Category: Crafts

This is where the wire jig really came into its own.

Getting the consistent curves in this component were a breeze with the jig but would have been a total pain without it.

(Note: I’m not actually trying to get them absolutely perfectly identical. I think if you want that sort of perfection, then get a machine-made piece. The small, organic variations in the curves, just tell me it is one of a kind. Of course, the difference between small organic variation and sloppy work is in the eye of the beholder and potentially a slippery slope)

Next was to make the other components. Laying them all out together, it seems that they are a bit too big, but looking good.

A little bit of re-jigging (if you will excuse the pun) and things are basically ready to put together. I have soldered the middle section, but stopped for the evening (after more than 9 hours in the studio) so that I don’t completely stuff it up, being this close.

Another day, another window.

In addition to the silver tubing, Friday’s mail brought the wire jig. For the uninitiated, a wire jig is basically a base with lots of holes in it and a set of removeable posts (of various thicknesses) around which you can bend wire. I knew that with a lot of the stuff coming up, having a way to replicate the same curves multiple times would be invaluable.

So, for window four, I decided to try things out in copper (which is the cheapest of the pure metals I have access to). I had revised the design of this one from nine little parts, to four (compare the design pic in the first post to that below) mostly because it seemed too busy compared with the other windows but I also realised with the weight/thickness of the wire I was using, it was going to  be both very hard to make and look too filled in.

So, first attempts with copper seemed quite good.

I also needed to work out if the whole thing would fit together and fill the frame, so I made most of the parts in the copper to test if I had the curvy bits the right size before I cut them in silver.

All looked good, so I cut and prepared the silver components.

Soldering was fiddly to line up the inner portion, but went according to plan.

After adding the outer curves, the last touch on this one was to bind the major joints with 0.3mm wire.

Really quite happy with this one.

So a little searching online and some thinking and I came up with the idea to frame the windows with square silver tubing 0.4mm wide. I wanted a little depth, but anything much wider would, I think, be too heavy.

The guys at A&E metals (www.aemetal.com.au) have an incredibly fast turnaround and from thinking about it on Wednesday and ordering online Wednesday night, they had rung me on Thursday with a question about the lengths I wanted it in and it arrived in the mail on Friday!

So putting the frames together was not as simple as it should have been (are you feeling the theme here?). After several attempts, I think the major problem is the small torch I have been working with (butane), which has been fine for the small silver metal clay and soldering applications I have used it for. However, with the larger pieces of metal that are a bigger heat sink, I just can’t get the temperature hot enough with this torch to melt the solder.

I knew I would need a bigger torch for the glass work, but it looks like I will need it for this also.

So the next window is something quite different. I wanted to wait until I had the wire jig for the more complicated shapes, so I tackled the middle one in the meantime.

What the not-very-good-drawing doesn’t actually show is that where the strands cross, they are knots. Obviously not something one could easily do with a thick wire, so I worked with a 0.5mm wire and started figuring things out with brass wire (cheaper than silver).

Once having figured how the knot was going to work (and that I could get it to be roughly the right size), I had to figure out how to make the net.

The tricky parts were in making the knots all look the same (there is a right and a left) and in positioning them the same distance apart. And then to make it look like the drawing, I needed two nets, offset against each other. Another thing I discovered was that the knots tended to wriggle and slip about a little bit. A solution was that once the knot was in the right place, a couple of taps with the jewellers hammer flattened the wire/knots and they stayed put. All this took quite a bit of working out and trial and error.

Once I had figured it out in the brass, I went on to the silver. The delicate nature of the 0.5mm wire doesn’t leave all that much room for mistakes. As you will see in the bottom right, one of the wires snapped when I had had to undo the knot and re-do it because it was back-to-front compared to the others. At this stage I had been working on it for a number of hours and realised that I was making more and more mistakes, probably because I was tired. I decided to stop for the night.

Lesson: Even if not sleepy-tired, my eyes, hands and brain do get tired and multiple mistakes are a sign that it might be time for a break.

I thought the brass and silver combination looked really pretty (and I may well use it another time) but the two-colour combination wasn’t true to the original window grills. At this point I decided that all these little windows should be silver only. I realised this will mean that I have to re-do the first one, but that’s probably not a bad thing (don’t tell anyone, but it is actually slightly too tall and too thin to meet the 6 x 6 cm anyway).

The next opportunity to get into the studio led to much better results and the knots came together much easier.

I also discovered that my bench block is 6 x 6cm (handy). I haven’t trimmed the edges of the nets yet, but it did get me to thinking about how I was going to frame the windows…. A couple of cardboard edges give more of a sense of what will be included.

Of course, it wasn’t by accident that I did the easiest one first, and I tackled the next one along the bottom row next, thinking it was also relatively easy.

Well, the first bit was! Having a single bar in the bottom two thirds meant a join, but I figured that would be fine and I could hide it behind the little triangular pieces. I made those from silver metal clay, which was a bit fiddly and in fact took two goes. In the meantime, I preparing the bottom parts.

I cut the horizontal bars from the bronze, but at this point decided that I liked it better all silver. Also the circles I made, were too big, so I had to do them again.

Then in the process of soldering it all together, I made a total hash of it (things not properly aligned and the circles too close to the bottom) and ended up having to cut it off at the join of the arches and re-do all the bottom bit. Lesson: stop and think before diving in to the soldering.

Anyway, I finally finished it and here it is. Not perfect, but not too shabby.

So, I haven’t posted since I got back from Venice – was plunged into the pool of post-holiday despair coupled with running a Choir in the lead up to Christmas/Summer School and having been out of the office for basically two months. Christmas itself came as a great relief and some of the ideas that had been percolating started to make their way onto paper over the few days we spent at Bairnsdale between Christmas and New Year.

Taking the ideas of the decorated window grills, I put together this.

I first thought I might make it as one big piece with the nine divisions, but I have since thought that instead I will make nine little windows. Each one is 6cm x 6cm and the grill will be made from silver and behind it will be something. I am thinking at this stage probably some form of fused glass, but we’ll see.

Anyway, last week I started on the adventure of trying to make them. I have to say that as well as being fun and exciting to embark on this at last, it really does sooth my soul and I must remember that when I get busy or down or anxious and get into the studio.

So first cab off the rank was the bottom left.

I chose 1mm sterling silver round wire and had fun trying to get even bends in the wire. I pretty soon decided that a wire jig really would come in handy and ordered one online.

I thought brass wire for the background bits.

Then it was on to the soldering

Fairly happy with that for a first go.