I know when making concrete molds you have to vibrate the mold after pouring the concrete to get bubbles out. Would it be possible that there are bubbles in the mold? Also when creating the mold positives and negatives are you attempting to use chiseling tools or something to try and fix the imperfections?
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
I have attempted to fix some imperfections. The problem with that for me is that the wax seems slightly porous after pulling out the mold. I could heat gun it a bit to smooth it out, but I'm afraid of loosing some of the details. I may just try etching the lines more and worry less about the wood grain texture on the Tardis being there.
I haven't actually made a concrete mold yet, and didn't realize that was a thing.
I suppose I could make a slightly wetter plaster of paris mixture (to let it settle better), and then bake the moisture out longer.
Giving it a go today. I actually was able to get a really decent candle mold, and try and fine tune the details. It's setting right now, then the 48 hour bath to treat it.
My issue now is going to be figuring out if I can reuse this mold.
Also my neighbor told me there is a metal working guild that meets not far from here, and I've been wanting to dick around with a few other projects so I think I'll be hitting them up pretty soon.
Also eventually I'll have to figure out how to control oxygen levels when I dump out excess melted bismuth, as that's a factor for coloring the crystals. Though I'm not too concerned about that unless I start selling these things.
I'm sure the guys at the metal working guild will have much better advice. Also when you say you need to control oxygen levels do you mean shield the bismuth from oxygen as it cools? If so you might have to grab some shielding gas like the stuff used for MIG/TIG welding.
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
Alright, I went shopping (because that's what happens when you actually have monies).
I got things for painting. Right now I'm only planning the blue. I'll see how that looks and try and decide to paint the white panes/black Police Public Call Box banner.
I got a thingie to make a channel for the cables for the LED. Eventually going to need to build a circuit for that (and a stand to hold it).
Also I ordered new mold making stuff, since previous mold had quite a few air bubbles.
Still no real idea where to find an oxygen machine. Should be up and ready to give this another go by next weekend hopefully.
In my world of ceramics I have been playing around lately and have started airbrushing gradients of underglazes on some test pieces. If I can convince the people who run the studio I go to to make a clear glaze that will be super promising. I'm also making a few glazes from recipe and hoping they turn out how other people's do.
CommunistCow on
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
So the ceramics didn't go so well this time because the first cone 10 firing had no reduction and so the glaze colors didn't come out correctly. The last salt firing on the other hand turned out pretty well.
airbrushed yellow and red underglaze and then airbrushed a thiiiiin clear glaze on top.
Salt fired. Left side side of each were unglazed and that is what the clay body can look like with the salt.
salt fired.
CommunistCow on
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
I'm pretty new in the leather crafting field, but I feel it is pretty easy to learn (if you aren't working on complex things like saddles and possibly bags).
So I have only made three things so far:
A Bracelet - Still prototype phase, not quite happy with the way it folds around the wrist (possible too short, and the leather too thick).
Belt - Another prototype. This was the first thing I made with the tools I had available at the time. I didn't have enough leather to make a full length belt, so I made it with what I had. In this example, I stitched the buckle fold to close it, but next time I will use a rivet.
The first one looks a bit too wide and probably a bit thick. Personally I like the color of the leather in the 2nd picture more. When you buy leather for this kind of work how much does it end up costing?
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
The first one looks a bit too wide and probably a bit thick. Personally I like the color of the leather in the 2nd picture more. When you buy leather for this kind of work how much does it end up costing?
I always order vegetable leather so I can color it myself. The bracelet is currently uncolored because I am still tinkering with it.
Both pieces were made from the same leather piece which was a leftover. I gave 270 Dkr for it (€36 / $49). Since I was going in blind, I did not take into consideration the proportions of the piece and thus ended up with a piece of 50 cm x 30 (19.7 x 11.8 inches) roughly with a thickness of 3 cm (1.2 inches).
