29th of November

Hey guys thought id talk about my day yesterday forging and a few things i came up agansit. My goal for the forge was to get a full leaf made up so i could put it next to my drawings and really get a feel for it in the steel.

I made it quick with gas axe, i wasnt really happy with the nib and the form needs some refining. So i got drawing up different ideas.

These are the drawings, i settled on the bottom one because i like the slight bend. On wednesday i want to get the gas axe out again and make a sample up like this.

This is a sample i did before the drawings with the texture put on to it, i quite like the texture but i do want to see what adrian said about texturing the full bar under the hammer then bending it. Something to do on wednesday.

In other news, i have just got a commision recently to make a few small key rings in a specific way. Lot of stuff to do. 

28th of November

This is a 3DSP post. I put a little post up on Iforge asking about unique tongs and ive had a great response so far.

These were the first couple images i got, they are some GS Tongs. I actually own some of the top ones named tusk tongs, they are some of my useful tongs i have in my box they can literally hold any kind of section. I will take a few pictures on the ones i own because they have alot of different features to others i have seen.

The next pair really is a unique pair.

They were posted on the page without much of an explanation. I need to do some mor research, if i had to hazard a guess i would suspect they were used for plate.

Alot of research to get on with this project, i am also making up a few pairs of tongs at the moment i will be posting.

One thing i wanted to talk about not on subject is the tech file, its started to bug me im not putting stuff up much its just im not really learning much new stuff at the moment. With steve we learned tongs, i knew that, we learned how to fire weld better, i knew that and we made a bolster and ive already made one. I know Kate told me that its for my benefit rather than something for my tutors. I just dont want it to get to marking and ive put nothing up.

Fixed it

27th of November

Well quite a good day all round, had my tutorail with Ambrose which went well. I was basically told i need to start making, i am confident i can make it just need to get on with it. The main reason i wanted to talk to Ambrose was 3DSP which was one of my main concerns as i didnt have an idea, we talked about relating it to my project and maybe leaves and different kinds but that didnt really spark my intrest. So we got talking about tongs because i have been working on alot of them right now, so we got talking about unique types and why we have tongs like we do. Really look into variations of tongs and how useful the unique ones are. 

Having some trouble with blogger posting photos so not had any up for the last few days, bit annoying. Will try and sort that till tommorow

26th of November

Bit of a late one but i thought i would post up about the day. Started off pretty poor, walked to HE to then remeber as i was walking in the door that i needed to be there tomorrow not today, so a nice 20 minute walk home. Went to the forge in the afternoon for 3DSP with Steve, we were making Bolsters something i had already made last year with the help of the Captain.

Aswell as this i talked to Adrian about attaching my piece to the wall, he told me about using a traditional fitting to stone of leading it in. So that has saved one problem.

Got a post comming tommorow about my tutorail wtih Ambrose

24th of November

 So here is the big post you guys have been waiting for with baited breath, i had a long tutorail with Adrian wednesday about my idea and a few things that were getting on my mind. As i mentioned before about the leaf it has changed along to alot more curvy almost abstracted versoin of the leaf.

These are the new designs i drew up, i will be putting up some new improved samples in a little bit. I am quite happy with the design because it looks alot more natural and organic to me than the first sample of the sharp edges.

My next big thing i was wondering about was connecting the the leaves to the stalk, i had a talk with Adrian about some of the ideas i had like Mig it, fire weld them together maybe even a tiny rivet then Adrian drew up a way i hadnt thought of, making the rivet part of the actual design. Just like the texture in the stem make the rivet like a small dome in the stem to really show off movement in the main piece.

I really liked both methods but its getting close to my deadline on start making so i had to make some quick descions. I whacked up a quick sample on Friday.

This is the sample, its need alot of refining but i think i can make this work for me. Il talk this through with Adrian on Wednesday but i think its sorted.

Next on the Agenda is the new samples.

I was trying to work out a quick way to make these aswell as getting the nib in at the end. I was having alot of trouble with the hammer so i decided to change to using the gas axe bending to put a more controlled feel to it.

 
I really prefer the gas axe bending techinque, will take alot of gas axe work to do all the leaves but it will give me a chance to get alot better at using the axe. 

Well in side notes i am enjoying how this is progressing along. I am getting a little stressed by the idea of making it and whether i will be able to make it in time.  

22nd of November

Well i was hoping to put up a big long post about my ideas with my sketches but as i remebered i had to run my sketchbooks into uni to drop off for my formative so not much to talk about gang.

I did go and buy a full size piece of wood, gonna draw that up over the weekend. See Adrian with it wednesday morning.

21st of November

Part 2

This was the first texture sample that i did, i am not a big fan of it because i use a small cross pein to put it in and it really distorted the metal but it looks more like burnt and ruined than purposelful to me.

This is the texture sample i did with the ball pein end, i am not a fan again its a little too controlled for me. I want something that splits it up and make its more unique on the side.

This was a few samples when i used the larger cross pein that Adrian gave me, i like them but i wanted to see about doing a more constant pattern that shows a bit of flair and change on each one.

This is the piece i came up with, i really like this piece and idea of teturing it. Adrian did mention that i need to texture the whole bar to really draw the pattern together. I am thinking at this rate il be firing up the gas forge and texturing a whole bar at a time.

