teapot process - part 1

I am going to post the process photos of my teapot, which  is  was on the main page of my website, http://www.jonmryan.com/ . I started on it in spring 2006 and finished Aug 2007, but I wasn't working on it constantly that whole time. I finished it the day before I had to ship it to Korea for the Cheongju International Craft Competition. It won the silver prize in the metals category. I got $5000 for it, but they keep the piece. $5000 was adequate, but I miss my teapot.

The teapot was fabricated out of 18 gauge sterling silver and 3/16" aluminum. This is one of the pieces of silver I used.


I formed the main part of the body using a slip roll. I made 2 test pieces in copper before doing the silver. This is one of the test pieces I made. A test piece is also visible at the top of the fist photo. Later the test pieces were turned into 2 cups for pencils, pens, etc, and one cup to hold some small chisels.


These are the 3 pieces that make up the body of the teapot. The end pieces were formed with a large dapping punch, which is at the bottom of the photo.


This is after the 3 pieces have been soldered together and I have done some filing.


The teapot is two pieces, the teapot, and the base it sits on. My original idea for the base was sort of a cradle made of 4 pieces of 3/16" aluminum riveted together with a couple inches of space between each one. In this photo the 4 pieces of aluminum are held together with temporary rivets and super glue to make it easy to work on them all at once.


The 4 pieces are still temporarily together, but I don't get too much farther with this design before I decide to totally change the base.


This is the silver piece the aluminum handle will attach to.


About to solder.


Soldering.


Here I am checking the fit. They fit tightly, which is good.