A necklace I am proud of :)

Well well well,!!
this gets more interesting by the day.
A triangle had 3 sides my son tells me, Ill have to draw one to check
it out
Anyway
in one corner we have don morris who makes what the market wants,#
in another corner we have Abrasha who makes what he wants but the market
doesnt want,
in the 3rd corner is where im at.
I make what I want the way I see the product out of the materials I
enjoy and the public want to buy it.
In fact they keep asking
"When are you going to have the Bronze age torques you made?
or the 3 colour twists in the viking style,?
or the New Rennaicense bracelets?
or the space age designs in titaniun?
or the " Dark ages" goth style?
or the heavy copper yes 1/2llb to 2 lb pounders( hot forged of course)
for bad reumatism, apart from the lighter ones with incised designs
struck while you wait
or the celtic link type with the special hinge design? Abrsha doesnt
belive I made.
or the berber ( ex maria teresa silver coins)solid silver woven type?
or the wrought iron (acid etched to bring out the grain structure) iron
age?
thats just the bracelet section.
then we go on to look at the buckles,
with minted fronts featuring 20 differnt designs from the great age of
steam right throught to the classical imagery of wedgwood type. all in
Bronze or guilding metal and sterling silver.
thats without any of the large bowls and dishes .
all forged in copper bronze guilding metal silver and titanium.
not your spun thin metal but real stuff up to 1/4in thick and 2ft dia.
then there are the minted comissions for medal, coins and a whole range
of silver and bronze buttons.
With commemorative plaques for major historical rallies and museums.
so dont dispair all you cradftsmen and women out there.
If I,now a mere Dorset rural bumkin can do it
so can you .
It is said here
Dorset born and Dorset bred
strong in the arm
and thick in the head.
you are what you make of yourself.
May the spirit of creativity be with you
amen.

I was asked this question off list, but I though some of you might be
interested in casting pewter at home for small sculptures and beads and
such. This method can be good for making models for carving originals
for molding. I have used it to "back up" my carving, so that if I am
making a wax, after putting some time in on it, I mold it. Then I can
inject wax into that mold and carve away from there. It makes it easy to
go back to those waxes to create a whole new idea.

Anyway here it is:

I cast a lot of pewter in to RTV silicone molds everyday. Well, my
employees do now, but we do up to 100 sculptures per day. Ranging in
size form a small 3 inch hummingbird to 12 inch sculptures. I use
Silastic E that I purchase from Krayden Dist. in Denver, Colorado:
1-303-280-2800. They have different size kits from one pound to 45?
pounds. This is about a 5 gallon pail for around $700.00. I just called
them. A 1.1 pound kit is $30.00 , a 9.9 pound kit is $215.00, and a 44
pound kit is $743.00 Ask for Angela, my sales rep and she is easy to
talk to. They will ship to Mexico too.

Silastic E will take up to 800 degrees according to them, but it will
ruin the mold according to me. I cast fine pewter (about 92% tin, 5%
antimony, and 3% copper) at about 600 degrees. I am guessing, because I
have a 50 pound electric melting pot for pewter and it only has numbers
on it. I have found over the past 35 years of casting Silver and pewter
that the temperature really makes very little difference. I just melt
the metal until it runs good, real good and cast.

The real important thing in casting pewter into rubber molds is to have
them vented with some small slits and even some times small reservoirs
in the mold it self, and vents that might go to the top of the mold.
Rarely it these vents need. I mold very complicated sculptures of
animals from time to time, and pride myself that I cast most in one
piece, where others would have to cast many pieces and then solder the
sculptures together. I only mention this because even with those mold I
rarely have to vent up to the top of the mold, or out of the mold.

I always, dust the mold with powdered graphite before casting. I get it
from Ace Hardware in large bottles. I dust on a lot and brush it off
with a 2 inch paint brush. This leaves a very fine dusting on the mold
surfaces. It is amazing that this dusting not only vents the mold, but
protects it. I have one mold that I have cast into for more than 2,000
times. If you do not use the graphite the mold will scorch, get hard,
and tear.

