vessels

I have love for vessels. A whole shelf in my tiny kitchen is stacked with hand thrown bowls, gathered from art fairs and shops. My collection of cups, baskets, and wooden spoons spills out of the kitchen and into every other room of our apartment. It would only follow that this soft concave form would find a place in my metalwork. I’m quite delighted with a new addition to my tools: a dapping set, comprised of a 2” square block covered in half circles, with twenty-four steel punches with ball ends. A flat piece of metal is placed in a cup in the block, and the corresponding punch is hammered into the metal, gradually shaping the piece into a hemisphere.

After playing a bit with scrap metal (shown in the image above), I combined one of the small 3/8” diameter recycled sterling silver cups with a small handmade copper bead and a curling ear wire. The finished piece is around 1.5 inches long and beautiful worn front or back.

small stones

Three weeks to go before Weston’s Applefest! Little plastic bags filled with finished pieces keep pilling up, and I took time this weekend to play in between soldering and hammering to-dos.

The lovely little beads above were born of scrap silver. I squirrel away filings, destroyed creations, and any extra pieces of metal as I work. These little bits were piled into a well in my charcoal block, and heated until they melted and pooled together.

It was delightful.

…until I had to drill the holes, which demanded deep breathing and zen-like cursing. (Do zen masters curse? I would.) Eventually I was able to line them all up into this row of uneven, textured beads, each like a small stone. I can’t explain how incredibly happy they make me.

Below are two of the beads decorating a simple, curved earwire.

sketch

I am happy to announce the arrival of a new addition to my tool family, the Flex Shaft! No, this is not the lead character to a ‘71 film (or awful 2000 remake), and yes, this tool is for my work bench and not my panty drawer. A flex shaft attaches to a Dremel drill, with a long, well, shaft, ending at a hand piece that is held like a pencil. With an additional etching bit I can now draw on metal. Which, I don’t mind saying, is pretty freaking cool.