Ambition, We just might have to change your name to "accomplishment". It would be nice to see more of the mokome and the chasing. How big was the billet? Did you build a copper model of this before working from the billet? Thanks for this delightful post. Brad

haha no, I'm still in learning my self
the world is wide, and in it I have much training jet to do.

sise of billet was 9 cm in diameter about 2 cm high. the liquid state difusion(foregewelds) were don in two cicles. first the coper/brass witch binds at a higher temprature(about 895 C) then the silver/copper layers where adit. this didn't go very smooth by the way. had a lot of delamination.
maybe Ill post some more pics later. bussy at the moment.

Ambition,
Seems that the terms mokome and delamination go hand in hand. By silver here, are you meaning.925 or fine or ? Are you doing your "forge welding" in an oxygen "free" environment? Was the problem with the brass? Sailing these waters makes for an interesting journey, and some great stories over a shore fire later. anneal often, Brad

I started with the brass/copper and indeed that gives trouble. my first billet failed completly. fired it in an electric oven between two steel but the billed heats up so fast the borax flux won't stik and goes everywhere. second atemp was for 60 persecent solid welds. not anough for this project so i made a new copper bass billet. this one worked quite wel so i flatend it and aded two sterling silver/coper layers on top and the second copper brass billet welded two the botom with a silver layer in between. these two billets, now one billet gave me more then anough volume. problem is that when the brass and silver touch the cink from the brass creates an eutektic alloy with the silver. this alloy is actualy zilver solder. I tryd to keep the touching zones between zilver and brass to a minnimen but I still lost a lot of silver in that round. this round was done between steal plates an heated with a hand held compresed air/methaan(natural gas)burner.

the billets weaght was a litle over 1000 gr. at this stage just after welding. my peice weighs around 860gr now so thats prity clean

hope that answers some quistions about the billet

"from the four ellements water, wind, earth and fire mankind stole only one from the gods.

fire

and with whe forged our will upon this world"

Ambition,
Was annealing this billet part of the problems? Is there much difference between the movement of the brass, copper and sterling? Does that present a problem? Others might not understand how much work you have in this before you get to raising. Much to appreciate here on many levels. Brad

aneailing isn't that much of a problem with these aloys jus as long as youre welds are thight. In the first pfase of hamering I forged the billed hot(not that hot, jus a very dark shade of chery hot) with a sledge hammer(me love sledge hammer, classmates where SHOCKED)later on I just anealed and let it cool slowly. that actualy IS hard. for me. don't like the waiting you see. copper sillver and brass are very simuler in expansion so in thats not to bad.

Ambition,
So this piece begins as a sandwich of metals about an inch and 1/8 thick by about 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Then you hot forged it. That requires some heat control. Did you angle raise it from there? Was this an intuitive piece?
How many days between billet and chasing? Still getting my mind around sledge hammers and sterling. I need a nap. Brad

I did quite a lot of drawing before hand. I also made some wax models. my insight in form isn´t good anough for such a piece on intuition. I also printed one of the schetches on overhead projector sheet, the template shown in this pic. this is a hot tip by the way. you can just hold it infront whatever shape youre working at and see where youre at.
you can also see on this pic just how much material i moved and raised before final shaping.

thats the art of hamering. moving the material to the right and surface to where you want it.

shaping

thanks frank.
now lets hope the other silversmiths at the congres think the same. I'm realy curious about my chances.

"from the four ellements water, wind, earth and fire mankind stole only one from the gods.

fire

and with whe forged our will upon this world"

thanks a lot bill!

"from the four ellements water, wind, earth and fire mankind stole only one from the gods.
fire
and with whe forged our will upon this world"

the great thing about still being in student in metal is that you can just go all out a lot. this piece is my exame piece raising/planishing. but I don't think I could ever sell it at a fair price for this cind a work.
you don't want to know time it took.
wait you maybe you do, might make you veel better. I started this in januarie. if I had to make another one full time five days a week it still be 6 weeks at least probably more.
so now you can say to yourself "well if I had that much time on my hand I would....";) keep up the good stuf

I'm just some crazy 21 year old kid who likes to play with hammers

ambition

may your hammer strike pure and the forge be with you,

If I undertand you right you forged sheet from the billet and then raised it into a vessel and then chased the figure with the vessel upside down. I am curious why you used the mokume. Love the shape and the process. Reminds me of the figural work of David Huang. You have a fine sense of form. Oh to be young and talented and with a direction. Keep playing with your hammers and please share with us the results.

As far as marketing a piece like this.... There is money out there and there are wealthy folks who will pay for quality. The hard part is finding them and letting them find you.

I might suggest scaling down the scope of your work for easier resale and then making these monumental pieces to show you skill and mastery of the art.

May you be blessed with finding several patrons.

Fred

Fred Zweig
Metalsmith

you understand correctly fred thats precisly how I done it. although I know some tricks of course that can help. used mokume for decorationel purpouse. pics dont show it that wel.
as for silversmithing, the market is quite small here in europe at the moment.
I'm actualy thinking about going to the US for a wille. become a bit of a traveling aprentice, explore the marked. and jus learn as much as I can.

the world is wide, and in it I have much training jet do.

thanks for all the creds from everyone but I'm not a pro jet. the guys out here that can make a living out of metal art. they have my deepest respect. thats my ambition.

out

Which school do you attend. I am familiar with a few of the Dutch jewelery artists and attended an exclusive opening of an exhibit Dutch jewelers in London. I was lucky to buy a piece by Mariam Herbst. I am not familiar with the schools there. Who is your instructor. This is an ambitious piece for your age and I expect you will go far. Travel is good as it exposes you to much diversity and experience. Apprenticing in a shop may be rather dull in comparison to the work you might want to do. There is only a specialized demand for labor intensive work and it's appreciation needs to be cultivated. Please keep us up to date with your progress.

Best,
Fred

Fred Zweig
Metalsmith

so, I'm a 21 year old student at the Vakschool Schoonhoven. that near Rotterdam and Gouda. its a school for silversmithing(focus on object like table silver), goldsmithing(focus on jewelry), jewler(focus on shop keeping selling and stuf) clock and watchmakers

in this post I give some info about the scene
http://www.artmetal.com/blog/ambition/2008/03/silversmith_congress_2008

my main intrest are silver(metal)smithing, goldsmithing, and blacksmithing.
my curent master is harry brookhuis. check: http://www.sieraadmaakzaak.nl/diversen/index.html

if youre in GB you might considder comming to the confrence. harry will also be there.

grtz ambition

"from the four ellements water, wind, earth and fire mankind stole only one from the gods.
fire
and with whe forged our will upon this world"