Well, no I didn't cast it, which is what you described, because I didn't have the kiln I'd need to cook the forme in. So I fabricated it, which meant I sort of *did* bend the gold like paper clips, and cut them into pieces of the right shape and then I melted the *solder*--which is also gold but it's alloyed to bond with the other gold at a lower melting point--at the joints, and then I filed the scale off and sanded down the surfaces, and I high-polished the yellow gold but used a burr-finish on the white (for contrast and of course deeply symbolic reasons). Then setting the big stone was easy, but the smaller round one was a bitch, as you know, so we cheated.
But since we're us, we can make the cheating into a symbol too. It was really good times; I've been away from goldsmithing for a long time and I can't tell you how exhilarating it is to get a chance to get back to it. So this looks like false modesty, but thanks for "needing" me to do this. You know I wouldn't have taken the time unless.
2 comments:
Pretty! I am VERY impressed! What a thoughtful and special gift!! (Keep it away from Lily!)
Well, no I didn't cast it, which is what you described, because I didn't have the kiln I'd need to cook the forme in. So I fabricated it, which meant I sort of *did* bend the gold like paper clips, and cut them into pieces of the right shape and then I melted the *solder*--which is also gold but it's alloyed to bond with the other gold at a lower melting point--at the joints, and then I filed the scale off and sanded down the surfaces, and I high-polished the yellow gold but used a burr-finish on the white (for contrast and of course deeply symbolic reasons). Then setting the big stone was easy, but the smaller round one was a bitch, as you know, so we cheated.
But since we're us, we can make the cheating into a symbol too. It was really good times; I've been away from goldsmithing for a long time and I can't tell you how exhilarating it is to get a chance to get back to it. So this looks like false modesty, but thanks for "needing" me to do this. You know I wouldn't have taken the time unless.
bissoux,
bff
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