The new piece I ordered is 20 x 120 cm (7.9 x 47.2 inches) which is suited for making belts. The thickness is the same as the previous piece. The price was 185 Dkr (€25 / $34), not including the shipping costs.
I reduced the width by 2 cm (so 4 cm now) and extended the length by 4 cm. The result is a much more bendable bracelet than before. The strap was also extended to a length of 50 cm. I am not quite sure if I need that much length, but I wasn't about to take a chance seeing as I will need to discard some length in order to make the buckle fold.
Hopefully I will get my ordered items within a few days. It does worry me that I haven't received a confirmation of my items being sent.
I'm back after a bit of a hiatus from life. Finally got a home studio going, including an anvil which I just added in yesterday.
Post anvil I made out of a 3" piece of steel.
Picture of the rest of my workspace.
This is a prototype I'm working on of a rotulus scroll. You pull the paper out and turn one of the check rings on the side to retract the paper so it remains protected. Made out of brass, roughly 3" long.
This is another scroll I was working on, made of aluminum, brass and steel.
I started in on the scroll idea after making a series of metal books. I've got another piece I am about to start working on, which is going to the centerpiece of an exhibit I have in march. It is going to be a writing desk made out of forged steel and wood. Here are the preliminary sketches, I'll have some progress photos in the coming weeks.
There's something hilarious about imagining you pounding away at metal in your corner office, I feel like when I see people working with metal, its out in a garage.
I assume you live in an actual house? Or are you "That dude who has a damn anvil in his apartment"?
I really like the scrolls, its awesome that you have a show in march!
Yeah, I rent a small house, and you are right, this is pretty much the corner office. My garage doesn't have a door and there are vagrants about, so this was my only other option.
Now you just need some secret ancient summoning ritual written down and I'll bet all the LARP'ers will struggle to buy it first
In other news, I showed my bracelet to my friend and discovered a new way of closing it without the use of a buckle. It has made me rethink the design. Furthermore I also learned the difference between male and female bracelets. My female friend wore bracelets which were bigger than her wrist to give the illusion of a thinner wrist, while my male cousin preferred a bracelet which ran tight around his wrist (I have the same preference).
This means that my Armband Prototype II is too big around my wrist and that the 4 extra centimeters aren't helping that.
The leather is quite nice and I should be able to make 5-7 belts out of it before I run out of width. The only thing missing from the picture is the power knife for precision cutting. Unfortunately, it was out of stock so I'll have to get it elsewhere
Made this for my brother for christmas. Basically just used rivet stamper, sand paper as well as a piece of wood I cut for softening edges, and a husky folding utility knife for cutting the leather- which I wouldn't necessarily recommend for detail. Ended up boiling, shaping and then rubber banded the dark piece to set the shape after cutting out the details. Otherwise all the edges would just stick straight out. Next time I might wax the edges to smooth them out as well.
My lady just bought me some letter stamps and a raw belt I'm going to mess with. Also going to try burn engraving the leather as well, although I've heard it's not easy on the nose.
@yogo you should post or pm me where you buy your leather, stuff I've ordered thus far wasn't very good hide. I've got a friend who works for the rodeo and he's been getting me some scraps here and there but nothing big enough for a belt.
I'm afraid that my advice won't do you much good, @Prospicience, unless you live in Denmark or Europe. I ordered my batch from www.laederiet.dk . Ordinarily you would be forced to buy either whole sale leather or scraps (which can vary greatly in size), but this firm has sizes from 20 x 120 cm and up. The piece I received isn't exactly 20 x 120, but has at least those measurements if you cut away the unusable parts.
From the looks of your armband (nice design), your leather was pre-dyed. Is the white stuff also leather? If so, I haven't seen that type of color dye before.
So I tried something new for my prototype bracelet. I found a tutorial for cutting a sheath for a knife and the person began the process by putting the entire piece of leather in warm water and letting it stay there for 30 mins to 1 hour. Afterwards he cut the shape and sow it together while the leather was still wet.
