A new bench and some water casting experiments.

Goodness. Where did this year go??? I wrote this post back in March but I’m posting it now, if only to remind myself to keep up with my journalling a bit better next year!

14th March. Last week I put up a brand new bench in my newly cleared workshop, bolted down a brand new vice (thank you Homebase!) and FINALLY unboxed my rolling mill. So. Exciting! I moved my pickle pot and barreller into the workshop too and it’s simply AMAZING having everything in one place for the first time.

my new bench. v exciting. but that’s probably just me ….

I’ve also, since my last post, found some time to experiment with water casting. I’m getting better at it and it’s great fun. What’s not to like about melting stuff and dropping it from a great height?! Also, it’s great to be able to achieve something during lockdown when I have no access to a full workshop.

I really enjoy the random watercast shapes mentioned in my previous post but now I know more about the process, it’s clear that I don’t have the right tools. They are now on my Christmas wish list!

In the meantime, using what I have at home, I am achieving lovely ‘splash’ shapes, still very organic and each one is different, but they are ‘prettier’ than the deep sea/outer space shapes I inherited.

Some people see flowers when they look at these silver splashes but, perhaps because the seaside holds a special place in my heart, I see rockpools, sea anemones and spray from the waves. And that was where I was going, creatively, when I made these earrings for my lovely Mum for Mothers Day last weekend, and a little experiment ring for myself this weekend.

I added little balls of 9ct gold into the cups in a tiny solder pool, like tiny bits of treasure just left by the tide. The gold has a hidden meaning as they are made from chains from a necklace my Gran gave me when I was 16. The necklace eventually broke. And then one of my girls gummed it when she was a baby. But I always kept it. And now I can remake it into something new.

Anyway, it was fun and so I think I’ll do a bit more, perhaps work up to something on a larger scale.