Watch Your Copper!

If you pay attention to the fluctuating prices of metal like I do, you are probably aware that even though the value of gold, silver and copper has dropped in the last 2 years, the 10 year trajectory for the three metals has been in the positive direction.

Trading at less than $3.00 per ounce, copper is definitely the humble relative of silver and gold.

It is also the metal that frequently goes missing because it's easily accessible in the form of downspouts, flashing and water pipes.

 

Friends of mine came home to their beautiful, century-old home in a lovely neighborhood one day and found that, while they were at work, someone had stolen all of their copper downspouts.

Another friend who builds and remodels homes, has come to job sites only to find that the newly installed copper plumbing has disappeared overnight.

 

Pretty brazen and, unfortunately, pretty common.

 

I recently had to have my roof redone, and a dumpster sat in my driveway, collecting all of the related debris.

I knew there was some copper on my house which I planned to salvage for future projects.

The roofing crew had just left and I went outside to find my neighbor rooting through the dumpster.

"What are you doing?", I asked.

"The metal is only going to the dump, so I'm taking it out."

 

I explained that I was going to be salvaging the metal myself and could he please go home.

He was definitely disappointed as he turned to leave, but he was carrying an armful of metal.

I realized I needed to be more blunt.

"You go home, please...the metal stays."

Even more disappointed, he reluctantly put the metal back in the dumpster.

After he left, I realized he had tucked the copper in the groundcover instead of the dumpster.

 

Maybe he was hoping to come back to retrieve the copper.

I don't know, but it's now at my workbench waiting for the proper inspiration.

 

Watch your copper!

Turn your back, and it might be gone.

But if you're lucky, you might get someone else to do your dumpster diving for you.

Shop on the Square

Don't forget...

 

this is the weekend of the fabulous holiday sale

Shop on the Square

curated by the Philadelphia Art Alliance.

 

Original work by more than 40 local artists will be available for sale for those special holiday gifts for loved ones....

or for yourself.

 

Yes, I'm one of the local artists.

Happy Handmade Holidays!

Holiday Show at Wallingford

I just finished working one of my shifts at the Wallingford Community Arts Center Fine Craft & Pottery Holiday Sale.

One of the nice benefits of working at the show is getting to meet some of the other artists.

It's a comforting feeling to be part of a community of creative people who enjoy each other's unique expression of artistic talent.

The Duke Gallery is a beautiful setting made even more wonderful with a great selection of locally crafted items.

 

If you live near me and want to go....hurry!

The show concludes this Saturday, December 13, at 5:00pm.

When you're there, check out my display.

Happy Handmade Holidays!

I'm Inspired by Fungus

I try to keep my mind open for possibilities so that I'll recognize potential inspiration when it appears.... 

(photo by Pat Zafian)

like when a friend posted this picture on Facebook.

Back in October, Pat went out of her house, looked down and saw an interesting growth of fungus on her planting bed mulch.

Luckily, Pat has an interest in horticulture and identified the growth as Little Bird's Nest Fungus, or Cyathus striatus.

My reaction was similar to Pat's....

'Oooooh, that's pretty!'

 

Probably unlike Pat, my next thought was,

'That would be a great design for earrings!'

I like the depth and texture of each cup, and the small 'eggs' (actually, they're peridioles) are a wonderful, almost whimsical detail.

Within a few days, I was at my workbench figuring out my interpretation of the Little Bird's Nest Fungus.

 

I made the deliberate decision to not look at Pat's photo again as I considered the techniques to use.
Instead, I was more interested in capturing the inspiration and moving it in my own direction.

Brass seemed like the natural choice of metal.

Discs were cut and then textured with one of my old chisels.

After filing the edges to develop some irregularity, the discs were annealed and formed with a series of dapping punches.

 

Small piles of sterling silver scrap from my workbench were then melted into little balls which were pickled and soldered to the formed discs.

Another pickle soaking and some selective cleaning with my flex shaft and the discs were ready to become earrings.

So.....do my earrings look like Little Bird's Nest Fungus?

Sort of, kind of.

The cups of the fungus are actually a cone shape.

While I could make a cone shape out of brass, it would require significantly more work, the value of which I would have trouble recouping with a realistic selling price.

 

This is my interpretation and I'm sticking with it.

 

More Cicadas

Last year's cicada 'invasion' left me inspired to use the wings for unique pieces of jewelry.

Since the invasion on my property was an army of one, the wings that I keep in a jar at my workbench are from northern New Jersey cicadas which were collected by the 5 year old neighbor of one of my sister's clients.

How's that for team work?

 

I found it interesting that the northern New Jersey cicadas were very different from the cicada that expired on my patio.

