Lily test in silver

I forged the lily shape in silver, starting from a bar ingot. All forming and finishing was done with hammer and anvil/steel block.

It occurred to me as I was working that I have ventured into the domain of the silversmith so I will investigate where skills overlap from the disciplines of the silversmith, goldsmith and blacksmith.

I think the main difference may be that a silversmith would start with sheet metal, cut a basic shape and then form it, where I'm starting with the blank, forging the flat shape and then shaping it.

I would like to bring my hammering techniques up to a point where all finishing is done with a polished hammer face and steel block. Then I'd like to add elements made in a more traditionally jewellery fashion, filling, sanding, setting and polishing to counterbalance the hammered finish.

I'm also going to look at making paper preforms and rolling them to see what exact shape I should be forging toward in the flat stage.

You grow me like an evergreen....

I took some time yesterday to forge a bit of mild steel. I've watched videos where people forge the floral and vegetal details used in ironwork and wanted to get some experiential knowledge of these techniques. It's not as easy as it looks but it's not impossible.

Repeating these patterns on a smaller scale is the next step, as well as practising refining the larger forms.

As to coupling the pieces with poetry, I still want to do that but perhaps use a stanza and concept for an entire range. It feels like too much pressure on one piece to convey the message. Also I found I was getting too zoomed into making everything about one piece. This way, I can make several with the same theme.

The stanza I've chosen for the plant inspired metal forms is from the song Without you I'm nothing by Placebo:

"You grow me like an evergreen, you've never seen the lonely me at all"

I've chosen this line because, unlike their plant cousins, metal flowers do not wither or change once formed, making them evergreen. I also like the idea that without the wearer, the pieces would be lonely and would possibly deteriorate.

I've included some pictures of the process of forging a lily shape, the first test pieces as well as some floral metal work done by the experts.

Repository of images: Modern ironwork

Here I'll post images of modern ironwork which I have taken. Some things to notice are that most I made from straight sections of hollow tubing, mostly square. No tapering, no twists, just accurate cutting and welding. Also thick layers of paint, no natural patina.

Repository of images: Cast iron

Here I'll keep images of cast ironwork I have taken myself from various places in Durban.

Spiral

Not great ironwork but a fantastic image!

Building relationships

I have realise that whilst I am looking at using elements of decorative wrought iron in jewellery, I actually want to speak more about different types of relationships. My first piece, the spiral stair is an example of how a structure can represent a feeling. Spiral stairs often lead to a lonely, small room, therefore I have coupled it with Leonard Cohen lyrics, emphasising that aspect of the piece.

 

Well, I choose the rooms that I live in with care,
the windows are small and the walls are almost bare,
they've only got one bed and they've only got one prayer;
and I listen all night for your step on the stair.
L.Cohen

The language of the smithy

To recognise the impact working in iron has had on our society, one just needs to look a little closer at some phrases in the english language. These have been derived from smithing terms and have been adopted to mean other things. They are used every day by people who may not neccesarily know the origional context.

• Strike while the iron is hot: To act while opportunity exists. Obviously this relates to smithng as you litteriraly have to strike the iron while it is hot in order to change the form of it without introducing stress fractures
• Lose your temper: To become angry which often results in not being useful in a given situation. When a tool loses it's temper, here it means the hardness or flexibility of the steel it becomes unusable or breaks. 
• Quench your thirst: when you are thirsty, your throat feels hot, when you drink it cools it down. This is reflected in ironwork where hot metal is quenched in water.
• To draw something out: To make longer, normally in relation to time, to draw out a story for example. In metalwork when you hammer a section thinner, it also gets longer, this is called drawing it out.
• Forging ahead: To continue on a given path with conviction. Forge and forging have many meanings in both everyday life and in metal craft. To forge generally means to change the shape of something with a hammer, it can also mean a skillful fake. Perhaps the definition of a fake came from people bringing smiths an object for them to copy and they would forge one out. Ideas and forms in metal work spread rapidly, very likely by this method. Forge is also used to describe the heat source used by the smith.
• Upset: To tip something over. I am not certain if this originated in the smithy or if it just came to be used in this way but in smithing, to upset is to turn a piece on it's axis and hammer it in order to increase it's width
• Overwrought: To have too many emotions at once to deal with, often feeling overwrought means you feel about to break. Overwrought in smithing is metal which has litterally been worked too much, to the point of breaking

I am sure more will occur to me, suffice to say ironwork is central to our culture, even if most of us have never seen a forge, anvil or hammer being used.