Society of Designer Craftsmen

The bronze tripod bowl in the picture left the Mall Galleries for a new home.

Taking with it the patina from Scottish sea water and this seaweed.

And maybe some grains of sand from the cleaning process.

June pieces

Finally the sun broke through yesterday and I could take some photos of what I’ve been up to this week. This is a bronze bowl with wee legs, it’d be a tripod but there are four of them. It has a patina from seaweed soaked in sea water. It’ll be on show in London in August at the Society of Designer Craftsmen.

This is the first of the large bronze dishes to be finished, it has amazing texture, I think I’ll leave it without patina. It’ll be on show at my solo exhibition at White Fox.

This smaller textured bronze will be on show at White Fox, also.

This piece, again for White Fox, has copper wire through the bronze casting and sea water patina.

A day in the sun

I went down to the rockpools today and used beach sand and sea water to clean a couple of my bronze vessels.

There was a green crab as well but s/he was camera shy.

I finished texturing the pieces with my favourite stone on my beach shelf.

I’m hoping that the sea water will patinate the bronze as part of the process.

I’m trying one piece with this whitened seaweed from around the high rock pools to see how it patinates.

I also rescued a piece of driftwood which may make a stand for a bowl.

 

Open Studios 21/22nd May

I finished the wee pewter bowls this morning and one is off to Germany with its new owner.

The wee silver bird earrings are off to new homes too.

I shall make up some more of these earrings for tomorrow, which use my silver bird charm and so are only available from my Open Studios (until Pittenweem, White Fox and London!)

Open Studios – Cambo Hub

ENOS artists (East Neuk Open Studios) will have some work at Cambo House ENOS Hub this weekend – 21st/22nd May. I’ll have this charm bracelet and some pewter shells at Cambo. But do visit me at my studio in Cellardyke for a wider choice of jewellery and metalwork.

I’m open the first weekend only.

Silver vessel, cast in Border’s sand mix

I cast silver into the sand box (on the right) which has been drying for over a week. If the sand is damp the silver spits because the steam gets into it, not fun.

I heated the silver to 1026 degrees – this picture shows the ‘button’ – the silver cooled in the funnel into the sand mould.

When the metal cooled I opened the two-part mould and checked that the casting had worked (it has) The holes are to let the air escape as the metal is poured in.

This is a side view of the piece, showing the button/funnel to the right. The spikes are more air escape holes, mainly in case there is steam trapped when you pour metal in.

So that is where this piece is up to. Tomorrow I’ll post pics of the piece with the sprues and button removed.

I hope that it will be cleaned and ready to admire by Open Studios this weekend 21/22 May.

 

Open Studio May 21st/22nd

I’m making some new wee pewter bowls for Open Studios this weekend. These are sand castings and have a flow of metal through them.

I’ve also made a few pewter seashells – they still have the sand on, but I will clean them for Open Studio on Saturday. I sell the shells for charity (Imperial College’s Schistosomiasis control initiative).

If you visit my studio you can find out how I make them.

Bronze Casting

I went up to the Scottish Sculpture Workshop last week with my three large mould boxes and here are the two bowls that were cast. One sand mould didn’t survive the journey, but these two bowls should look good once I’ve cut off the pouring cup and generally given them a bit of a clean and shine.

They looked a bit like satellite dishes on the beach today, enjoying the Scottish sunshine, but they are more tactile and a prettier colour.

Borders casting, the story continues (some more)

The block of sieved, cleaned clay, from Hume in the Borders, has dried in the sun (and wind). I’m hammering bits off it, then grinding it with the pestle and mortar. The powdered clay is then sieved and mixed with beach sand. This mixture, when it is correctly made up and moistened, can be made into sand moulds.

Here are three two-part sand moulds drying in the sun ready to go to the Scottish Sculpture Workshop to pour, because they are too big for my wee charcoal furnace. I’m hoping to make cast bronze bowls for my three shows this summer.

You can visit my studio as part of East Neuk Open Studios 21st and 22nd May and see my work.

Borders sand casting, the story continues

This is my first ‘Borders Bowl’ for exhibition at Hirsel Estate, Coldstream in July. It is a work in progress:-

 

I made it using bronze cast in the clay/sand mixture from Hume Castle and the beach at Whitesands.

The clay is dried, then slaked:-

sieved:-

then dried again, then ground, before being sieved when dry and mixed with the sieved sand.

As you can imagine this takes some while.

I made up the mould in a two part sand box. The mixture of sand and clay has to be correct so that it holds the shape; and it has to be the right degree of moist. The former is removed and the sand box closed; and the mould is then dried ready to pour molten bronze. This we did on Friday at the Scottish Sculpture workshop. Thank-you Eden and Uist.

This is the bowl as it came from the sand:-

Come and see the finished piece at the White Fox gallery, from 24th July 2016.

I will be at the opening on the 24th and will explain the process if you remain confused.