silversmiths tools | Eileen Moylan

Synclastic and Anticlastic Forming

08.05.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

This is part two in a series on the synclastic and anticlastic Forming class I attended in Birmingham. To read part one click here.

The first two days were spent familiarizing ourselves with synclastic and anticlastic forming. At this stage we were all well settled into the workshop and were making use of our week in the jewellery quarter. It was brilliant to be in the middle of all the jewellery tool shops. Most of my lunchtimes were spent going from shop to shop buying tools. Which I happily dragged home in my bulging suitcase.

So on day three once we got the hang of synclast and anticlast forming we moved on to spiculums. A spiculum is made from a single piece of sheet metal which is formed into a tapering tube. This process involves hammering the metal until it rolls into itself forming a long hollow tube.

Once they had been hammered into a straight tube and soldered closed we were able to curve them. I found curving them the most stressful part of the whole exercise. You have to take this hollow tube that you’ve toiled over and gingerly bend it with your hands. It has too be well softened by annealing before you start. Once you feel you have curved it as much as possible before it buckles you anneal again. You continue like this until you get the curve you require. I decided to quit while I was ahead and opted for a gentle curve!

We also made open seam spiculums, which look very similar to the closed spiculums but are not soldered. These are made using techniques similar to anticlastic ribbons. We also got a chance to make a double helix, the same process used in Bronze Age Torcs.

We packed so much into the five days, I hadn’t expected to learn as much and be able to explore each technique. Cynthia was a great teacher, everything was brilliantly demonstrated and she patiently answered all our questions. She also brought along lots of her own tools for us to use. One hammer in particular I fell in love with (I know, I hear how sad that sounds!) so I’ve added that to my wishlist of tools. Having five days to refine my hammering skills was such a luxury and will definitely influence my future work.

My Shiny New Toy!

06.30.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

Regular readers will know about my never ending efforts to stock my workshop with tools. I like to update the blog on new and nearly new things that come into the workshop so I can discuss the uses of different tools and equipment. I also love showing off/sharing my new tools with everyone!

Well this week a got an amazing new toy that I’m absolutely giddy about.

Isn’t it soooo pretty!

My new shiny rolling mill arrived yesterday morning. I’m sure looking at the photos you’re questioning my excitement but wait until I tell you all the wonderful things it can do and I will have you won over.

A rolling mill is used to reduce the thickness of a sheet of metal and this rolling mill can also reduce the thickness of wire both square and D shaped. So using the handle at the side you feed your piece of silver between the two round rollers. You adjust the width between the two rollers after each roll using the wheel on top. You keep rolling and rolling until you reach your desired thickness. The little grooves at the right of the two rollers are for rolling wire using the same method. And then to the left of the rollers there are mini little rollers that are for D shaped wire (where the cross section of the wire is D shaped).

I thought long and hard about what type of rolling mill I should get. It’s something I’ve wanted and needed for a while now so I was determined to buy the perfect one. This is a Durston Rolling Mill, from the research I’ve done, they seem to be the best out there with the greatest variety of rollers. I was torn between being sensible and buying one of their mini mills that would weigh 16kg and be much smaller that this or splashing out on one of their big rolling mills that would be over double the weight. I reckon this is a tool for life so I went for the bigger one as there wasn’t a huge difference in price. There are larger versions also but that’s when the price starts to jump.

I got this from Cookson who luckily for me were having a sale on all their tools. If you want to check out the website just go to www.cooksongold.com.

Excuse me if I seem distracted over the next few days I’ll be attempting to roll anything that stands still through my new rolling mill!

A Hammering Holiday

06.28.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

June has been a busy month and it looks like July will be equally hectic! As well as adding new products to the shop, blogging and keeping up with the orders I’ll be spending a week in Birmingham. I signed up for a course on Anitclastic and Synclastic hammering and raising so I’ll be jetting off to Birmingham on the 17th July for a week.

This five day masterclass is run by the Birmingham Institue of Art and Design and is taught by Cynthia Eid. It is part of the college’s summer course programme. Click here to view to full catalogue of courses.

The course that I’m going on looks specifically at anticlastic and synclastic hammering and raising. These sound like very fancy terms but synclastic just describes a form where the dominant curves both move in the same direction like a bowl. Anticlastic forms are when the two dominant axes curve in opposite directions like a saddle. These techniques can be used to amazing affect in sculptural silver pieces. If you look at a detail of the work of Cara Murphy below you can see the hand raised anticlastic curves. Another artist that uses this type of forming is Benjamin Storch, I wrote a post about his work last year. Click here to read it.

These raising and forming techniques can be used in both silversmithing and jewellery. The course will also look at refining hammering skills and will teach how to hammer comfortably for several hours at a time. A very useful skill considering I’ll be hammering for five days!

I’m going to bring my netbook with me so I can keep the website updated with lots of photos and stories from the week.

