LOGO experiment

So, I was at work and doing some cold enamelling (resin) on one of them F1 trophies, and thought about my logo. So with help of work colleague, I machine engraved the logo on to a little copper coin, which I then filled with black coloured resin. I quite like it. Perhaps I could try another colour, something that would compliment the colour of copper better.

I guess the next step would be to start using these badges once again. Need to brainstorm... do some sketches and start making again! Yalla yalla Saana!

Product photoshoot

Mariona, my beautiful friend and photographer took her time and came in to my house to set up a studio. She took some very nice pictures of mine and Virginie's work.

Final Polishing

No tinning, no lacquering - just au naturel!

Instead of having strongly scratched surface, I decided to go for more subtle linear finish that looks good with plywood. 

After spending endless amount of time researching how to clean and finish copper I did the following:

I sanded the surface - placed the object on lathe, and as the object is spinning I lightly sanded it with emery paper, up to 800 coarseness. I cleaned the surface with Vulpex abrasive soap (from conservation supplier) to remove all grease. Cif would do too. And finally, I waxed the surface with Renaissance wax (used in British Museum), to give a protective coating against premature oxidising from touch. This wax won't seal the surface, but helps.

For the plywood, I applied a blend of beeswax, carnauba wax and mineral oil. Added two coatings.

I like the effect, but decided for this project, that the linear finish suits better. Maybe another project in near future that will have the kind of scratched finish.

when cleaning the surface with abrasive soap, for some reason, it leaves kind of soap marks or some sort of on the surface. I needed to make sure the metal was cleaned extremely carefully.

Tinning in Action!

Tinning

Okay, as you may know, copper is not suitable to be used with foodstuffs unless lined, usually with stainless steel (industrial process) or tinned (by hand, or hot dip-tinned industrially). I contacted few manufacturers, but, because these companies concentrate on big orders, I was not able to get it done, well I would have to wait for three months... So for the assessment, I wanted to give a hand tinning a try. I didn't know what to expect...

Here I got standard plumbers flux, tin, leather cloth and a test piece.
The flux is brushed on to the metal - tin melted and carefully pored on to heated surface. It was a bit hard to do it by myself, as I had to keep the torch in one hand, the ladle with the tin in other, and somehow use the cloth too. Also, I realised that I had to somehow rotate the metal, to try to get the tin to spread on to the surface. 

Well, it wasn't as easy as I thought. The test piece surface is convex, which obviously makes it harder to handle. But still, the tin just stayed in a liquid lump, like mercury, and just dropped from the surface on to the brick and set. No signs of trying to take its place on surface. 

This test piece was little more realistic. Again, poured the molten metal in and tried to move the tin around and then wipe the excess off. NO, it just didn't want to do it. Stayed in a molten lump and then just set. It seemed that the flux just kept evaporating too fast, which meant that the tin wasn't able to run well. 

Michael Rowe - Conditions for Ornament no 30

I was feeling frustrated after the failed attempt to do tinning. I contacted Michael Rowe, the  Senior tutor of Metalwork programme in RCA. Some of his work is tin-lined. Mr. Rowe was very kind and emailed me back explaining how I could get better results. He told me about this particular tin, that I should use. I am not sure if it is a secret, so I won't tell what it is, but I can say that it works!! 

tinning samples. Look at the amazing bubbly surface!! It looks like the surface is sweating.

Already much better result!

And here, I have tried on another test piece, this time, inside the vessel, the kind of surface that I would need to do the tinning. I ended up with burns and not still very satisfactory surface... I would need more and more practice in order to master tinning.

I decided not to tin the double walled surface myself. Too big risk of ruining the whole piece. Back to square one. Time to contact hot-dip tinning manufacturers.  

Lid making

I needed to think of lids. If I am intending to make vessels for kitchen use, especially for dry foodstuffs, they will need airtight lids, to be protected from moisture, humid, dust, etc. Here's some thoughts:

-the lid should be heavy - gives a sense of value

- plywood fitted inside the metal frame - gives support and structure

cork bezel - to make the container airtight. I feel that cork would work better as a gasket than plastic one, due to its organic appearance and colour.

Cutting the excess base metal with guillotine, then filed off the sharp edges.  

Some kind of cork, probably blend with bonding component... got it from 4D Modelling in Algate. Was trying to look for proper one, the one that is lighter in colour and more lumpy, I guess pure cork, but it was quite expensive. Contacted few suppliers and the average price for one square meter (10mm thick) was about £80. 

Still in need of trimming. Need to mill the wood to level with metal.

Whatta mess!

I had another kind of lid in mind. For that I purchased 3mm copper sheet (the one I usually use is 1,2mm, 18gauges). Very simple one, but needed to be made on lathe. The 3mm copper, pierced in circle, is sandwiched between two wooden rings and adjusted very tightly on to the lathe.  As the drawing above shows, I milled inlay of  10mm, working off 1,5mm of the metal, creating the bezel.

