Metal Working November

VCU Metals recently had the privilege of being visited by none other than pewtersmith Fred Fenster. There was an awesome weekend long workshop involving raising and fabricating pewter, scoring and folding, and modifying tools to facilitate these activities. Fred Fenster taught metalsmithing to my own metalsmith professer, Susie Ganch, at The University of Wisconsin-Madison.



I started hammering freeform, mainly in the spherical depressions we use for sinking, but also a bit of air planishing to close the spiculum-like tip.

Quite a range of forms were produced.Played with the manual press after I couldn't work from the inside with my hammer, wedging the piece about on the platform and squishing it the tiniest bit. I had a surprising amount of control, this was my first time using the press.

Said spiculum-like tip. Closed up quite nicely, if I do say so myself -

And then I played with the torch. Pewter has an amazingly low melting temperature... I played gently with the flame at first, but then gave into my destructive side and really let loose with the heat. This melting was achieved with naught but a 00 acetylene tip! Such a tiny flame!

And lastly, the forever-present copper cup. Boring thing! No more attempts at minimalism for me until I've gotten more toward "ongepaotchket."

November out!

Oh, November

This month has gone by frighteningly quick.

The reappearance of a sketchbook/diary has made quite the positive impact on me. I've kept one for the last decade with more consistency than ANY thing else in my life (it seems). Perhaps I'll share sketches one day, I think that would be a great idea :)

Photographs are from November 6th. The first is of my apartment, the second two are from the deck.

As always, click to enlarge and click again to magnify. The last two should be fun larger :) enjoy!