I didn't have the opportunity to see the actual bugs, but based on the wings, the New Jersey variety is significantly smaller than the eastern Pennsylvania variety.

My workbench wings are very fragile and have minimal dimension to the veining that creates the beautiful stained glass appearance.

 

My first attempt at roll printing the wings was not very successful.

I sandwiched a few wings between two pieces of annealed copper and cranked the layers through my rolling mill.

The result was meh...the impression was a bit too subtle.

I was already using a relatively thin gauge of copper sheet, so the only adjustment I could make was with the rolling mill setting.

 

I set the rollers as close as I could and cranked that thing which was not easy.

I don't have one of those top-of-the-line rolling mills and cranking my cheapo mill at a close setting means two hands on the crank and feet braced.

The impression is still subtle, but this is as good as it's going to get.

To help guide me, I outlined each wing impression with a Sharpie and then cut them out with metal shears.

 

The wings were flattened with a plastic mallet...

then filed and sanded to smooth all edges.

 

My plan is to turn the wings into pendants, so they need more substance.

Each wing is getting riveted with segments of sterling wire to a base of metal that I previously etched.

They then get a treatment with liver of sulfur to highlight the veining...

and are now ready for drilling.

Stumped

When opportunity knocks,
you need to be ready to open the door and forget about being shy.

  

I saw an opportunity a few years ago when a large oak tree was being cut down one block away from my house. Finding a stump for one’s jewelry studio is a real coup, and I realized that after years of wanting one, this was my chance to snag my very own stump to have at my workbench…a perfect surface for my more aggressive hammering.  

It might help to clarify that it is not usually the actual ‘stump’ that makes it into metalworking studios…it’s usually a higher section of the tree that isn’t quite so behemoth as is bottom of the trunk, especially when the providing tree is a mature oak.

I got out of my car, approached one of the crew members and asked if it might be possible for me to get a section of the tree, explaining how I wanted it for metalworking. He was very nice and told me, “No problem. How tall do you want it?” I told him that a section around 3’ – 3 ½’ would be perfect. He asked where I lived, and I took off to get my handcart.

As I was opening my garage to pull out the handcart, the Bobcat skid-steer loader from the tree crew pulled in my driveway with a HUGE 3 ½ - 4’ long section of the tree. When the crew member deposited the trunk section at the end of my driveway, the ground shook. While I had no problem asking for a section of the tree, I did have a problem with complaining that this was a bit more tree than I was hoping for.

I gave my thanks and then stood there, staring at this hunk of wood that was more than I could handle. I’m no weakling, but I couldn’t budge this stump. I thought “What can I possibly do with this?”

As it turned out, there was nothing I could do with it for over two years. It sat at the end of my driveway until I finally had a few strong and industrious relatives visiting. They were able to wrangle the stump into my garage without crushing the door’s threshold, and it sits near my soldering station waiting for the mythical anvil.

Yesterday, I saw that a neighbor at the other end of my block had recent tree work done and a pile of wood sat in their front yard…..opportunity!

I knocked on their door and asked if I might be able to take a section of wood, and I now have the ‘stump’ that I originally wanted for my workbench.

 

I've learned that when opportunity knocks,

you need to be ready to open the door and be specific.

I'm Just Not Flashy

Earlier this week, I tried some new rolling mill textures.

An empty cereal box was removed from the recycling pile, and I cut out a collection of sort-of-flower shapes.

Sandwiched between two pieces of annealed copper, I cranked the flowers through my rolling mill and then cut out discs.

I like how my flowery discs look like a fun kind of currency, but since I want them to make real currency for me, I had to stop admiring these little coins and turn them into something else. 

I sell a lot of earrings during the holiday season, so earrings they shall become.

 

For a little dimension, I shaped the discs in my wooden dapping block.

I then took some of my sterling silver scrap and melted it into balls using my acetylene torch.

The sterling balls were soldered onto the formed discs and holes were drilled.

Because these discs are on the diminutive side, the drilling was not especially easy.

I probably should have done the drilling before the shaping, but I chose to wait until the sterling was soldered in place so that I could understand and complement the balance of each disc.  

Thinking that a simple design was the way to go, I made simple dangles with sterling wrapped freshwater pearls.

For a few seconds I thought the earrings were done, but then that bright copper spoke to me in an annoying way.

 

The discs were a little too bright for my liking, so out came the liver of sulfur.

A quick soaking turned both the copper and sterling black....

and cleaning with a fine grit sanding block followed by radial bristle discs highlights the metals in a much more appealing way.....

for me.

 

When I was at the Media Fine Arts & Crafts Festival in September, a woman stopped by my booth and spent a fair amount of time looking at the earrings in my display.

She told me that I really needed to make my earrings bigger and brighter...

"They need to be flashy!"

 

She would totally hate these earrings.