Thursday, February 10, 2011

Metalsmithing class (and oncologist)

Oh, I do love my metalsmithing class! I figured out what was causing me to break so many saw blades last week: I wasn't firmly holding down the piece so it would move, snapping the blade.

Last night we learned how to anneal (soften) the copper sheet and to roll a texture onto the annealed sheet through a steel roller (like a pasta maker). You can roll wire textures, sandpaper cut-outs, fabric... just about anything onto the sheet. I'm thinking that it would be interesting to see if I could get some knit textures onto a sheet although I don't know what I'd do with it.

I got great results with some neat fabric that I have as well as with a free-form wire flower thing I made. The wire flower-things will be earrings once they're cut out. I traced a circle around one of them and and when I finished sawing around the circle I thought it might be better if it had more of a free-form shape to match the free-form flower. I'll have to think about it.

We also learned how to make earwires including making the ball headpins ourselves. Next week we're going to be learning how to solder sheets together to create depth to the cut-outs. I'm learning exactly the things that I wanted to learn and I'm so excited about all of the designs I'll be able to make.

Oh - I saw my oncologist today. My tumour markers are at 35 (yay!). My annual CT scan will be scheduled for next month and she'll see me again in two months. I like these easy appointments :)

1 comment:

manchester fat acceptance said...

that class sounds so fun! i would love to learn that stuff too.

so so so happy to read that your tumour markers are stable, woot!!!

love,
vicki