I felt I needed to quote the Nightmare Before Christmas because it makes me feel better about making Christmas ornaments when Halloween is yet to come! After all, Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. However, metal smithing takes time, so here I am...making Christmas.
Basic Maquette shape and size
It all starts with a maquette so I can work out the size and shape of the pieces that I will be cutting out of the copper sheet. Copper is expensive, so I definitely want everything figured out before hand! From there, I just start sawing, filing and polishing...and then I keep doing this over and over again for several hours. Good stuff.
Using a jeweler's saw to cut out the rocking-pig
Once the shape is cut out, the edges are beveled and smoothed out. Then I can either add texture to a piece (such as hammering it), or I can begin polishing it. I use six different grains to polish the pieces so this takes a while, but it looks great when I'm done!
Polishing the rocking-horse with the largest grit polishing paper.
Once these rocking-animals are complete, I will construct the globes to hang them in, as well as the fastenings. As for the chain that the animals hangs from, I bought them because making tiny chains by hand is a skill I do not have...and have no desire to ever acquire. I did make a chain once in my metal smithing class. It was hideous and was super painful to make, so now I buy chains.
This is my first year making Christmas ornaments and I am super excited! Keep an eye out for my progress and the final products on my Instagram (@naigan) and Facebook (Anna Lisa Naig) pages. These will be for sale at a local gallery in Cheyenne, Clay Paper Scissors, as well as in my on-line store. I'll post to social media when they become available. Until next time, take care of yourselves!