Thursday 28 July 2011

Creating a stir!

Wow, this month seems to be rushing by in a blur! Summer is definitely upon us, even if the weather doesn't quite concur. I have spent most of my time recently on working out production pieces and although that is generally quite fun to do, I do miss creating the one of a kind pieces that make use of some of my mouth watering collection of handcut stones. So, I have also been attempting to get some one of a kind work done s well, and all the time dreaming of my next project. Happily I have been making sales too and that meant that I could indulge in some new tools. New tools usually means some very useful but boring piece of equipment (to the layman) that I have had my eye on for a while, but this month, new tools meant making a purchase on a happy whim that has led to me playing with something entirely different, albeit still silver.

A couple of weeks ago I was called by the local newspaper who were updating their directory, the man I spoke to was very chatty and after checking his information asked "Just what do you actually make?" I simply told him I was a silversmith. After I hung up the phone I suddenly thought, am I really? That is not to say I doubt what I do or that I think I am a master at my craft but I wondered what the definition of silversmith was, against say, that of a goldsmith. After much research I found that the difference was probably more of semantics and possibly about materials and that both did indeed craft jewellery, but a lot of the entries also talked about the forging of boxes and vessels and such like.

... And so this lead to my purchase of new tools. A little idea I have had germinating for a while now, linked to my birthstone jewellery and maybe even wedding and christening gifts, the idea of making spoons. I have seen silver spoons made into jewellery but what of actually making silver spoons, as keepsakes, as jewellery themselves? My purchase was a set of spoon stakes, special shiny steel stakes that you fix to a clamp and hammer the metal over to shape. Sadly I haven't been home enough to play yet, but I will and my order of special silver for my first spoons will be arriving next week, and then I hope the neighbours will forgive my joyful hammering, and I promise to share with you the results.

This post was part of the Aspiring Metalsmiths' Blogroll. I hope you have enjoyed it and if you have, please read about what some of my colleagues have been up to this month.


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