My Metal Work Showcase
As I have mentioned in the blog, I love making things, primarily with metal. All sorts, from a Copper Candelabra, to some lovely fine jewellery. Generally, I haven’t sold it, I have enjoyed giving it away, but to achieve one of my goals of increasing my income in retirement, I have recently started a new Folky shop, Cracking Gems.
Scroll down to see lots of pictures of my creations, and if there’s anything you like, and would like something similar, feel free to contact me. I would be delighted to talk about my passion.
Added 21st February 2020
Yet again, time slips by. I need to work harder at keeping this information up to date! Between August and February, my time was pretty taken up with travel – 2 months on my trip to Athens then our trip to New Zealand – we were only home for 6 weeks in the middle, so all my time seemed to be spent making copper leaves!!
Hence I am writing this while I am just back from a lovely time in NZ, where I made some lovely pieces or my son’s garden. I packed the frames in pieces, with tons of ready prepared copper leaves – this was the outcome..
This one I did for a friend – it will be on the outside wall of her house, visible from her drive.
Added 10th August 2019
I can’t believe it has been a year since I added some photographs. It’s not that I haven’t been making things, it is just that I am not good at taking photographs and putting them up… I had a very successful gallery show in November 2018, where my things proved very popular.
So firstly, some lovely copper pieces.
Just finished in July, this rather massive piece (1m long x 80 cm wide. Each flower and leaf is hand made
This wee copper branch is made up of copper and silver leaves, some of them darkened to give a contrast. My son liked this so much, he has purloined it! It was in a wee box frame.
I was extremely fond of this bowl, and so was someone else. It was snapped up from my Folksy store. I really adored the colours.
These lovely pendants are made using copper and a cold enamel coating. I just love the red colour.
And now for some silver pieces
Three silver and enamel pendants
and a really lovely silver pendant and earrings. These ones I really enjoyed making. They were made using Argentium silver, which is brittle when hot and also easily fuses together. The random pieces were made by heating up the silver, then literally breaking pieces off. Then fusing the two layers together.
and finally a lovely silver pendant, using a piece of ocean jasper which I have hand cut and polished, then set in silver. There are another 2 pieces to be made yet from the same slice of stone.
Added 10th May 2018
Either I haven’t been making much recently, or I have not been good at taking and publishing photographs of the completed work. I still think I have been busy, so I am falling down on the photography side. Mind you, I did have a lovely holiday in The Hebrides
Here are some beautiful poppies I made (as mentioned in my Personal Challenge – Week 3 ). A friend told me that a local church, Liberton Kirk, are planning a huge poppy display cascading down the church tower. All the local churches have been asked to help knit poppies. I decided to make a permanent set of poppies that could either be pinned to the display, or put at the foot of the tower or even the entrance into the kirk. They also can take tea-lights. After the display is dismantled, they can then be sold for church funds and / or British Legion funds. They are made of recycled copper, and then sprayed with car paint, and put on garden stakes. Don’t they look lovely!
Added 27th February 2018
This one is work in progress. I haven’t quite made up my mind about it. Any views?? Copper, natural, enamelled, heat treated. I haven’t decided yet whether to varnish it, or let it darken naturally over the years.
Added 26th February 2018
This is the same cuff. However I found the cuff on the left rather bland, however with the addition of a ‘ruffled edge’ it totally changed, not only how it looked, but also how it felt on my arm. I am now pleased with the outcome!
This little night light holder was the first thing that came out of my lovely new kiln.
I’ve done quite a lot of fold forming recently, from this little beauty, which started as a 5 inch square of flat copper. It is now 2.5 inch square!
To this one, that started as an 8 inch square piece of copper. It is about 5 inches square
And finally, this one is about to be a belt buckle
Added 25th January 2018
Continuing on the with examples in Charles Lewton-Brain, this is my attempt to re-create one of the examples in his book to try and master the techniques.
Added 24th December 2017
Yesterday, I had a lovely time enamelling a randomly fold-formed bowl – it is about 5 inches across. Unfortunately I got distracted and left it too long in the kiln. However it turned out so lovely, I decided to leave it that way.
an over-fired bowl with a lovely outcome
Added 16th December 2017
I finally finished this pendant, it has been in a semi-finished state for ages. It is always good to get it completed.
Added 13th December 2017
Well I realised I haven’t added anything here for a while. The amount of stuff I make has definitely slowed down since I have been blogging, not to mention being in Madrid for 5 weeks. However, here are a couple of recent creations.
I have started doing some fold-forming again, inspired by Charles Lewton-Brain. I finished this on Monday 11th December. It is about 6in / 15cm across.