I also do a lot of gravity casting with pewter. You can gravity cast
almost anything with pewter, but the secret is to have a reservoir
larger than the piece, or pieces, that you are casting. This ensures
that the gravity will hydraulically force the metal into the details,
even a thin Hummingbird beak. It will also stop shrinkage because the
last part of cast to cool can be made to do all the shrinking. It will
also eliminate pitting and porosity in your castings. I mold the
reservoir right into each mold, or I have made molds of reservoir that I
tape onto the molds that I am casting to do the job. I tape most molds
up to about 12 x 12 inches with masking tape, then duck tape, or just
duck tape for casting. On larger molds up to 3 feet tall and 1 foot
square, I use a mold box that screws together around the mold.

A handy ladle is one that pours from the bottom. I do not know where to
find one any more. Mine are about 20 years old.

Hope this helps,
Don Norris
learnsilver.com

Thanks Mike for the Troll and Plunk. I will pround wear that badge. I
hope you have reported Abrasha, too. Anyway, I guess you are still mad
at me for the Mike's Doomed Dome way back when you attacked me for how I
was teaching, then the torch I used, then me personally. You were the
other reason I quit this forum. It wasn't enough that I took your little
challenge of putting two bezels on a dome, and it grew into Mike's
Doomed Dome, but I made it with the $18.00 torch from Ace Harware. So
then you made fun of it as being too heavy, even though my 7th grade
girls could use it. Then remember, you remarked the the $3.00 tank of
gas was expensive. You may not have seen Mike's Doomed Dome, but it is
on my website and then follow the links to the "Hard Solder Challenge".
I will be adding a link to your site so that everyone can see the fine
art jewelry that you make. So plunk and troll me again. Or you can just
go to http://silversmithing.homestead.com/mikesdome.html to see your
dome. http://silversmithing.homestead.com/solder5.html is what I ended
up making for you to learn from. You have inspired me to get out and
finish setting the stones. It might inspired me to go to Tucson, I was
going to skip it this year. But now I would like to go, take it and put
it on display. I will let you know where I will be so that you can come
and see it in person.

For those of you that would like to know why I teach Silversmithing with
only hard solder please visit my site.
Don Norris
LearnSilver.com

mbstevens wrote:

3 page rant deleted

*Plonk*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plonk


Aw c'mon, man... I don't think he deserved THAT.

I thought parts of that guy's posts were a laugh RIOT, and incidentally,
found those were the parts that were pretty fecking right-on.

And yeah, I realize that's just my opinion.. and no one has to agree with
it, nor his.

In fact, there were many parts of his post I didn't like. Like the harsh
remarks to Abrasha Yeah, I realize Abrasha comes off like a mean ****ing
beast and hurts people's feelings. But I am in love with him, and so he can
do no wrong in my (starry) eyes.

But anyways, *blissful sigh*....Wait, where was I??

OH! Right...

I still don't think that other guy was a plonk-worthy troll.


-- m3rma1d
--
www.creativespill.com (Now over a year without updates!)
www.creativespill.com/a_few_new/pieces.html (They were new.. 10+ months
ago!)

My apologies to you. I was quoting Peter Rowe. Just hit the wrong reply
button on my email.

--
**************************************************
Martha Hughes
Forms Analyst
Patient Data Services
Harborview Medical Center
Box 359738
206-744-9054



"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow
in Australia." (Charles Schultz)
"Marilee J. Layman" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 02:20:15 GMT, "mehughes"
wrote:

"What we need is to consider how to compete, and how to better market
ourselves. We need to increase the number of consumers who understand the
difference between really good work and kitschy or commonplace but still
attractive work, and are willing to pay for the difference. And these
people then need to be able to find us.

That's not me you're quoting, but you replied to my post.
--
Marilee J. Layman
http://www.livejournal.com/users/mjlayman

Don Norris wrote in
:

http://silversmithing.homestead.com/mikesdome.html to see your
dome. http://silversmithing.homestead.com/solder5.html

You're my hero.

--
Saint Séimí mac Liam
Carriagemaker to the court of Queen Maeve
Prophet of The Great Tagger
Canonized December '99

Hey, I'm inspired already! Have actually just had a really good idea!
(Well, not Abrasha-good, but good for me!)