London and the Saatchi

06.10.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

Well I’m back form London with lots of inspiration and some new tools! As well as going to the Mindful of Silver exhibition I went down to Hatton Garden to pick up metal and tools. I had ordered a bossing mallet and a dome stake from HS Walsh which I collected. I had planned to pick up a sand bag too but they were the wrong size so I’m still on the hunt for a nice leather sandbag. Here are some photos of the bossing mallet and dome stake. The bossing mallet is used with a sandbag to give a bowl it’s initial domed shaped. The dome stake is used like other stakes to form or planish the metal over it. I have other domed stakes but this one is much higher, allowing me to get a deeper curve.

I’m working on some jewellery orders this week so I called down to Holts to buy some pearls. They have an amazing collection of stones. I was like a child in a sweet shop and ended up leaving with much more than I needed!

I had hoped to see some exhibitions for London jewellery week but I was a few days early so instead we went along to the Saatchi gallery. The Saatchi contemporary art gallery occupies a premises near Sloane Square and is made up of fifteen equally sized gallery spaces. I had never been there so it was great to see it for the first time. At the moment they have an amazing exhibition of sculpture ‘The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture’ the exhibition is made up of the work of twenty artists working in sculpture. It’s the first time the entire gallery has devoted the space entirely to three dimensional work.

German artist Dirk Skreber has two pieces in the gallery Crash 1 is pictured above. At first I was worried the cars may have come from actual crashes. Having looked him up afterwards I discovered that they were done in a vehicle testing factory where he ‘choreographed’ the accidents. Here’s what he had to say about the work.

“If you pass an accident and see a car like this, it’s occupied by tragic thoughts for the people that would be involved, and you might see blood. This work gives you an opportunity to see the things like in a dream. It’s clean and polished and abstract.”

Below are a few more photos I took at the gallery. There was no problem taking photos and the great thing was the gallery was free so if you find yourself in London I would definitely recommend a visit.

Copper Sulphate Chartes & Copper Sulphate Notre Dame, Roger Hiorns

Beethoven's Trumpet (with ear) Opus #133, John Baldessari

Riesen (Giants), Martin Honert, (and Me)*

*I’m not a tiny as I look in this picture they’re just particularly tall, 2.72 meters to be precise.

The Travelling Silversmith

05.31.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

This is going to be a short week’s work for me because I’m London bound on Thursday. I’m going over for a friends wedding but I’m managing to mix business with pleasure as I’m going to spend Friday in Hatton Garden buying metal and tools. Hatton Garden is the main jewellery area of London and is packed full of places selling everything from diamonds to tools.

I’ve a list of things I’ve been promising myself for a while now, new hammers and stakes and a much needed sandbag. Hopefully I should come back with all of these and not exceed my baggage allowance! The other great thing about going to London this week is that it’s the start of London Jewellery Week and they have loads of great exhibitions and events organised. Most things are starting on the Monday I come home, but hopefully I might get a sneak peak of what’s on.

There’s also a brilliant silver exhibition on in Goldsmiths Hall called Mindful of Silver. The exhibition features twelve silversmiths each displaying a silver vessel. The really interesting thing about this exhibition is that the artists were asked to also exhibit objects that fuelled the creative process. Apparently there’s everything from torn envelopes to bleach bottles.

The participants were asked to make a vessel but they had to keep any objects, sketches and photos that contributed to the development of the work. It has gathered together a great line up for the exhibition with artists such as Theresa Nguyen and David Clarke. I’ve loved Clarke’s work since I was in college so I can’t wait to see some of it in the ‘flesh’. I don’t know which artist’s piece was inspired by the bleach bottle but I plan to find out this weekend. And of course I’ll write all about it next week…

Workshop Progress

05.09.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

Now that my vice is nearly ready for use I’ve been rearranging a few things in the workshop. I wanted to have the vice on it’s own bench so I could have it and all my hammers in one place. I’ve been designing and planning a small bench block that would meet all these requirements. I have no experience with woodwork but with a little guidance I was going to try and make the bench myself. Thankfully I hadn’t gone about buying the wood for my vice bench creation because I was in Ikea last weekend and I found exactly what I was looking for all ready to be assembled!!

I know most of you are thinking how can a flat pack piece of furniture be strong enough to hold that huge vice but the piece I found was perfect. It’s a solid wood kitchen block and with a bit of reinforcing it should be able to withstand all my hammering. It even has two slatted shelves to hold my hammers. At the moment the bench is on wheels but I plan to cut these off to make it more stable and also to make it the correct height for me.

Here are some photos of my vice on its new bench being cleaned. I put some cardboard underneath the vice to protect the bench from all the dirt and grease. I hadn’t realised when I started cleaning the vice how much dirt was hidden in the workings. The first photo here shows the amount of dirt that came out of the vice after it’s second cleaning. I also discovered that my vice was originally red!

Hopefully with a bit more scrubbing the vice will be ready for use in the next week…

Alex Ramsay

04.18.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

This week I’m taking a look at the silverware of Alex Ramsay. She uses traditional silversmithing techniques along with her stunning contemporary designs to create a range of vessels.