I’m still into jewellery making, so I’ll post another couple of photographs in the next day or two…
Added 3rd September 2017
A different style of copper work. It stands about 12 inches high, I just loved the elegant curves.
And some silver. This is a twig that has been cast, then finished off with a silver mesh inside.
Added 15th August 2017
This is a totally new area for me. It is the first time I have made a wall decoration. It is still 3D, but has a flat side so it can be hung against a wall. Far more useful than free standing candelabras…
Added 29th June 2017
This one is from a series that I created from a blog post. I got the inspiration from my morning walk. The thought of having a piece of jewellery made from a 100 year old tree just seemed such a lovely idea.
and here it is with the twig it was made from…
It is now hallmarked and added to my Folksy Shop
This one is also in the shop – I just love random pieces
Added 19th April 2017
Added 21st March 2017
This pendant is made from a piece of Leopardskin Jasper, hand cut and polished, and then set in silver. It is about 1 inch by 1.5 inches
Added 10th February 2017
Having been away the whole of January, my production had stopped. However, now I am back, and my workshop has been set up again, I am back to work.
I finished this on Monday. A small copper bowl, about 4in / 10cm diameter.
If I had continued hammering it, the sides would have gone completely straight, but I like the random effect, so I stopped at this stage. Picking up on my 2017 – Dream Big post, this might be one for eBay, to start trying to get an income from my hobby….
Added 29th November 2016
And I finally finished this yesterday. Made entirely from copper, with a delightful wee copper LED light string. It stands about 15in high. As we are going to go away on a trip just after Christmas this year, I think this will be my Christmas tree!!
Note to self for 2017 – work on my photography – these photographs really don’t do the work justice. I will be showing this at a forthcoming gallery show, so I hope I get lots of good feedback.
The 4 wee copper dishes at the base, have been made from flat sheet, and then shaped – a lot of hammering (very satisfying!). I’m pleased with the results.
some of the leaf detail. They are braided on using recycled copper from electrical wire.
Added 15th November 2016
I am rather proud of this one. It stands 4ft high. It is mainly made out of scrap copper, and I made it specifically for my son’s wedding. He was getting married in a ‘medieval cavern’ in Edinburgh, mainly lit by candles (You can see it on the right of the table )
and a few of the closer detail. The leaves, ‘flowers’ and candle holders have all been handmade….
Added 12th November 2016
Over the last few days, I have been trying to cast pewter. When cast, I am unable to do much work on pewter as it becomes brittle, so to make it easier, I used a silver bracelet I had made some time ago as a model, rather than a twig that would later need bending and shaping.
The photograph doesn’t really highlight the difference in colour, the pewter bangle is marginally duller, but the raw material is about one-tenth that of silver. So I will make a few pieces for a forthcoming sale, and see if it attracts any interest. I don’t know of anyone else in the area doing casting in either silver or pewter.
In the picture above, the silver one is to the right. In the picture below, the silver one is the top one. The silver one will be getting hallmarked!
Added 31st October 2016
This one is one of my favourites. I did it to take part in a challenge on the theme Winter. It is called ‘The Thaw‘. The outside hoop is textured silver, the central ‘icicle’ is a cast silver twig, the blue piece to the right represents a lake with ice floating on it, created using enamel, and finally the clouds to the left are made with fine silver, and a ‘snowflake’ created from a bit of melted silver being ‘splashed’ onto a cold metal surface.
I love Silver Sand Casting – this involves making a mould in sand, then pouring melted silver into the mould. Here are a few examples. I love using nature as an inspiration, so many of my examples are originally based on twigs, all of which have come from my garden. So no-one will ever get the same thing!
This one came about because I started making a ring with the twig, then decided it was far too chunky as a ring, so I decided it would make a nicer pendant, so I added a ‘leaf’ to change the look. My friend Liz has this one.
This one evolved from 2 partial castings of twigs. It reminded me of when I was a child and fighting with my brother, on who should get to break the wishbone! My friend Helen has this one.
This is just to give you and idea of what the ‘silver scrap’ looks like, used to form a twig. The twig is then rolled to make it thinner, and finished with sandpaper to give it an interesting texture, and made into a ring.
This one was made from a long twig out of my garden, cast in silver, then shaped into a bangle. Quite a laborious process. Different twigs, but Nina in Norway, and Grace in Scotland have a version of this.
This one is my older son’s kilt pin. This was one of my first ever creations, and though I say it myself, one of the best!! To start with the twig was interesting as it had a soft outer layer, which broke up a bit in the cast, then it also had some ‘feathering’ which only added to the intrigue.