I took my first prototype and put into hot water, but only letting it stay there for 3-4 mins. Afterwards I began shaping it, but found out one of the inner cuts were too small. While cutting it, I noticed how much easier it was to cut the leather. I may do this for future cuttings if I need to do precision cutting.
The twist for me was that after I molded the bracelet into the position I wanted and let it dry, the shape was fixed and thus no longer needs a buckle to fasten. Now I have to rethink the design.
This is the first prototype as it fits my wrists better than the second one I made. While I think I could have added 1 cm more to its length, it fits quite nicely around my wrist without cutting into it. If I wanted to, I could probably buy some sandpaper and smoothen the insides as well, but for a prototype I find that a bit excessive. Now I just need to color it and it will be all set
And the final product, all colored, smoothened and waxed.
I am actually quite pleased with it. My opinion about adding 1 cm still stands, but by smoothening the edges and inner side with my new tools it feels much more comfortable wearing it. The buckle is tight, and the strap fits perfectly. The only changes I would make is the 1 cm, perhaps cutting 1 cm off its width and next time making sure the binding strap is centered probably on the bracelet (it is a bit off center, but you only see it if you look for it).
Next up is making some belts
Edit: One thing I forgot to mention was the coloring. I did all the rookie mistakes and ended up with an uneven coat of color. This fixed itself when it finally dried, but you can see that some of the color got on the inner side and doesn't make it look all the professional. Furthermore, it was difficult to apply an even layer due to bad lightning (only got 1 lamp atm) and an already bent leather piece. Next time I plan on cutting it out, polishing it, applying the color and finally bending it.
Bending the forged component on a curve jig.
Lower legs after being forged and bent.
1 1/4" square forged and being bent in jig.
Upper legs after being forged and bent.
Still lots of of work left. I'll post some finalized drawings when I get them done.
@Forbe I assume you have like, schematics you are following? I'm excited for whatever you are making, If I had a ton of money I would probably buy everything you make. That power hammer is a thing I didn't know existed and is super terrifying.
@Yogo I think that despite the flaws is pretty cool, once you start refining the process, it'll just get better. It'll be cool to see the belts. Get yourself another lamp
Completely black, 3 cm wide, 3 mm thick and 120 cm long. I polished the edges and backside before applying the color and after drying, I applied leather fat to both the front and back side to give it some protection against smudges and water. The leather fat also smoothens the rougher back side.
Over all, I am very pleased with the product and I managed to sell it to my mother (though that is not a big accomplishment in and of itself ).
The second belt in the first picture is the one for my dad, but since it is almost identical to the first belt, I didn't bother taking more pictures of it.
I finished my Dr Who logo inlay a few days ago. Would've finished it faster but my pliers broke and I had to get some fast and cheap replacements for now.
Been working a lot, but made a ton of progress since my last post. Here is the writing desk sculpture I showed parts of earlier, mostly together outside of the tops and bottoms. The legs are forged steel with a wrapped collar to join the legs, the top is 1" angle, and the inlay on the sides is forged plate. The legs are attached from the inside with bolts to aid in transportation/storage. Overall it is about 6' tall.
Close up of legs with joinery. Inside two are the front legs, outside two are the back legs.
What are the guarantees that it won't kill me in my sleep?
Yeah, it creeps me out. I wanted to create an anthropomorphic version of a functional object. I was thinking about making one of the legs higher off the ground like it was taking a step forward. Maybe on the next one.
Posts
I haven't actually made a concrete mold yet, and didn't realize that was a thing.
I suppose I could make a slightly wetter plaster of paris mixture (to let it settle better), and then bake the moisture out longer.
My issue now is going to be figuring out if I can reuse this mold.
Also my neighbor told me there is a metal working guild that meets not far from here, and I've been wanting to dick around with a few other projects so I think I'll be hitting them up pretty soon.