Just remember Abrasha, some of us actually enjoy working with lampworked
beads, sterling silver, swarovski crystal etc. The enjoyment for me is
being able to make AFFORDABLE pieces that other people my age (and older)
can afford and wear and enjoy! As much as I enjoy your necklaces and rings,
I could never in a million years afford one. Some of us also don't have
access to the type of education that you've obviously had either.

Charlie. (I'm in three galleries and counting... does that make me a
professional?)


"Peter W.. Rowe," wrote in message
...
On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 08:33:52 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Abrasha
wrote:

Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:
On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 22:02:59 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Abrasha
wrote:


I think I'm going to hang myself now, or maybe I'll just quietly slit
my
wrists.

Oh no, I can't do that today, I have to make 60 chocolate covered
profiteroles for the school potluck tomorrow night.

Oh well, I'll kill myself the day after tomorrow over this "pretty
necklace" ****.


Sheesh.

Get off your high horse, will ya?

You right, my bad!

Will just make small incision in earlobe for a little bloodletting.

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

No doubt this will inspire a new earring design... :-)

Peter

To further apologize to the group, I decided to make all of you a free
offer. Two cds for free. No, no shipping charges, no gimmicks, free,
just send me you address off list:

First cd: My first four lessons of my Beginning Silversmithing Class
Covers, tools and supplies, lesson on metals and solders, and lesson
four
is a tutorial on soldering and using only hard solder.

Second cd: My introduction of how I got started 35 years ago. No it is
not worth reading, but I wrote it to give my students confidence in what
I teach. I can not teach confidence, it has to be gained by working, but
I try to instill confidence in what I teach.

The reason I send it is that it has: "How to sell your Jewelry".
A book that I am writing and will eventually sell.

This cd is not edited, not spell checked, so if you find a four letter,
dirty word it is, for sure, a typo.

Just send me your address OFF LIST, please! or call me:
1-303-517-1068.


I offered the special deals below to the list members of my list, you
are welcome to take advantage of them too.

1. I made about 100 extra copies of my Lapidary Class by mistake when
over 200 were sold as a bulk buy on another list, but I made 300 for
$39.00. So, I am all but giving them away for $10.00 including postage.
It is a class that teaches you how to cut and polish any stone,
cabochons, by using only a $40.00 grinder from the hardware store.
Anyway if you want it, go to paypal an send me $10.00 and I will send it
with the other free cds.

2. If you visit my site and would like to order my Beginning
Silversmithing CD, or to paypal, send me $50.00 (normally $59.00 plus
$4.00 shipping) and I will send you the Beginning Silvering Class, the 2
free cds above, and the Lapidary Class.

3. Send me $100.00 and I will send you all the above, plus my $79.00
Advance Class, and a free copy of my newest class: "Lost Wax Casting",
$69.00 on my web site. That is over $250.00 worth of my classes.

By the way I call them classes because as you go through the lessons
you can ask any and all questions. Just call me with urgent one, e-mail
me the rest. I tend to answer e-mail more thoroughly because I have the
time and I send the answer to my other lists. Any and all questions!

That's it, no more apologizing. I am not going to do anything in the
future to apologize for, plon, I meant, promise!

If anyone has Mike Stevens' address, please send it to me too! I would
like to send him these for free too, but he plonked me (I found out what
that means! I thought it meant that I might die!), and I do not want
him to miss out.

Don Norris
LearnSilver.com, oh, and RockWraps.com

"MIGHT be an ad"? Um. Part apology, part ad. How's that? But it's enough a
part of the ongoing conversation that I allowed it. Just please don't, Don,
make too much of a habit of it, OK? Remember that minor bits of advertising in
a sig file at the end of an otherwise acceptable posting have always been
allowed, so there's one easy loophole. In this case, most of your post is the
almost/might be ad. Stretching things, sir (grin)

Peter

Charlie wrote:

Charlie. (I'm in three galleries and counting... does that make me a
professional?)
It depends,
have the galleries paid you for the work?
or
is it on sale or return?
or
were they comissions from them?

Only if youve been at it at least a few years
and you do it full time
and you earn a living from it ,
and the galleries are buying from you,
then maybe you might be a professional.
If its on sale or return your giving the galleries items
to fill their shelf display case space at no cost to them.
only you
.. If theve bought it your part of the way there.
Otherwise no.