Of Staves, Knobs, and Boobs

[shanmonster]

I think I've been stood up by Karate Neil. That's ok, though. I whirled my staff around for a while outside, and my shoulders are already sore. I don't know why my arms tired so quickly. I suspect I'm getting sick again. I was enormously exhausted, and oddly dizzy, last night.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I took f00dave to the metal studio, and did his first cuttle casting. Well, I did the casting for him, but the carving was his. He did a thunderbird or a phoenix, and it turned out quite well. He wants me to set a little stone for its eye, and add some wire streamers from the tail. I can do that.

I spent most of the day doing other casting techniques. I cuttle cast the loop shape for a toggle clasp, then made the toggle from a stick pearl. I think I'll have to redo the wirework on the pearl, though. It doesn't go through the loop quite easily enough. I also did a whole wack of water castings. I plan on making pendants with them. I've already finished three pendants. One has Czechoslovakian crystals, one has a piece of angelskin coral, and the other has gold glass beads and a gold-coloured piece of sterling dangling within. One of the water castings I soldered to a band ring. It's somewhat cup-shaped, and is begging to have a pearl or some other stone post set in the depression.

Water casting is both fun and easy, and produces gorgeous organic designs. No two are alike. Although most of the pieces evoke the image of seashells for me, one of the castings looks like John Wayne Bobbit's severed knob.

Remember those second-century Roman domed earrings I made (originals here)? Well, here are a couple of pictures of my reproductions:

Comments

Jewelry

[fayme.livejournal.com]

Isn't that cuttle bone stuff great. I made some pewter medallions that way a few years ago. I love the way you can see the swirly texture of the cuttle bone on the metal jewelry.
I did something in high school with a really thick green wax dropped into water to make abstract shapes. Then we used lost wax casting to make jewelry out of it. I'm not sure if it's exactly the same as what you made, but it must be similar. I like hearing about your projects.

Re: Jewelry

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Yes, I love cuttle casting. I like the woodgrain look of it.

The water casting I'm doing is different from what you're talking about. There's no wax involved. Instead, I pour molten silver directly into water.

Re: Jewelry

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Here's an example of water casting.

[bloobert.livejournal.com]

Neat!

[pernod.livejournal.com]

How does a man stand you up?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Easily enough, it would seem. I'm actually a bit relieved, though. I wasn't feeling up to heavy training this morning. I can't stop yawning!

[liquid-quaalude.livejournal.com]

wow! marvy work!
I think its past groovy that you make jewlery.
This might be a stupid question, but is it hard?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Making jewellery can be very hard, or very easy. It depends wholly on what you're doing. Water casting, for example, is extremely simple. However, sometimes soldering is very particular and time-consuming. Setting up those earrings for construction felt like brain surgery.

Most metal work is time consuming, though, when it comes to finishing and polishing.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

Nice work! I think you did a great job capturing the spirit of the Roman earrings.

With the water casting, are you doing it just straight into water, or using an immersed cloth to catch the metal? I've seen some really interesting shapes coming out of the latter.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I'm doing the casting straight into the water. What sort of cloth do you use, and how close would it be to the surface?

[cissa.livejournal.com]

As I recall, the metal (I've seen both silver and 22k) was poured into a dishtowel once (not the terrycloth kind), and a piece of muslin the other time. The cloth was wetted and then suspended- I forget how- as a sort of hammock in the bucket, with its lowest point a few inches below the surface.

The theory was that this would make a nice, large, clean lump or the metal. I haven't seen it work that way yet; it's ended up in some pretty cool organic forms, though. of course, no one involved has made a habit of doing this; it's always someone wanting to try it because they saw someone who does do it regularly succeed, or heard about it, so I'm sure some of the finer points were missed! Still, the results were cool, even if not what was intended.

From your description...

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

Karate Neil sounded a bit blasted when you spoke with him. Maybe he doesn't remember your conversation.

Re: From your description...

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

It is a distinct possibility.