Sorry, Marilyn, I just got back to Artmetal after the holidays and saw your post. Below are a couple more pics. BTW, the vases were a big hit as Christmas presents with family and friends.

Walker

case close up: close up of vaseclose up 2: close up 2saucer close up: daughter's saucer close up

Walker,
Your pieces are very nice.

my own work reflects it in random patterns.

I went to a birthday party at a friend's parent's house and his dad dragged me to the bedroom to show me an honest to "god" craftsman lamp with mica shade and a few well earned dents.

The base was a modifed "ginger jar" but what was freaky about it was the control. The planishing marks were like a metronome on steroids pounding on a lathe. bam, rotate, index down, bam, rotate, index down, bam rotate, index down. . .

As a craftman, I know that a man stopped somewhere and started again in all those thousands of beats, but he hid it so well I couldn't see it.

The other side of the coin would be to say, canny craftman on a production item.
You have formed the jar to spec, make it perfectly smooth and mount it in this automatic hammer mechanism . . .
(entirely consistent with 19th century capabilities)

but back to the former senario, I have seen that sort of hammer control, but it wasn't you or me.

Gene

Sculptor
Elk River, MN

Yeah, Gene, I hear ya. I prefer random hammer marks over patterned marks because to me it looks more hand hammered and less machine made. I guess it's a good thing I like it that way.....because my hammer control only allows for randomness!

Walker

The vases started out as 2" copper pipe. I start by cutting a length of copper pipe a little bit longer than I want the vase tall. For this discussion, we'll say I cut a 9" section of 2" copper pipe. I then about 2 1/2 inches from one end I neck it down. I neck it down by placing the pipe on round stake a little bit smaller than the pipe and use a raising hammer to hit, turn, hit turn....just past the end of the stake. Once I have it necked down, I then put it on my tapered mandrel and and begin raising the the other 6 1/2" section beginning at the necked down area to the other end. You are pushing the metal down the length of pipe. After several passes and annealings, it will take the shape of the mandrel. I then work the 2 1/2" section over the horn of my mandrel to flare out from the necked down area. Then solder or braze on a bottom. Some pix are below.

Walker

pipe vase where to neck: where to neck the pipe down

pipe vase...neck down: necking down of pipepipe vase finished: finished pipe vasepipe vase mandrel: mandrel/stake used for pipe vase

This page shows one way to put that necked down area into the pipe. There are several ways to do it.

http://www.mettleworks.com/studio/makevase1.html

Gene Olson

Sculptor Elk River, MN

Gene.......that's a good series of pix for necking the pipe down. I have also tried a "blacksmiths helper" that I made to aid me in drawing out iron on other projects. There is a pic below. That did not work very well. There was nothing to support the soft, annealed copper and when I hit the "helper", the copper just kind of collapsed beyond where I wanted to neck it down. It was a good thought, but didn't work for me. Maybe if I could insert a 2" pipe to support the copper just beyond the necking down area, it might work. Now that I say that, I think I'll try it!

Walker

blacksmiths helper

excellent teaching photos! Thanks for posting

Paula
Guthrie, MN