Also eventually I'll have to figure out how to control oxygen levels when I dump out excess melted bismuth, as that's a factor for coloring the crystals. Though I'm not too concerned about that unless I start selling these things.
I got things for painting. Right now I'm only planning the blue. I'll see how that looks and try and decide to paint the white panes/black Police Public Call Box banner.
I got a thingie to make a channel for the cables for the LED. Eventually going to need to build a circuit for that (and a stand to hold it).
Also I ordered new mold making stuff, since previous mold had quite a few air bubbles.
Still no real idea where to find an oxygen machine. Should be up and ready to give this another go by next weekend hopefully.
or you can go the smaller production route and maybe get these things: http://www.amazon.com/Boost-Oxygen-Natural-Energy-22oz/dp/B005SUEVHU/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1378617624&sr=8-6&keywords=oxygen+tank
___
In my world of ceramics I have been playing around lately and have started airbrushing gradients of underglazes on some test pieces. If I can convince the people who run the studio I go to to make a clear glaze that will be super promising. I'm also making a few glazes from recipe and hoping they turn out how other people's do.
airbrushed yellow and red underglaze and then airbrushed a thiiiiin clear glaze on top.
Salt fired. Left side side of each were unglazed and that is what the clay body can look like with the salt.
salt fired.
30-40z mug.
I'm pretty new in the leather crafting field, but I feel it is pretty easy to learn (if you aren't working on complex things like saddles and possibly bags).
So I have only made three things so far:
A Bracelet - Still prototype phase, not quite happy with the way it folds around the wrist (possible too short, and the leather too thick).
Belt - Another prototype. This was the first thing I made with the tools I had available at the time. I didn't have enough leather to make a full length belt, so I made it with what I had. In this example, I stitched the buckle fold to close it, but next time I will use a rivet.
I always order vegetable leather so I can color it myself. The bracelet is currently uncolored because I am still tinkering with it.
Both pieces were made from the same leather piece which was a leftover. I gave 270 Dkr for it (€36 / $49). Since I was going in blind, I did not take into consideration the proportions of the piece and thus ended up with a piece of 50 cm x 30 (19.7 x 11.8 inches) roughly with a thickness of 3 cm (1.2 inches).
The new piece I ordered is 20 x 120 cm (7.9 x 47.2 inches) which is suited for making belts. The thickness is the same as the previous piece. The price was 185 Dkr (€25 / $34), not including the shipping costs.
I reduced the width by 2 cm (so 4 cm now) and extended the length by 4 cm. The result is a much more bendable bracelet than before. The strap was also extended to a length of 50 cm. I am not quite sure if I need that much length, but I wasn't about to take a chance seeing as I will need to discard some length in order to make the buckle fold.
Hopefully I will get my ordered items within a few days. It does worry me that I haven't received a confirmation of my items being sent.
Post anvil I made out of a 3" piece of steel.
Picture of the rest of my workspace.
This is a prototype I'm working on of a rotulus scroll. You pull the paper out and turn one of the check rings on the side to retract the paper so it remains protected. Made out of brass, roughly 3" long.
This is another scroll I was working on, made of aluminum, brass and steel.
I started in on the scroll idea after making a series of metal books. I've got another piece I am about to start working on, which is going to the centerpiece of an exhibit I have in march. It is going to be a writing desk made out of forged steel and wood. Here are the preliminary sketches, I'll have some progress photos in the coming weeks.
I assume you live in an actual house? Or are you "That dude who has a damn anvil in his apartment"?
I really like the scrolls, its awesome that you have a show in march!
Now you just need some secret ancient summoning ritual written down and I'll bet all the LARP'ers will struggle to buy it first
In other news, I showed my bracelet to my friend and discovered a new way of closing it without the use of a buckle. It has made me rethink the design. Furthermore I also learned the difference between male and female bracelets. My female friend wore bracelets which were bigger than her wrist to give the illusion of a thinner wrist, while my male cousin preferred a bracelet which ran tight around his wrist (I have the same preference).
