Well, it's official. I completed my first piece ever. My first "self motivated and conceived" piece at any rate. I am feeling rather proud of myself at the moment. All glowy n stuff. It's far from perfect, but I learned quite a bit from doing it. I had never tried to shape
Faux Bone to this extent and I had never cut metal to fit anything. Never riveted metal like this though I knew how to make a rivet. From sketchbook to completion in around 12 total hours I would guess. I had a lot of fun doing the project. I think the hardest part was figuring out how I was going to treat the faux bone after I had it shaped. I had drilled 5 holes at the base thinking of putting silver rivets there alone, but decided that was to plain. I don't have any ferric chloride yet, so I couldn't to any etching stuff to copper. Then I found this piece of already patina-ed copper from
Jacqueline Sullivans class
A Collage of Metals. Things just sort of fell
together after that. Like I said, far from perfect. I would have used 3 rivets on the side bits of copper, not two. The edges can get pulled up as it is. I am still learning rivets obviously as each of them is a different size. Heh. Also I have NO CLUE who this fits. I am hoping that I guessed correctly and that it fits Erin. I am also hoping she likes it. Hahaha. Also I started with 1/4 thick faux bone. I think I might have used 1/8 but I might not have been able to do what I wanted with it. I just have no clue.
There are also places where the copper doesn't fit as well as I would like it to...but hey, it's hand crafted so whatever. If I wanted a machined look I would have used a cad cam system....and where is the fun in that. :P My only regret is that I didn't get to use caustic chemicals in the process. However, most importantly, I finished. This was by far the hardest step. Bringing home what I had learned and being willing to apply it and risk failure. Being willing to waste materials on the chance that I might make something worthwhile. Now I don't feel as hesitant about starting another project. Now I feel right excited about the prospect. In fact.... Where is my sketchbook.
Well, it's official. I completed my first piece ever. My first "self motivated and conceived" piece at any rate. I am feeling rather proud of myself at the moment. All glowy n stuff. It's far from perfect, but I learned quite a bit from doing it. I had never tried to shape Faux Bone to this extent and I had never cut metal to fit anything. Never riveted metal like this though I knew how to make a rivet. From sketchbook to completion in around 12 total hours I would guess. I had a lot of fun doing the project. I think the hardest part was figuring out how I was going to treat the faux bone after I had it shaped. I had drilled 5 holes at the base thinking of putting silver rivets there alone, but decided that was to plain. I don't have any ferric chloride yet, so I couldn't to any etching stuff to copper. Then I found this piece of already patina-ed copper from Jacqueline Sullivans class A Collage of Metals. Things just sort of fell
together after that. Like I said, far from perfect. I would have used 3 rivets on the side bits of copper, not two. The edges can get pulled up as it is. I am still learning rivets obviously as each of them is a different size. Heh. Also I have NO CLUE who this fits. I am hoping that I guessed correctly and that it fits Erin. I am also hoping she likes it. Hahaha. Also I started with 1/4 thick faux bone. I think I might have used 1/8 but I might not have been able to do what I wanted with it. I just have no clue. 
There are also places where the copper doesn't fit as well as I would like it to...but hey, it's hand crafted so whatever. If I wanted a machined look I would have used a cad cam system....and where is the fun in that. :P My only regret is that I didn't get to use caustic chemicals in the process. However, most importantly, I finished. This was by far the hardest step. Bringing home what I had learned and being willing to apply it and risk failure. Being willing to waste materials on the chance that I might make something worthwhile. Now I don't feel as hesitant about starting another project. Now I feel right excited about the prospect. In fact.... Where is my sketchbook.
4 comments:
Did you figure out how to drive with some fingers missing yet? LOL! I love reading your blog and have nominated both you and Erin for a bloggers award.......... check out my blog for details........ while you are there, go to April's as she found this wonky site and made hilarious videos..........
Penney
I'll have to take that faux bone class, that looks like fun. It's a pretty cool piece, and yes, the glory of the thing is that you finished it. I'm TERRIBLE about that. I always have grand plans but something always prevents me. We recently instituted an Art Night in our household just to make sure that there is one less excuse to finish.
And as for the etchant, there are lots to choose from. No ferric chloride? Go get some swimming pool (muriatic) acid from the local hardware store. (And some baking soda while you're at it.) Stephanie Lee's book goes into good detail about what you can do with it.
I was frustrated with how crude my design was in the copper enameling class I took with Richard Salley. He pointed out that I can transfer a design from Illustrator or whatever to the copper by just putting acetone on the back, and it worked fine. With my rudimentary skills with the jewelry saw I'm expecting it will still have that handmade look... )
Amazing piece. I love it!
On the "transfer" note, I tried it at home and it didn't work. As I was reading some net research it seems that it might be my printer. It looks like the inks that Brother uses for there laser printers doesn't work well for this process. Also it seems to cause problems with PnP Blue transfer sheets. Yay for picking the one kind of printer that has issues with this stuff. Worse yet, I was really debating between the brother and the samsung next to it. :P
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