This flat disc was intended for the double walled piece. I thought it would be elegant, very simple 'disc' lid.

But what happened in the end was, the disc lid obviously is machine operated, therefore perfectly round and even, when again the vessels that I wanted to use it for, is 100% handmade, therefore it is not fully even. Them two together did not look good together, did not meet perfectly. What I needed to do is to make the lid by hand, to make it right way 'imperfect'! 

Making of double walled piece 2

I chose to work on simple shape, to keep the metalworking practise as easy as possible. Still, I wouldn't have believed how hard it can be to solder two walls together, handmade accurately.

It took me four rounds to solder the base on to the two walls. I had to consider, that heating the metal would create hot air, which needs to escape. I drilled a little hole for the air to escape, on to the base sheet, just between the two walls. This way I ensured not damaging the metal. If the hot air would get trapped between the metal walls, it would retract the metal, when the air is cooling down. Serious damage would appear on the surface. Also, if I would re-heat the vessel without an air hole, the vessel would explode, because the hot air would not be able to escape. 

Silver solder pellets placed along the inside and outside seam. Rouge and mineral oil brushed on to the existing solder line. 

The piece after heating. Natural oxidising appearing on the surface. The metal became so hot, that the oxidising has turned into ash that just flakes off.

One can see, that some of the solder pellets hasn't melted inside the vessel.   

Here, I have marked the spots where solder is needed to fill the gaps on the seam. 

Aaargh, not easy! Due to uneven heating, the solder has melted all over the place, not on the seam, where it should have.  Plenty of sanding is now needed...

Making of double walled piece

One of the pieces that I have designed is a vessel that has two walls, creating a chunky look, almost as if the metal walls are that thick. This piece has been technically the most difficult one. The piece has put my metalsmithing skills on test! Even my tutor said that I had picked relatively difficult object to make, considering my experience and skills so far.

First, I needed to make two rings. The thickness between the rings is 10mm, same as on the other vessels.

Here, the rings are already soldered, then carefully placed on sheet of metal. I needed to make sure the rings were round, and that the distance between the rings were even all way round.  

Re-soldering. It is quite difficult to solder two walls at the same time, making sure the heat is spread evenly and that the silver solder melts properly. There is always a risk of overheating the metal or the solder. Also, every time you re-solder, you may weaken the already existing one. I used rouge compound and mineral oil to protect the existing solder joints from heat.  

Once the solder seam is clean, I pierced the inside and outside of the sheet to create the top rim for the vessel. Next step is to solder the base.

More about milling plywood on lathe

As I have shown on previous post, I had adjusted the copper rim around the plywood and placed it on the lathe. As I started to mill the copper to meet the plywood, I was getting worried about the lines the milling creates on metal. But for my relief, I was able to sand the lines down. I was not planning to mill metal,as I make the rings by hand, and they should fit the plywood body without having to mill the surface. I don't want my work to look like  they are deep drawn or spun by machine -You associate that kind of linear lines with industrial processes. My work is all about handcrafts. And yes, I am using lathe, therefore, I have learned a skill in order to operate the tool.  

Even though, I find it wonderful to work on lathe, I don't want machine to overtake the handcrafting. I want the user/viewer to appreciate the making of the object. Big part of my project is to celebrate craftsmanship and handmade quality. 

Problem solving 

This image shows how I have made a copper ring, then milled plywood part to fit tightly inside.

After that, I have placed more plywood on to p and bottom of the ring of copper and wood inside it.


In the end, the glued wooden part on the top did not align with the chuck, so when I milled it, it didn't level with rest of the body. I ended up cutting off the top wood part and managed to save the rest. 

Here, back in action. I have now successfully milled the wood and metal to level. The inside of the vessel is done too. The thickness of the wall is 10mm.  

I ended up comprehending a totally different looking vessel that I had in mind in first place. I am actually pleased that I made the error on the lathe. Due that, I discovered visually and technically more attractively designed object. 

Here, I am fitting a rim, it will become lid for the vessel. 

Sometimes, from making mistake and to realise new better outcome, is meant to happen. I may not be able to see all the possibilities when conceptualising on drawing board. Most of the decisions happens along the making process.  Also, the more I use a tool, the more it can give to me, and the more I am capable of visualising endless designing possibilities.   

Working on plywood

Layers of roughly cut plywood glued together. Ready to be milled

I have learned, that when milling, the chuck (the base disc that is attached to the lathe) and the rest of the milled body has to align or otherwise the work won't level. 

Milling in process

The metal did not meet the wood exactly, as my cylinder is handmade and the plywood part is machine operated. I had to take the whole piece back on the lathe to even it out.