

I registered for a silversmithing class this fall. I went to two sessions so far and I'm loving it.
Luckily I have a lot of tools that I didn't have to buy because I still have mine from the old college days. Take a look at my stash.

My toolbox


I had to take some items out because it just became TOO heavy to carry. I even use a backpack to carry hammers.



That's my glove ( a gardening glove) use to hold the metal and a pair of safety glasses.


More TOOLS and some wax.


Dividers, files, clippers, copper sheet, etc


This hammer I bought at Metalliferous in midtown. It's a raising and planishing hammer. The narrow face is for raising. The flat, round face is for planishing (smoothing) the surface of metal.



This is my forging hammer. My instructor found 5 of these Craftsman hammers at SEARS and adjusted the length of the handles and softened the dome of the round face and polished both faces until shiny and smooth. She has a hammer like this, too. She saved us much $. It was 1/2 the price if I had bought it at a metal store.

Our first project is to forge a spoon out of silver or copper. We are first learning and practicing techniques on copper stock.


Our first project is to forge a spoon out of silver or copper. We are first learning and practicing techniques on copper stock.


This was originally the length of a pen, but I changed the roundness of the surface to a square suface. And then back to round, all the while "drawing" out the length. So, it is now much longer and I will continue to do this and draw it to a tapered point.



I am flattening out the right end to be the handle.

Next week we are going to design our spoons in class. I'm thinking I want a copper handle and a silver spoon bowl. Maybe the handle will have some silver embellishments.