(no subject)
Mask
Some many copper! And drama mask for prototype! Mostly 26 ga 6"x12" with one sheet of 22 ga (in case I needed more copper for deeper forging: I didn't) and one piece of brass. The remainder will go into the Mokume-Gane ring project.
Roughly traced, for cutting out with tin snips and jeweler's saw.
With hammer notes: circles are where it needs to be domed and lines are where it needs to be stretched. The circles indicate the brow and cheekbones. Most of the work needs to be done on the nose -- lots of stretching to make it poke out.
Initial form, from front. Nose is obvious, cheeks and brow somewhat less-so. My favorite safety glasses and some 0.008" thickness aluminum welding seen to upper right. Planishing hammer in bottom of picture, forging hammer in upper left.
Final form, with eyes inked in. Since my normal anvil is out on loan, I was using the aluminum roundstock in the drillpress vise as my anvil, on edge for forming interior curves, and on end with the copper plate in the background as a face, for large flat-area forming. The aluminum was bandsaw-cut so has a ridged surface and that transfers to the softer copper. I used the plate as a safe-face but after a bit of hammering the aluminum texture worked through the copper plate and sprayed all over the mask face. The plate is 12-ga and kept doming and hardening so I'd have to put it in the fireplace and crank up a blower till it glowed, then dump it in a bucket and hammer it back flat again for the next forming set. The mask, however, never needed to be annealed.
Final form. Drilled 1/8" holes at the outermost edges of the eyes and cut them out with the jeweler's saw. Edges finished with half-round jeweler's file.
Current status. Nose rivetted on, finished with conformal sanding block, drilled for a band around the head to hold it on and many holes on top for copper wild bushy hair. I'll put rings or tubes on the back of the mask between the holes along the top, for feathers or flowers, next.
I love copper.
Some many copper! And drama mask for prototype! Mostly 26 ga 6"x12" with one sheet of 22 ga (in case I needed more copper for deeper forging: I didn't) and one piece of brass. The remainder will go into the Mokume-Gane ring project.
Roughly traced, for cutting out with tin snips and jeweler's saw.
With hammer notes: circles are where it needs to be domed and lines are where it needs to be stretched. The circles indicate the brow and cheekbones. Most of the work needs to be done on the nose -- lots of stretching to make it poke out.
Initial form, from front. Nose is obvious, cheeks and brow somewhat less-so. My favorite safety glasses and some 0.008" thickness aluminum welding seen to upper right. Planishing hammer in bottom of picture, forging hammer in upper left.
Final form, with eyes inked in. Since my normal anvil is out on loan, I was using the aluminum roundstock in the drillpress vise as my anvil, on edge for forming interior curves, and on end with the copper plate in the background as a face, for large flat-area forming. The aluminum was bandsaw-cut so has a ridged surface and that transfers to the softer copper. I used the plate as a safe-face but after a bit of hammering the aluminum texture worked through the copper plate and sprayed all over the mask face. The plate is 12-ga and kept doming and hardening so I'd have to put it in the fireplace and crank up a blower till it glowed, then dump it in a bucket and hammer it back flat again for the next forming set. The mask, however, never needed to be annealed.
Final form. Drilled 1/8" holes at the outermost edges of the eyes and cut them out with the jeweler's saw. Edges finished with half-round jeweler's file.
Current status. Nose rivetted on, finished with conformal sanding block, drilled for a band around the head to hold it on and many holes on top for copper wild bushy hair. I'll put rings or tubes on the back of the mask between the holes along the top, for feathers or flowers, next.
I love copper.