Workshop Woes (not really)
Ok, here goes.
I haven't posted here in a long while, and workshop it is gonna be. I seem to be using Facebook (oh noes) for menial stuff most often. I guess this is a good thing. That stuff better be forgotten.
I have a feeling this is gonna get long. Perhaps I should cut it already.
Have I ever talked about chasing and repossé here? my mid-long term memory is unexisting (seriously).
And I just saved you all from reading the same all over again, because I was seriously going to write all this again ¬¬ Thanks, LJ tags.
Anyway. I never found these chisels, not in BCN, not here. Perhaps some day they will show up. For now, I should just get started.
I have right now 559,72 €, 45,53kg worth of tools and equipment in my shopping cart, shipping excluded (my guess at least another 40€). This plus the bench I got yesterday means my entire holiday pay. But is there a better way to spend it? I had the stuff there for a few hours, but I am still hesitating. I have the money and I sure have the wish (although we all know I never get very productive, combinatoin of demotivation and lack of time, these two feeding each other). But hey I wanted all this stuff for a loooong time, so I guess I should just go head. List consists of:
A simple 13kg vise (to be screwed to bench above - mostly for drawing but for other purposes as well).
A pair of plastic, magnetic clamps for the vise, not to mar plates and softer materials.
A rolling mill (!)
Two drawing plates, round and half round.
Big-ass tweezers for drawing (whatever you call this).
Two chasing hammers (small and biggish).
Chisel blanks in different sizes.
Black (soft) pitch. I have read that this German black pitch is pretty good.
A 15 cm chasing bowl+ its rubber ring.
A smaller ring mandrel (5-10mm).
Steel polishing compound.
Oh, and I need silver. So I will have to add this to the order. Metals are SO expensive lately :/
...
Ok, I ordered. Yikes!
...
Anyway...
Back to repoussé. I have being practising it on plasticine, with a mismatched set of wooden and metallic punches, and the wrong kind of hammers. Still, I loved it, and the results, though far from good, are better than I expected with these inadequate tools. I have uploaded the pics to Facebook, here. Truth is, I should upload to my own server, but I have been lazy to resize and upload by FTP... it is so easy to stick the card in the reader and let FB do the rest. Lazy :/
Anyway, here are the couple I have worked on:
So, plasticine is working very well for raising (sinking?) this very thin copper. The chasing on the right side, however, is not working well at all. Reasons are no good support, and the punches are all sorts of wrong, methinks. Or incompetence ;) In any case these do look better on the inside, heh.
I took the soft pitch in my order. In the workshop I took we worked with a very soft pich (it melted off the ball in the Barcelona summer >_<) and it was more than hard enough for me I think. I don't think I am going to go for very fine detail anyway, I may just raise my copper bases for enamelling, I may end up shaping nearly all my coppers for jewellery enamelling this way. Total freedom! so many possibilities...
I may even make dimensional pieces to enamel ronde-bosse-y (like this poppy), and too much detail may get lost. We shall see.
I haven't posted here in a long while, and workshop it is gonna be. I seem to be using Facebook (oh noes) for menial stuff most often. I guess this is a good thing. That stuff better be forgotten.
I have a feeling this is gonna get long. Perhaps I should cut it already.
Have I ever talked about chasing and repossé here? my mid-long term memory is unexisting (seriously).
And I just saved you all from reading the same all over again, because I was seriously going to write all this again ¬¬ Thanks, LJ tags.
Anyway. I never found these chisels, not in BCN, not here. Perhaps some day they will show up. For now, I should just get started.
I have right now 559,72 €, 45,53kg worth of tools and equipment in my shopping cart, shipping excluded (my guess at least another 40€). This plus the bench I got yesterday means my entire holiday pay. But is there a better way to spend it? I had the stuff there for a few hours, but I am still hesitating. I have the money and I sure have the wish (although we all know I never get very productive, combinatoin of demotivation and lack of time, these two feeding each other). But hey I wanted all this stuff for a loooong time, so I guess I should just go head. List consists of:
A simple 13kg vise (to be screwed to bench above - mostly for drawing but for other purposes as well).
A pair of plastic, magnetic clamps for the vise, not to mar plates and softer materials.
A rolling mill (!)
Two drawing plates, round and half round.
Big-ass tweezers for drawing (whatever you call this).
Two chasing hammers (small and biggish).
Chisel blanks in different sizes.
Black (soft) pitch. I have read that this German black pitch is pretty good.
A 15 cm chasing bowl+ its rubber ring.
A smaller ring mandrel (5-10mm).
Steel polishing compound.
Oh, and I need silver. So I will have to add this to the order. Metals are SO expensive lately :/
...
Ok, I ordered. Yikes!
...
Anyway...
Back to repoussé. I have being practising it on plasticine, with a mismatched set of wooden and metallic punches, and the wrong kind of hammers. Still, I loved it, and the results, though far from good, are better than I expected with these inadequate tools. I have uploaded the pics to Facebook, here. Truth is, I should upload to my own server, but I have been lazy to resize and upload by FTP... it is so easy to stick the card in the reader and let FB do the rest. Lazy :/
Anyway, here are the couple I have worked on:
So, plasticine is working very well for raising (sinking?) this very thin copper. The chasing on the right side, however, is not working well at all. Reasons are no good support, and the punches are all sorts of wrong, methinks. Or incompetence ;) In any case these do look better on the inside, heh.
I took the soft pitch in my order. In the workshop I took we worked with a very soft pich (it melted off the ball in the Barcelona summer >_<) and it was more than hard enough for me I think. I don't think I am going to go for very fine detail anyway, I may just raise my copper bases for enamelling, I may end up shaping nearly all my coppers for jewellery enamelling this way. Total freedom! so many possibilities...
I may even make dimensional pieces to enamel ronde-bosse-y (like this poppy), and too much detail may get lost. We shall see.