My First Metalsmithing Class

Hello, fellow Steemians!

I am here, showing up for one of my 2019 intentions- blogging more! Lookit me go!

I thought I would talk a bit about my first class in the Intro to Silversmithing course that @mstafford kindly bought me for xmas.

This whole thing seriously feels like it's meant to be. I took a Make-A-Ring, jewlery skills basic weekend workshop back in October, and it was neat, but it felt quite rushed. I don't think I learned much beyond what I had already gleaned from poring over YouTube tutorials all summer. Since then, I had been wondering what my next step should be. We had been talking about investing in metalsmithing equipment so I could explore it further, but it's a lot of stuff and I don't really have a safe place to do it (lots of chemicals, tools, and fire involved).

In December, I popped into one of my favourite Jewellery stores here in town, just around the corner from the shop that I work in. I love this shop as it carries all kinds of beautiful work from local jewelers. I was looking for some earrings for my Mom for christmas. When I got to chit-chatting with the gal working there, I mentioned the weekend workshop I had taken, and she said "you know we're opening a jewellery school & supply, right?" Umm, no I had no idea. I freaked out and put my email on their mailing list. SO EXCITING! The school is located right underneath the shop, in a really awesome spot in town, so close to me! They opened Jan 7, the night of their first class. The women running it & teaching the classes are amazing, sweet, talented individuals and they have some amazing plans going forward. There are going to be many different weekend classes, workshops for different techniques, community building events, meetups, etc., as well as offering tool/bench rentals. There's nothing like it here on the Island, so I think they will do well. Anyways, I think @mstafford picked up on my excitement so the Intro to SIlversmithing was my Christmas gift. Thanks, honey.

This course is designed to give students foundation skills in silversmithing. From there, we are able to begin exploring this amazing medium, and sign up for more specialized, technique-based workshops going forward. This course is also the prerequisite for taking any of the other courses, and for being able to rent tools/bench space in the school. This is super exciting as it means I will have somewhere to actually get my hands dirty and get into it, without having to invest in an entire setup/burn my house down.

Here I am sawing a random shape out of a sheet of copper. The saw is super tricky to get used to. Not only is the blade super tiny and easy to break, but there is a technique to getting it to move smoothly through the metal that just takes time & experience to learn.

The first class! It was a lot of fun! The class was full, and we learned basics such as how to use a jeweller's saw, filing, sanding, using a pendant motor, circle punching, dome dapping, texturizing, and oxidizing. A lot to cover in one class!

After playing around with sawing, we then took our random shapes that we cut out and learned how to refine the edges with files and sandpaper. Filing is super hard. This is where my hands and arms get pumped, exactly like they do when I'm rock climbing. Holding the very tiny pieces steady in my left hand while precision filing with my right is exhausting. My hands, fingers, and forearms were screaming by the time I was done.

Once we had exhausted ourselves filing, we took a fresh sheet of copper and were encouraged to just go nuts with the texturizing tools- hammers and stamps- just to see what each one does. This was a lot of fun and a good way to take out some anger on a poor little piece of copper. Each different hammer produced a different texture on the metal. Super cool.

Some of the textures created with various hammers- the arrows created by stamps.

After we'd had our fill of hammering (boy it was loud in there) we used a circle punch (like a hold punch for metal) to cut circles our of our textured pieces. I really enjoyed this. I have always loved finding smaller, interesting compositions within larger ones. We then used a doming block (also called a dapping block) to make our circles into domes.

From there, we dropped our domes into a pot of Liver of Suphur, which turned the metal completely black! After drying, we took sandpaper to our pieces to remove the oxidization on the high parts of the design, revealing the original metal. This allowed for the oxidization to stay in the crevasses, creating contrast and making it look super cool:

See the black in the little pockmarks? Patina created by liver of sulphur. So cool. I look forward to exploring different patinas.

Beyond the basics of each techniques it was so valuable to chat with the amazing instructors and hear the little nuggets of wisdom that they offered as they moved around the class. I know a lot of people these days claim that you can learn anything by researching online and using YouTube, etc., but in my opinion & experience, nothing beats attending a class with experts, to at least build a skill foundation. With other people in the class, you make friends & connections, & benefit from seeing others make little mistakes, or hearing others ask questions that maybe you didn't think to ask.

If you can, I highly recommend taking a class in 2019. Even if it's just a single workshop, etc. It's a really enriching experience, not just for the skills learned, but connections made! Get out there!

I'll be sure to share how each class in this short course goes. I can't wait to get back in there on Monday. Are there any metalsmiths/jewelers out there on Steemit? I would love to connect! Holla!