JC week 6 : Start of final project construction and experimentation

NB: journal entry for the Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university (QCA) to view the full journal click here

NB : The following is for  Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university ( QCA ) final project. The first portion of the week 6 class was spent presenting the maquette and the exploration of my ideas.
The following are images of progress for the final artwork based on the maquette. Note that pieces were marked out onto metal with allowance for texturing ( the metal will stretch/sequese out of shape after being textured/pressed)

marking out of the two center pieces for the cross guard onto an A4 piece of brass. I transfered the image onto the metal using carbon paper and a stylus. The two pieces were cut from the A4 sheet using the cutting machine and annealed in preperation for texturing and recutting. 

marking out of the "wings" of the cross guard, this is then cutout and the intention is to engrave the details of the feathers
I have learnt that if the oil from your fingers gets onto the aluminium the carbon paper has difficulty bonding to the surface, a wipe down with a nappy wipe is required to get a consistant transfer.

the remainder of the A4 sheet of brass was cut out into three 11x7 cm  and two 1x11cm  strips. The larger strips will form the panels of the handle and the thinner strips will overlap to the joins of the panels 

all of the brass panels and strips were annealed at the same time, thankfully I had the station available to myself for this process

citric acid bath to remove flux from brass panels

personal note: remember to place the image to be embossed face down towards the press plate. To register the image I had intended to wet the paper, after talking with the lecturer I discovered that this may damage the rollers. I tested a small portion of masking tape for registration which worked well ( keeping in mind that i will have a metal strip over the join/tape in the final project so I do not need to worry ahout the mark left by it) 

silhouette cutout from snowden paper

The cutout provided a deep relief onto the surfrace, the paper leaving quite a lovely patternisation into the metal