'Nitrate Negative 2' Alex Ramsay, Silver & Glass

Her silverware inspired by silver nitrate photography explores the ideas of light and dark, positive and negative in these pairs of vessels. Many of her pieces group together a silver vessel with a hand blown glass vessel. The combination works beautifully each object reflecting different elements of the materials.

I don’t know much about hand blown glass but I think the design here is created by the addition of copper oxide to give these effects of light and dark. The silver vessels area all hand raised with the surface patterns on the glass creating a starting point for each pattern on the metal. She begins by raising the forms of the outside and the inside bowl separately and then transferring the patterns onto the domed silver. These drawn patterns are then painstakingly pierced out of the silver using a traditional silversmiths saw frame. Once the design has been cut out, the two bowls are soldered together to create these hollow layered vessels.

'Nitrate Negative Series' Alex Ramsay, Silver & Glass

'Nitrate Negative 3' Silver, Alex Ramsay

The double walled technique is used to great effect here to build up the shadow and depth of the silver vessel. It also enhances the play between reflection and shadow. When the silver vessel and the glass vessel are brought together they become a unique pair, each piece balancing and reflecting the other. If you want to see more of this amazing work take a look at her website or she’s also featured in the members gallery of the Contemporary British Silversmiths.

Silver Peaton Pots, Salt & Pepper, Alex Ramsay

My Vice

04.15.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

This post is dedicated to my new vice or vise to give it it’s American spelling. I say new but really it’s more like new to me. And here it is… ta dah!!

I’m sure some of you are thinking it’s a rusty, grease lump of metal propped up on a lump of wood but to me it’s perfection!
I’ve been looking for the perfect vice for a while now. I looked at new vices but none of them had the weight and strength I was looking for, so I went down the nearly new market. These were even worse, little blue vices that had completely rusted over and could never be brought back to life. I had my dad trawling through websites, and my husband driven mad as I rejected yet another vice. I know I sound like a right little princess but remember it’s a big angry vice I’m looking for not diamond slippers!

Well a few weeks ago my in laws mentioned there was a vice in the shed if it was any use, it had belonged to my husbands grandfather and wasn’t being used. (at this stage I’m sure you’re getting the sense that everyone knew of my search for a vice!) So last week when we went down to Kerry I saw the vice and it was perfect. It had the big wide jaws that I was looking for, it was really heavy so I could hammer away to my hearts content and know it wouldn’t slip or wobble under the pressure. It moved freely and the workings were in perfect condition. All it needed was a bit of elbow grease.

We brought it back home and now it’s in the shed waiting to be brought back to life. I went investigating the history and pedigree of my cherished vice. Thanks to my mother in laws great collection of photos I can show you it’s past life before being retired to the shed. As I said it started life in Ballylongford Co. Kerry and was used by my husbands grandfather. He died in 1986 and the vice found it’s way out to my in laws home place where it lived an exotic life in an Irish bog. It was welded to a bright yellow Lilliput turf cutting machine in case of any repairs and breakdowns (apparently there were many). I love that my vice survived over ten years attached to a turf cutting machine and came out the other end still working perfectly. It makes it’s minor blemishes and scars all the more noble! Now that you’ve heard it’s history I hope you be a bit more understanding of it appearance.

The Turf Cutting Machine in Action circa 1988

Turf machine (in transit) with the vice on the left

I’ll write another post when the vice is looking better but for now I’ll leave you with some more ‘before’ photos…

Cutting Silver Part 2

04.11.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

This is part two in a series of how to cut out a design in silver sheet using a jewellers saw. To see Part One click here.

Here are some photos of the piece once the paper has been taken off. I began by using my file on the rough edges and removing the scratches with emery paper. I then give it a polish on the polishing lathe.

Cutting Silver Part 1

04.08.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

I’m going to go through the steps of cutting out a design on metal showing the different techniques and tools that I use. I’ll start with the design on paper and show how I transfer and cut this out on my sheet of metal. Because this is only a demonstration I’m just going to use a piece of scrap copper.

I’ve chosen a pattern with a lot of cutting out so you can see how to cut a small detailed area with a jewellers saw. I am only going to use a section of this pattern so I using a stencil to pick an area and mark it out.

Design glued to metal and piercing frame ready to go!

Once I have the design I glue my piece of paper on to the metal. I don’t always work this way. Often if it’s a pattern I might use again I will transfer the design on to the metal and save my original piece of paper to be used again. Once the paper is glued on I mark out the areas that will be cut out. With this design I’m going to cut out all the black sections.

Marking drill sections with centre punch

These black sections will have to be drilled through to allow the blade to get into these areas. So I am going to mark the centre of the drilling hole with a centre punch. I use this because a drill bit has a habit of wandering if it doesn’t start on a recess. The centre punch forms a large enough dimple to guide the drill bit. It’s important to use this when I’m drilling in such a small area where there’s no room for error!

I’ve drilled all the holes and now I’m ready to start cutting. I open one side of the frame so I can pass the blade through the drilled hole and reattach it to my piercing frame on the other side.

I’m going to make a video of the cutting so you can see how the blade moves along the metal. I’ll post that on Monday..