current work

This is another brooch I started last year that was in the drawer with the other unfinished pieces I had forgotten about. I worked on it some more, and I think its ready to anodize. I am getting a little sick of the colors I have so I ordered some more the other day. I am going to wait till I get those and test them before I decide what color to anodize this piece.



Since I got some wood for the stands for my brooches and hammer handles I have wanted to work with it more. So when someone asked me if I could make them lock picks with wood handles I was happy to give it a try. This is the second one I made for that person. The handle is zircote.


I know I shouldn't be starting new pieces with all the unfinished ones I have laying around, but I have been really wanting to try carving wood. So a couple days ago I started carving a brooch in ebony. The design is similar to my aluminum work with a scale pattern on it. So far it is going ok. I haven't taken any photos. I have never really carved wood before so I was kind of worried how it would go and I thought it might be a total failure that I would rather just forget about. I think it will be ok, so I will take some pictures next time I work on it.

back of the brooch

I started carving the back of this brooch the other day. The flat spots at the top and bottom are where the pin back will go.


The copper vase is almost finished, I am just waiting on a patina ingredient to arrive.

I haven't worked much on the new brooch since my last post about it. I need to design and carve the back of it, anodize it, and make the pinback. I am kind of stuck with the design for the back. I want to do something different from the front, but not totally different, and not something that is going to take longer to carve than the front.

I will be in a show at Taboo Studio in San Diego in August. I have started working on a couple pieces for that already. I do not want to wait till the last minute like I usually do with these things.

new brooch

After the lines were marked and deepened with a file I started carving metal with a graver. I use mostly flat gravers for this kind of work.


This is about as deep as I am going to carve, it didn't take long to get to this point, but there is a lot of polishing and refining left to do. Most of the time I spend on the piece will be doing that sort of thing. The piece is held with Jett Sett.


This is the back of the piece. I am going to engrave something on the back, but I have not decided on the pattern yet. I will probably carve the same pattern that is on the front, but not as deep.


Looks finished in this photo, but there is still more refining to do around the edges of the scales.

brooch

After the grinding I sand the whole piece with a small belt sander that attaches to my NSK E-max micromotor.


I use tape sort of like a ruler to help mark where the lines will be. I use a scribe and lightly trace along the edge of the tape, then remove the tape and put on a new piece to mark the next line.


All the lines have been marked. Without the layout fluid the lines would be much harder to see while I am working, and I doubt they would even show up in the photo.


I filed along the lines tomake them deeper. I could have used a graver, but I think I am better with a file than a graver.

more of the new brooch in progress

After I finished the outline of the piece I started grinding it to make it sort of domed. I use a rotary tool with 1/2" cylinder bur.



The blue stuff that is on the piece in almost every photo is layout fluid. It makes scribed lines show up better, and afer I have done a lot of grinding it makes it easier to see what I am doing.


I like to scribe lines around the piece and grind away one area at a time. The layout fluid makes it easier to see that I am staying the the area I designated to grind.



In this photo I am almost finished. The next step is to lightly grind the piece all over and make sure is has a smooth contour.

new brooch in progress

I started on a new brooch yesterday. Currently I have at least 5 brooches in progress, including this new one.

I started with 1/2" thick aluminum, and milled it down to about 3/8".


After I milled the metal to the right thickness I cut out the shape on the bandsaw and refined the shape with a belt grinder.
This is the pattern I will carve after I have the overall shape finished.


The piece will be sort of domed. Here I am about to start grinding it.
This is where I am at right now. I will post more pics as I work on it.