September Theme: Autumn

[LittleGem]

Great entries from everyone so far! What talent Any more news on how this will be judged, please?

Indi

I absolutely agree with Indi, the designs that are being entered are STUNNING!


It will be judged by our in-house jewellery makers here at cooksons.. I'm sure the decision is going to be tough though!

Anything else you need to know?

Jess

[Josiejo]

Hmmm, I hope I added the picture correctly!

Anyway, here is my entry. It's my representation of a conker in the shell.

The conker bit in the middle is a domed piece of copper, and the rest is silver. I had lots of fun with my bitumen, some new hammers and a couple of nails!

Hope you like it

Jo

[Tabby66]

Beautiful pieces!!

[Petal]

Its been fun looking through everyone's pieces. With a bit of luck, I'll post something of mine before the deadline.

[LittleGem]

Its been fun looking through everyone's pieces. With a bit of luck, I'll post something of mine before the deadline.

4 days to go

[Petal]

I know, its a tough one, but I've got a Cookies order on the go, then some finishing to do.

[Adrienne]

Wow - looks really lifelike

What thickness is the silver? I'm experimenting with some ground-down mini screwdrivers and rounded off nails (no spare cash for real tools!) but don't know if the silver I'm using is too thick/thin. I'm using wood instead of bitumen - is the bitumen easy to work with?

regards
Adrienne

[Dennis]

The main trouble with bitumen is that it is messy to get off the back, so unless you have a place to burn it away, here are some alternatives:
The end grain of a log of wood, as you mentioned,
Some thick rubber as in shoe heels,
James miller has described a lead cake melted into a tin. he says there is no need to protect the silver from it. Just re melt it when it gets uneven.
The metal to use can be what you want, up to about 0.8mm thick. Dennis.

[Kwant]

Great tip about the end grain wood Dennis. I have been putting off trying out work like that because of the pitch.

[Josiejo]

Good question Adrienne! The silver was some I had in my box, I think it may have been as much as 1mm thick, probably 0.75mm.

You have to be careful with the nails if they are sharp because you might go through!

I've never had a problem with bitumen. My dad made a wooden box for me and I melted some in so that it was about an inch deep. I warm it up with a soft, large flame for a minute or two to soften the top and then press the piece in and try to get a tiny bit of overlap so that the silver doesn't come out. I do the same to move the piece about.

When it is done, I soften the bitumen and pull the silver out, warm the silver so that most the bitumen drips off it and then burn off the bitumen with a large flame.

Whenever I'm using bitumen I take the whole lot outside and use a fan to blow the fumes away because burnt bitumen stinks (and isn't too good for you)!

With the wood method, how do you keep the silver still?

Jo