(10am - promoted by RiaD)
(click on username "mplo" to obtain contact info)
Hi--I'm now here to write a long-promised essay about my silversmithing work, but first I'll explain a little bit of the history of Brickbottom Artists Building, as our community is named, and how it got started. Brickbottom was the name of a workingclass neighborhood in Somerville, which is how the Brickbottom community got its name.
The Brickbottom Artists' Building, located in Somerville, a blue-collar city just outside Boston, with an urban feel to it, was started by a bunch of artists, who, having been priced out or evicted from Boston's Fort Point Channel area after it became too expensive for them, or because of developers who wanted to convert the buildings they'd resided in to office space or whatever, looked for two years until they found a building that was big enough and cheap enough. At one point, the artists found a building down in South Boston for that purpose, which was condemned as being structurally unsound, so the artists kept looking until they found an abandoned warehouse that had belonged to the now-defunct A & P Market Stores, and had them refurbished into artists' lofts. I'm happy to say that I like living here, I have a studio in my apartment to do my silversmithing, a garage space down in our basement to park my car, and we're a secure community, because people watch out for each other.
It's in a good location, because it's right within walking/biking distance to Cambridge, Brookline and downtown Boston, and, unlike Newton, Waltham, Everett, Medford, Quincy, Belmont, Watertown and Milton, and Arlington, Somerville feels much more urban, rather than suburban.
Now for the crux of my essay: |
| I've been a silversmith for the past 22 years--since I moved into the Brickbottom Artists' building and into the condo-loft that my grandparents bought for me shortly before their passing, and that I own, on Columbus Day weekend, October 1988. My studio is in my condo, as well as my living quarters, and I consider myself a silversmith, since I work primarily in silver, although I use other metals to accentuate the pieces that I often make. Medium-small to small boxes and occasional jewelry with decorative designs on the tops are a favorite thing of mine to make, although I've been branching out some and doing some small hollowware, as well.
One of the techniques that I frequently use is a labor-intensive technique known as "marriage of metals", which is a very favorite technique of mine. Originally developed in Mexico, "married metals" entails cutting the design out of different metals, hence resulting in the different colors, filing them to fit, and then silver-soldering the pieces together as one flat sheet. 18-gauge sheet metal is preferred, and all the metals must be of the same thickness. Although the boxes and pieces of jewelry are predominantly sterling silver, I often use such metals as nickel silver, bronze, brass, copper, 14 kt yellow gold, and even nu-gold, (which is sort of gold-colored, but not really gold per se). After grinding the excess solder off of the back of the top of the box or piece of jewelry, the piece is then shaped over a steel forming stake, or even chaser's pitch, with a rawhide or plastic mallet to prevent stretching and distortion of the design, or cracking of the silver-soldered joints. Construction of the entire piece itself then follows.
Another favorite technique of mine is what's called raising. I begin with a six-inch circle of 18 gauge silver, start by blocking it down with a sinking hammer, into a relatively shallow depression in a special wooden block, and then, with a special steel metalsmithing hammer called a raising hammer, I raise the metal up and form my basic piece on steel forming stakes and anvils. Annealing (reheating the piece to make the metal soft enough so it can be reworked), and then pickling it (leaving the piece in a mild natural citric acid solution to clean off any oxides or other impurities from the metal) follows every raising workover of the metal, after smoothing out any wrinkles with a rawhide hammer, until the piece is formed. Planishing is followed, which smooths the piece out and finalizes the shape. While some people like to planish their silversmithing pieces until they're as sleek as the sheet that it came as, I prefer to planish my pieces only until there's an even hammered texture all over the piece, which is done by a special embossing hammer.
This is also done with over forming stakes and annealed periodically, although, there are times when I finalize the shape by raising and/or planishing the piece over white, water-soluable wax that I melt down, put into the vessel, and then, after the wax is sufficiently hardened, but still soft and warm enough to work on, I work the piece until the wax cools down. This often has to be done at least several times, and, boiling down, remelting the wax and then pouring it back into the vessel can be and is somewhat of an ordeal, but it's worth my piece of mind. After the piece of holloware is finished, I heat lightly several times (using a bit of flux as an indicator in an inconspicous area of the piece) until the flux turns glassy, air-cool the piece, pickle it, and then wash it off with a special brass brush and detergent. After the final firescale and pickling finish (when the piece turns frosty-white all over), I use an extremely fine-grit emery paper (1500 grit) and a detergent-and -water solution to finalize the finish and expose the hammered texture.
Boxes:
A) Small Box: Marriage of metals, fabrication. 14 kt yellow gold and sterling silver.
B) Medium-sized Box: Marriage of metals, fabrication: Sterling silver & copper
C) Medium-small box: Marriage of Metals, fabrication; Sterling & nickel Silver.
D) Small Box: Marriage of Metals, scoring, fabrication; Sterling & Nickel Silver:
E) Medium Box: Marriage of Metals, fabrication; Sterling and Nickel Silver
Hollowware:
A) Bowl: Sterling Silver. Raised, Hammer-textured, fabricated, firescale finish.
B) Medium-sized box: Sterling Silver. Raised, hammer-textured, fabricated, firescale finish.
I think, although I've sent more than this, that this is what I'll have put in for now. Thanks, RiaD, for helping me out.
Jewelry:
A) Small pendant; Sterling & nickel Silver. married metals, fabrication, sterling silver snake chain.
B) Medium-sized Pendant; Sterling Silver & Copper; Married metals, fabrication, sterling silver snake chain.
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