Wow! So beautiful! You've got quote an eye. Where do you get your materials from? Have you been collecting for a while? Do you have many back burner type projects ongoing?
Instagram blocked me from watching the last two videos. Did you make that chain in the second to the last one?
@Soossie I'm always happy to see someone's creations and to see that they are or have been freely creating.
I tinker around with copper and other materials, but the copper stuff seems to be the most freeflowing stuff I've been creating these days.
I had a career as a commercial plumber in heavy construction, so I've had a lot of access to a lot of scrap copper in the form of pipe and wire
Im currently working on a protest piece against the policies and practices of my city government. Our city mascot is an oak tree. I made an oak tree that's roots are absorbing money to produce coiled razor wire for its foliage.
What triggered the protest are those Flock cameras that have us all under a constant state of surveillance and deny us of habeas corpus when they issue tickets, as if they're infallible or as if none of us have ever lent our car to anybody else, but I digress.
I asked you about the back burner projects because I've got a zillion of them. Very few of them will probably ever reach fruition but a lot of them will turn into other things. One of the coolest things I've ever made started from a back burner project that was years old and the burner had gone out.
I asked you about the chain because I wanted to ask you if you have seen these impulse welding machines they have for making jewelry. They're pretty cool. I just picked one up last week. I'm an avid welder with lots of serious welding machines but these are so simple. Anybody can use them. It's basically a handheld spot welder for about 300 bucks. They weld gold, titanium, silver, copper, brass, you name it. They use them in permanent jewelry because you can weld right against somebody's skin and they won't feel it hardly. I was also wondering what your method was of joining the links if you did make that chain.
It took me a long time to get to where I could braze each link of a chain without the whole thing being fused together. The chains I make are meant for dog collars so they have to be strong and it's okay if they look kind of bulky
As for being kind, I prefer to be kind. Giving me a place to be the way I like to be is way better than any appreciation for me being that way so it feels strange for me to tell you you're welcome for my kindness. I'd rather thank you too
Your presentation looks so professional. is is this your profession?
Thank you for sharing .. I like the reddish color of copper .. it can really make a piece very interesting … a very famous Iranian sculptor, made beautiful sculptures by welding the spare parts of old scrapped cars … I’ll share one or two photos of his works below …
I work with already made chains .. I only make small links of silver when doing silver smithing … I design my works not prior to making it but while making it .. playing it by the ear … staying faithful to the concept …
@Soossie that's very creative. Thanks for sharing.
I kinda had a feeling that you design as you go. I think that's how you get the best results, not to mention, drawing stuff like that out first would put limitations on designing without limits. I don't think you could be as creative that way.
Here are some pics of a dragon I didn't know I was going to be making when i started making it
I'm not sure what order they will load in. I made the body scales only about 9 months or more before i made the rest. I just wanted to see if i coukd make spirels of copper wire link together like a chain link fence, and it was harder than I'd expected. I was expecting the copper to be soft enough that the interval at which it spireled didnt matter. I figured the leading part of the helix (?) would be able to force its way between the spirals of the helix i was trying to connect it to, but its softness also worked against it and the friction created after a few spirals in was too much and the torque apllied to the helix being threaded would open up its spiral so bad that it was no loger a helix. ..so i had to make a tool that would open a closed spiral and keep its spread at a uniform spread.
I got real good at making tight coils , and the tool i made worked like a charm. I got carried away making coils and at opening them up uniformly (i enjoyed using the tool i made and seeing it work). After i threaded together a bunch of coils, I forgot why it was so important to me.
I set them aside and noted that one collection of them kinda looked like a dragons body. Then everything went on a back burner until all those months later when i came upon a discarded pair of jumper cables. I took them home for the wire in them. The alligator clamps were junk. I was going to toss them when i found out they were only copper plated (not solid copper). Then i saw the dragon they wanted to be and remembered the coils i already had waiting to become a dragon. I felt obligated at that point.
The project lead to some other skills i ended up acquiring in order to finish. One such skill lead to the way i make barbedwire, which lead to other things, like rose stems
That^ goes to the tree I'm working on now
I'll do the coins under the roots kinda like this:
..that grey metal box they're on in the pic is that new spot welder I was telling you about. The more I play with it, the more potential I see in it
Seth!! Thank you for well understanding the elements that I use in my works ..
At a time when neutral palettes and increasingly minimal forms can make human life simpler yet more distant, I believe that brighter colours, light, and radiance can bring the human spirit closer to nature. 🤗🤗