This means that my Armband Prototype II is too big around my wrist and that the 4 extra centimeters aren't helping that.
The leather is quite nice and I should be able to make 5-7 belts out of it before I run out of width. The only thing missing from the picture is the power knife for precision cutting. Unfortunately, it was out of stock so I'll have to get it elsewhere
My lady just bought me some letter stamps and a raw belt I'm going to mess with. Also going to try burn engraving the leather as well, although I've heard it's not easy on the nose.
@yogo you should post or pm me where you buy your leather, stuff I've ordered thus far wasn't very good hide. I've got a friend who works for the rodeo and he's been getting me some scraps here and there but nothing big enough for a belt.
My Portfolio Site
From the looks of your armband (nice design), your leather was pre-dyed. Is the white stuff also leather? If so, I haven't seen that type of color dye before.
I took my first prototype and put into hot water, but only letting it stay there for 3-4 mins. Afterwards I began shaping it, but found out one of the inner cuts were too small. While cutting it, I noticed how much easier it was to cut the leather. I may do this for future cuttings if I need to do precision cutting.
The twist for me was that after I molded the bracelet into the position I wanted and let it dry, the shape was fixed and thus no longer needs a buckle to fasten. Now I have to rethink the design.
This is the first prototype as it fits my wrists better than the second one I made. While I think I could have added 1 cm more to its length, it fits quite nicely around my wrist without cutting into it. If I wanted to, I could probably buy some sandpaper and smoothen the insides as well, but for a prototype I find that a bit excessive. Now I just need to color it and it will be all set
I am actually quite pleased with it. My opinion about adding 1 cm still stands, but by smoothening the edges and inner side with my new tools it feels much more comfortable wearing it. The buckle is tight, and the strap fits perfectly. The only changes I would make is the 1 cm, perhaps cutting 1 cm off its width and next time making sure the binding strap is centered probably on the bracelet (it is a bit off center, but you only see it if you look for it).
Next up is making some belts
Edit: One thing I forgot to mention was the coloring. I did all the rookie mistakes and ended up with an uneven coat of color. This fixed itself when it finally dried, but you can see that some of the color got on the inner side and doesn't make it look all the professional. Furthermore, it was difficult to apply an even layer due to bad lightning (only got 1 lamp atm) and an already bent leather piece. Next time I plan on cutting it out, polishing it, applying the color and finally bending it.
Bending the forged component on a curve jig.
Lower legs after being forged and bent.
1 1/4" square forged and being bent in jig.
Upper legs after being forged and bent.
Still lots of of work left. I'll post some finalized drawings when I get them done.
Bonus noisy six minute video of me forging on a power hammer.
@Yogo I think that despite the flaws is pretty cool, once you start refining the process, it'll just get better. It'll be cool to see the belts. Get yourself another lamp
Completely black, 3 cm wide, 3 mm thick and 120 cm long. I polished the edges and backside before applying the color and after drying, I applied leather fat to both the front and back side to give it some protection against smudges and water. The leather fat also smoothens the rougher back side.
Over all, I am very pleased with the product and I managed to sell it to my mother (though that is not a big accomplishment in and of itself
Will do. I made a second belt today (for my dad) which I will also post a picture of.
The second belt in the first picture is the one for my dad, but since it is almost identical to the first belt, I didn't bother taking more pictures of it.
Handmade Jewelry by me on EtsyGames for sale
Me on Twitch!
Close up of legs with joinery. Inside two are the front legs, outside two are the back legs.
What are the guarantees that it won't kill me in my sleep?
Probably best not to worry about it.
Yeah, it creeps me out. I wanted to create an anthropomorphic version of a functional object. I was thinking about making one of the legs higher off the ground like it was taking a step forward. Maybe on the next one.