Copper Bowl

 

I had a very exciting few days in the workshop testing my hammer.  One thing that I didn’t realised was that the handle was too big to grip properly.  So I went to the wood workshop and got it sanded down on the belt sander.

Sandra Wilson then gave me a quick afternoon master class in Dutch Raising.  Dutch raising differs from the more well known technique of angle raising in that you hammer from the inside of your piece out.  This creates a wave in the metal as you push the metal round.  After each round you calque the edges and the re-anneal.

The second day I continued the piece and go to the planishing stage.  I used my 3D printed steel planishing hammer.  I also used the wrong steak at one point which put dints into the bottom of the bowl.  I actually quite liked this so I ran with it.

 

I wanted to finish the bowl well and in an interesting way.  I had some copper foil which I wanted to use for the inside of the bowl.  I tried a sample of copper on copper kuem-boo but this didn’t work because copper doesn’t fuse.  the samples just flaked off and they also changed to a more pastel colour.

I decided then to leaf the inside using adhesive.  The outside of the bowl I finished with platinol and I burnished the top edge to a shine.