Well there is the samples of the day, like i say big post coming tommorow gang. Now i sleep

21st of November

Well its been a crazy day in the forge guys, done alot of work and alot of sampling. Talking to my man Adrian about ideas so im gonna show you the samples i did today and tommorow is gonna be a big post about the change in my idea.

This was the first sample of the day, i was trying to get the razor edge quality and to be honest i said half way through i dont like it. I just dont like the elements working here so i sat down with the big man and had a talk about whether i should try something different completley or power through with the idea. He said to me it looked a little bit like a rose leaf to him anyway and i should try out some bending.

This is the first sample its a little plain but it is where i had my first sort of breakthrough as far as working on line quality.

This was the first sample, i came up with i really like the line quality and the drawings i did really back up the new design. I liked this one but i want to get some texture on it.

Part 2 coming soon got to rush off

18th of November

Evening gang, crazy how close christmas is coming up wouldnt you say? but thats not why we are here, we are here for cold hard facts on blacksmithing and life.

Finally finished my essay, polishing it all over next weekend before i send it off. SO now thats out the way its full on DD time, done a fair bit of drawing and more importantly thinking about how i am going to put it together.

This was some sampling i did to try and get myself into the flow of drawing the last few days, it was working on what Adrian was talking about and looking at connections and how i would go about connecting up these massive leaves to the stalk. These were helpful but i needed some more solid to look at so i went and got.

I went and found a picture of the ferns from Berrington that was close in enough to really study the connections. It seems to peel away from the main leaf almost like a sudden jut outwards, i got to thinking how i would go about making this connection in steel, then i thought to myself about the 3DSP work with have been doing and all the fire welding i have been doing with steve.

Ths was just a really quick sketch of my idea on fire welding the pieces together.

I started doddling some more about the overall shape and look of it together and whether i indeed wanted to have two or just the one.

What i came out from the drawings, i dont want alot of overlap, i dont want it too far apart that it makes the space look empty but i really dont want loads of overlap so it looks too crowded. I am starting to think that two plants made up will start to look a little crowded. The second image really showed me that i dont want that cheeky overlap.

This is a image i drew to try and get the design in my head, i am thinking i will make this by splitting a large bar down the center, draw out the ends shape them then fire weld the end. The loss of materail from the fire weld will work in my favor making the tips seems smaller and more elegant in comparisons of the base.

After all the descions today i decided to make up a large maybe full sized drawing of my idea, i really got alot from this because it meant working on placement of the leaves. Whether i wanted them unique or i want repition across the length of it. I really like the drawing itself, i need to get it transfered onto a large piece of wood or steel so i can start working on proportoins and such.

Again alot to think about in here.

15th of November

Afternoon fine people of the internet, its been awhile since my last post so alot to catch up on. Yesterday i had a fine tutorail with Ambrose.

Really good chat with Ambrose, he hadnt seen where i was going with it so it was a fresh set of eyes to look over my work, he really backed up Del's idea of going for the more abstract panel idea. Other than he did make some comments about he liked how much research was going on and its about time to start samling and get making on the piece.

 The following day i started off with a tutorail with Adrian, ive had alot of these and i thought it might get reptive him telling me to take it somewhere new but everytime he has given me useful points to look into. He liked the abstract idea but the one thing he latched onto was that i hadnt really worked on how to connect the outline bar to the center bar, so i was sent with my sketchbook to look into that.

This was my first sample of Wednesday morning, it was an idea Ambrose had, to using a ball tool to work dents into the steel then scroll it to make something similar to the fiddlehead ferns. Now as much as i like where this is going i think the fiddleheads are just no the avenue im taking, everytime i think about making them it just cries to me repition. 

This was a quick 5 minute sample to back up my arguement to Adrian about going this kind of piece.

These were 3 samples i did on texture, one aspect of this making that i keep tittering on the edge of is actually the texture and the growing feel to the steel. I used pretty simple tools aviable to me at the anvil like my cross pein and hammering a burnt bit of steel into the bar to see the impression. These needs alot more sampling before i can start making judgements on where i want to go.

 

I did a few of these samples with the wire after my talk with Ambrose, i just coudlnt get it to sharp points like i was after, i am thinking more with the steel and less with wire in the future, i spent an hour frustrated attacking wire. Bad times.

Well thats about it for catching up, got a pretty full weekend ahead of me, im finishing off the essay and doing a large maybe full scale drawing of my piece to show off at my assessment monday. Updates over the weekend on my productivy

 

11th of November

well its been an intresting weekend gang, not so much done on the design development front but i am quite close to finsihing my cultural studies essay. One thing i can talk about is something i stumbled upon today, they are called Fiddlehead Ferns.

Ive been spending my time trying to bring together vines and the ferns, get the aspects of the two that i like and putting them together, so far i have been brick walling but then i saw this while trawling though the internet and its like, Fuck, here is a plant that has everything i want to be, like a custom plant made from the ideas i had. I really want to start experimenting getting these down on paper and really changing it up, i did choose to go dwon the abstracct alley way so i wont be using this exact peice but i will be using qualities of the fiddleheads in my work. Got to say they are so cool when they are twisting up like that.

Hopefully next time i post i will have some of my own drawings, hwhen the essays done this is back onto the front of my mind.