Making the Notre Dame Ring

While my second silicon mould was setting, I went into jewellery and Malcolm suggested that I continue with my other ring design- the copper plate with the clear acrylic shape clipped over the top. So did that this evening.
Started by polishing a piece of copper on the mechanical polisher with the rouge. Found that I had to wear gloves for parts of it as the metal got extremely hot very quickly.

I then drew around my acrylic circle and added extra pieces where the copper was going to clip onto the circle.
After I had done this I used an extremely thin saw to gently cut through the copper plate.

 

When I had finished sawing all the edges, I filed down the piece of metal which was a very long process. I then had to re-polish it until both sides were finished.

 

After I had done this I then set about creating my rings to go underneath. I selected the right measurement for my two fingers and then wrapped a length of wire around the right selection on the ring pole. I then cut the wire at the top of the circle, and measured out how much copper wire I would need for both rings.

 

Then I used the blow torches to heat up the copper wires, making it more malleable and then left them in the 'pickle' for about 5 minutes to get them really pliable.

 

I then used wire cutters to gently roll up the wire, and some parallel cutters to ensure the two ends met without too much of a gap.

 

And voila! My two rings ready for soldering in the morning!

Two Colour Screen Printing

Went to the Rossington St print rooms again; made up another screen this time only A4 and printed the main circular window onto it. Thought it would look quite good behind the print of the Notre Dame but when I printed the building over my initial print I hated it. Because the back print is too high up it looks like some kind of cult sunrise symbol. Anyway, will probably try printing it again with just block colours behind this time instead of anything too complex.

 

This one got a bit crumpled in the screen printing process- even though I had the vacuum on and everything...

 

Cant really tell from this photo but this print was done on a light grey paper.

VINCENZO RIZZO

Just having a browse through etsy.com and found this guy who is selling his work for about $10 on the site- totally incredible.

Silicon Mould

Went into ceramics again this morning to see how my mould had set. Was not totally happy with the results- around the edge the silicon had not flowed into the tiny patterns so had to do the whole thing again. This time, though, I used a thin paintbrush to paint the silicon into each individual hole. Hopefully it will be set in a few hours and I can still do my pewter pouring.

JULIE ALLEN: Fiber Food

Was tempted to do this kind of thing to my croissant...
That would be awesome.

DANIEL KORNRUMPF

Another artist I found on Mrs Textiles- This guy's work is so amazing! The intricacy of his work is just stunning- his threads look like brush strokes almost.

LOUISE RILEY

I found this artist on Mrs Textiles blog. Riley's work is done on discarded mattresses on which she embroiders people in sleeping positions. Her work is fhaaabulas and if I could embroider I would totally do this. But I cannot.