Very belated hello!

[denise]

Grretings to all here. I joined the forum years ago (two at least) but have never had the courage to post anything, although I have looked in from time to time.

I'm based in Liverpool and I've been making jewellery for about ten years, progressing from beading through a bit of wirework to full-on metalwork with some courses at Wirral Met.

My favourite metals are copper and titanium, and that's what's motivated me to take the plunge and post a query here. I'm finding it difficult to source titanium sheet or even find any clear information about titanium grades. I'm coming to realise that British and American classifications for titanium are very different. Can anyone out there tell me what is the softest (ie easiest to cut with a piercing saw) grade of pure titanium? Even better would be a recommendation for a supplier.

Hope I haven't transgressed any rules in this posting. I wasn't sure if it's acceptable to ask a question at the same time as introducing myself, but other people seem to have so I'm guessing it's ok.

Denise

[ps_bond]

Hi Denise - Ti isn't something I use all that often, when I have done it's been 6Al4V, whereas what you're after is CP (Commercially Pure). I'll have to dig a bit to find who I last bought from, although there are a few people here who can probably help faster.

Welcome, BTW!

[Joe]

Welcome from a fellow scouser! Though I'm now safely ensconced in the rather lovely city of Norwich, I miss the Bluecoat gallery a lot.

It doesn't feel wrong to ask in passing, but you might be wise posting another thread in the "Need Help" section titled "Titanium supplier" to get the attention of the few titanium users on the forum. I for one will carefully save any answers you get in my material suppliers links, so thank you for asking. You might be wise to say what you're doing with the metal as "pure titanium" may not be what you're really after - easy to work is sometimes the least of one's worries!

[denise]

Hello Peter,
It's quite thrilling to get a reply at all. Thank you.

I bought a nice piece of Titanium a couple of years ago from MUTR but when I looked for more they'd stopped stocking it so I turned to Ebay, not having any real idea that there were different grades. I found a sheet of CP1, did a bit of Googling and concluded that this meant Grade 1 ie the softest grade. So I bought it, much to my regret. That stuff EATS sawblades. It takes about an hour to saw a centimetre and leaves me with a sore arm and needing a lie-down.

Further extensive searching of the internet suggests that CP1 is an American standard which equates to BS Grade 4 ie the hardest grade of pure titanium, but it's really difficult to find any clear info. I was hoping someone on the forum might be able to elucidate.

Thanks again for the welcome.
Denise

[denise]

Hi Joe, the Bluecoat is still going strong. I was in there drooling a few weeks ago.

Thank you for your tips about posting in another section and what to ask for. It surprises me that so few people use titanium for making jewellery (or it did until I got hold of this batch). Before that I found it fairly easy to work, and you can make it go all sorts of lovely colours.

I'll take your advice and post in "Need Help".
Denise

[Joe]

Denise, please show us some of the things you're working on! I'd love to see what someone with a sensibility to love Bluecoat is doing with titanium and colour!!

[MuranoSilver]

Hi Denise
Welcome to the forum :)
I think http://reactivemetals.com/ in the USA sell the sort of Titanium you're looking for
nic x

[denise]

Hi Joe,

I've attached a couple of photos. I don't have many images yet - I'm trying hard to learn how to take decent photographs but I'm afraid it's still pretty hit and miss. Doesn't help that I'm terrified of my camera!

The rectangular pendant is pretty much the first thing I made using titanium, during my BTec certificate course a few years ago. The leaf shaped earrings and pendant are some of my best sellers. Lately I've been experimenting with riveting sterling silver shapes onto oxidised titanium, since of course it can't be soldered, but the photos I took of those pieces were rubbish. I also plan to have a go at anodising.

Denise

269526962697

[denise]

Hi nic, thanks for the welcome. I've always enjoyed reading your posts on the forum, and admiring your lovely jewellery.

I have heard of Reactive Metals, and will keep them in mind, but I'm still hoping to find a UK supplier - I actually think I have found one, but I'm still not quite sure what I need to ask for, and I don't want to end up with another piece of metal that's too tough to saw.

It's made me get inventive, though. I've been cutting it into narrow rectangles on the huge guillotine at college, and that's when I started thinking about riveting on little shapes sawed out of silver sheet.

"Every problem is a challenge; every challenge is an opportunity."

(I just made that up, but it sounds very philosophical.)

Denise

[Joe]

Mmm, I really like the way that pendant is going... especially the metal coming out at the bottom, like an edge of canvas, a nod to the medium. But that strong silver line is interesting... again it seems to work best on the pendant where it feels less applied. Somehow I want it to be even more intrusive into the colour of the pendant - like it's really tearing into the colour... heightening the emotional reaction. Don't ask me how though!!

[denise]

Thanks for the critique. If you mean the straight-edged one, which is actually not rectangular of course, it was inspired by a chimney pot on Gaudi's Sagrada Familia - which makes me sound quite arty but actually I'd never had any sort of relationship with art until I did the BTec design course. It was like getting blood from a stone, I can tell you, but I did learn to be a designer of sorts.

I suppose thicker wire would make more of an impact. I love the way sterling silver contrasts with and accentuates the colours of the titanium, so I try to use some in every piece. Another idea would be to pierce out a design in the titanium before oxidising it and then rivet some sterling silver behind it. Would that do the trick do you think? I made a copper bangle for my final project which had a titanium element riveted to the inside. It would have looked better in silver but it would have cost too much to make. If I ever manage to get a good photo of it I'll post it for you.

[Joe]

Sagrada Familia is such an eclectic work that it must contain just about every possible shape! I'm much more drawn to Parc Guell's restraint / bounded. Did you get up to the roof of Casa Mila? Jewellery on a large scale!

Yes, piercing rather than larger wire would have that sense of cleft, which I can see more clearly is the appeal there to me personally...

Not really critique - art is rather resistant to criticism - but it is interesting to find the bits that appeal to me emotionally and try to express that in some way other than "nice" and "lovely". I suppose in a way I'm asking whether you have the same feeling about it and whether that's what appeals to you in it. Sometimes an outside view can express what you can only feel.... or miss!

I had an accident with a piece some months ago that I intend to adapt along those lines - a fracture I accidentally introduced when bending a piece of very hot sterling that had moved during soldering. It was handy to sort that positive feeling out from the basic disappointment!

[lorraineflee]

Hi denise and welcome. I love the colours in those items of yours.
Lorraine

[denise]

Hi Joe, sadly I haven't been to see Gaudi's work in person, just looked at lots of photographs. Sagrada Familia didn't appeal to me as much as some of the smaller buildings - I think one of my favourites was called Cas Batlo or something like that. There's obviously an astonishing level of skill and attention to detail in all his work.

Hard to say what appeals to me in a piece of jewellery, but my preferred method of working is to take the material and see what it suggests - so hammering a piece of thick wire and then bending and twisting it comes more naturally than drawing designs on paper and then planning how to execute them. I don't analyse much. I do like to have a contrast of colour and/or texture in a piece, and yes I do have an emotional response to pieces of jewellery - often a strong one - but I haven't tried to define the emotions much.

Thinking of your "accident", I've found that the things that go wrong often end up being the best pieces. It's like what I said earlier about every problem being a challenge and an opportunity. Doesn't stop me cursing when I melt something or a bit breaks off, though.

[denise]

Hi Lorraine, thanks for the welcome, and for the kind words. It's the colours that make me love titanium too.

Denise