Although the rolled-out 0.5mm silicon bronze in part II below seemed perfectly acceptable for a ring liner, I thought I would substitute some of the fine silver I had recovered from sterling scrap. The thinking was that it was softer and would be easier to tinker with by hammering; also there would be a colour contrast, and less chance of copper staining for the wearer!
The domed copper rings pictured above were each made in three parts, in the form of an inner plain band and an outer pair of domed half-hoops. These elements were soldered together and then polished to give the finished result. Usually my sense of purpose is more or less exhausted by the time I get to taking pictures, but I guess you could always say the reflections of my fingers give added interest... The left-hand ring has also had a sort of duck-foot motif etched in a meandering fashion round the outside, maybe I still had egg head on my mind (they were intended for an intellectual friend).
Pieces of hard stone (varieties of quartz etc) were dopped to a stick, then ground and polished with rotating diamond and carbide laps. I managed to end up with a big blister from accidentally touching the hot dopping wax, but also took away a nice lacy agate cabochon, together with a small (4cm) carved and polished quartz cross. The workshop was very well equipped, and I will be tempted to sign up to a future facetting workshop.
I found that the raspiness was completely cured by enamelling, using the traditional techniques of melting coloured glass powder into the etched cavities. Unfortunately, since I used opaque enamel, this also robbed it of the original dynamic appeal. I feel that if I expend enough effort using transparent enamels instead, it will bring back some of the missing life. A student ring which was pierced through to give a pattern round the entire band was similarly rough on the skin; this was partly cured by fitting a fine silver liner.
I spent some time doing a life sculpture from a talented swimmer called Marcos de Barros. Above is pictured an early phase in terracotta, later developed into a twice-life-size (i.e. 8 times volume) head.
Sort of getting in the mood for sculpting a swimmer.
The crack is after moulding for a bronze. It was moulded when the original terracotta clay was leather hard, a little firm to remove without some damage.
This is a sterling silver seahorse I cast from a dried specimen bought some decades ago from a Cornish village. The eyes are two sapphires set in a sterling silver tube which I rivetted right through the head. It was later displayed upright on a silver threaded post.
I spent a few years making a variety of resin bronze sculptures, all of which were sold in galleries and art fairs around London. The picture of Eric above (sorry about the rather inept photo-editing) is one of the few male torsos I did in resin iron. Subsequently, after buying the equipment for a small foundry, I continued by casting in bronze or silver instead. I am still looking for a suitable workshop space to enable me to cast iron by a thermite technique - any offers?
I initially made a cast from life, and then added a part of a winged helmet before casting it in blue concrete
An early experiment, etching ruby glass with 10% hydrofluoric acid. I would like it as my Blog logo, but I don't think my image manipulation skills are quite up to making it look the way I want.
I screen-printed this classic Greek frieze design with blue glass powder onto a sheet of plain glass, then fired the composite in a kiln.
This is me burning out miniature waxes (for jewellery) at the Business Village in Wandsworth, Broomhill Road. I shall greatly miss some of the pleasant times I had over the past twelve years in this Victorian factory, which is due for demolition in the very near future.
Cast in bronze, about 30cm high. I made the original male torso in plasticine, and glued sand to it before moulding and casting. This is one of the three illustrated on a gallery leaflet, elsewhere on this site.
I made a mould from an original Roman / Turkish Medusa, and then a cast in reinforced resin plaster. Size about 50x50cm (weight about 20kg!)
This is a carved version of a very small sculpture I did of a friend called Jane. I also did a plastically-modelled version which was cast in resin iron, and given a graphite finish.
| This was a young Swiss student, of striking appearance, at the London College of Fashion; she attended my classes with a friend to explore life casting. | 
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| I made the mould with dental alginate and then took a cast in plaster, as illustrated. |
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... but there's hope yet. The top two were done with coloured pencil on black paper sometime in 1985, around 3' x 4', later I tinkered with a more golden-tinted version. Reminds me of art work for the cover of a "DiscWorld" novel. The others are variously unfinished sketches done around 1990 probably. The young lady is Anna Kavanagh who was renting at Studio Place at the same time as myself. All these sketches were found heaped on the floor in a cupboard, and seem to have lost a lot of their pigment.
...well, that's what we did, while waiting for ipods and mobile phones to come along...As mentioned above, much of the colouring pigment seems to have ended up on the floor along with the dust. The first picture was actually a second version; I did the first on pastel paper and gifted it to Isabel Langtry, then sculptor in residence at Central YMCA. This second version was re-coloured onto a B&W photocopy, and there wasn't enough 'tooth' on the paper to take the colour. And I remember that the picture with the cluster of figures arising from the waves was used as a sketch for a version re-done on board. The fifth picture was a composite made from photographs of figures in the Foro Mussolini (now Foro Italico), and the last is a sketch I made of Stephen, my partner since 1983, in the first months we met.
The one on the left was hacked out in terracotta-tinted plaster, and used as a candle holder. The plate behind was a present from Barry Woods, an expert potter (although I believe he later abandoned the wheel to work for the BBC). The sculpture on the right, which I variously call 'dancer' and 'sprinter', is one of my best pieces but I only have a scanned picture.
2 comments:
Don't they tarnish really rapidly? I love the rings - perhaps you should try making them in 18ct or something!
Paul,
I read this March '08 post, and from what I understand, it's a silicon-bronze ring with a sterling silver lining (against the finger) right? I am looking to have a wedding band made, out of copper though, with a sterling silver lining. The image on the right, not the blue one, is exactly the look I am going for - a contrast in the metals (copper and silver), and the reason I want to use copper is because it will tarnish. I like that quality of the metal. I want it to look aged, worn, patinaed. Can you make something like this for me, 7.5 mm wide?
I've been looking for months all over the internet and going into lots of custom jewelry places in Chicago and nobody wants to deal with combining copper with anything. They think I'm crazy. But I saw exactly what I want in your ring design on your blog. can you help me?
Thanks,
Alan Barker
barker.alan.@gmail.com
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