Hand-in Day for Unit 204

Today was the day we collected our work for Unit 204 Production jewellery..and boy I'm glad that one is over and done with. Have worked out my mark and I on course for a 2:1...which I think is not too bad for an old boy!!!!..so next week is stone setting...and its just for fun no assessment. will post images of the work as I go along.

Rapid prototype of Cooling Ring

This is the rapid prototype of the cooling ring for production. It will be made from 14ct Yellow gold with 120 x 1mm sq diamonds. 60 diamonds are set at each end.

Todays New Maxwell Render

Here is the latest render from Maxwell & Rhino

well that didn't last long or even the tech can't solder

Well the latest update on the soldering is even the tech's can't get the solder to flow...Kevin thinks that there must be dirt or something under the wire to stop the solder flowing. He even tryed and above are the results of his effort!!...So now for the big clean up. Spoke to Brian the course leader and we spoke of the problems I'm having with the piece. We have come to the conclusion that its best for me to clean the piece up for the assessment on Thursday. He really likes the design and has suggested that I should develop it for the Goldsmith competition. To this end I will try and reverse engineer it into Rhino and then render it in Maxwell. So not all is lost.

Wow I can solder!! & CAD Day

Today was the final CAD with Leon, hopefully only until next September so as always was shown a lot of tips and how to render a two pound coin...just brilliant. As a bonus Leon give us some tutorials video on a memory stick to down load and use. So after yesterday where I could not solder the censer....I brought it home to clean up for another try tomorrow at Uni..but I thought well lets have a go at home...and well I got the solder to flow at long last...not sure why I can get it to work in my workshop and not at Uni..maybe its to do with the flame? as I'm more used to the one in my workshop.... well I'm just happy it going better.

How come I have forgotten to Solder!!

So how come I have forgotten to solder?....the day started really well..leant how to use the TIG welder...so use that to attache the nickel wire in place so to keep it in place while soldering them...but no I spent all day trying to solder the wire into place..and it will not flow...so been yet another frustrating day at the bench. Tomorrow is the last CAD day with Leon for this academic year, but I hope he will be back in September.

A better day

Today was a better day, at last got the three sides of the censer together with some help from Kevin who TIG welded the first two side together which allowed me to hard solder them together. Then the third side was again TIG welded in to place and then hard soldered. Still I'm having problems with the solder not flowing along the seam....I hoping when I put the 1.mm dia wire down each seam the solder will flow a lot easier...but that's for tomorrow.

Cooling ring Render

Rendering of Cooling ring for Unit 204. It shows the top of a gold ring with 60 1mm sq diamonds which it also repeated on the other end of the ring. The other ring is made from Silver and has the same diamond setting on both ends. Model from Rhino and rendered in Maxwell.

This is not as simple as it looks !!!

Well I spent all day on Friday working on the censer trying to get the angle (60%) for each side filed. So it was a very frustrating day and I'm having a lot of trouble getting the three side to line up so that I can solder them together. So hopefully Monday will be a better day

Render Image

Here is the render of the wire ring...still need to work on the rhino file, but its a good start

Design Day

Today was a design day. got in at 9.00am..put my name on Jen's List and went to the computer room to use Rhino and Maxwell. At 11.00am had my design tutorial with Jen which went very well. But I feel I need to do a bit more in the sketch book drawing wise for this project. Jen thinks the research material i.e the maps and the text of the random post cards is good. The direction I think I will take is to do with landmarks....its about how we find our way with the use of visual images etc. The work with rhino and maxwell is coming on and I'm very pleased with what i have produced so far.....images to come soon

Tool Making

Today was making chasing tools day. The tools are made from 3mm Silver Steel rod. First the rod is cut to suit the hand, which in this case is 90mm. Then the rod was filed to the desired shape. The steel is then heated to a bright red then cooled in oil. Tech note if ordering steel for tool making get 01 (zero one) this steel can be cooled in Oil. After cleaning up the steel is then tempered by heating the steel with small hot flame (this was done by using a chef's torch). Starting at the top, the steel is heated until the steel turns blue but in front of the blue is a straw colour. The flame is then moved down the rod moving the straw colour to the chasing end. When the end is the straw colour the tool is again cooled in the oil. The chasing is now harden, to test if the tool has harden correctly the top should be too hard to file. If the tool can be filed the tempering process is repeated.

More Bench Work

Most of today was spent at the bench....working on the censer..today's new technique was a little bit of engraving. (note the cool plaster..the result of a slight cut)

Bench work - Traveling Censer

first a template was made from aluminum of the pattern to be pierce out.

A line is then scribed on the metal using the template

A indentation in the middle of each area that was to be pierced out. This allowed a 0.9mm hole to be drilled enabling a blade to pas through the metal.

Piercing out, later a deeper piercing saw was used to make it easier to cut out the middle sections

Installation of the New Chancellor of UCA

Have very good day went to the Installation of the New Chancellor of UCA Zandra Rhodes at The Banqueting House in London and had a little chat with her and also met up with Andrew Logan again..so I had a nice time

Good Day at Uni

had a good day at Uni, I have at last got to grips with Maxwell Rendering with some help from fellow student ( A Big Thank you to Jon Reid) so here is my first maxwell render

Making of traveling censer

I made a paper model of the censer. It will be 100mm high, 3 sided with each side 50mm at the widest point.

I cut out a template for the side out of aluminum ( this was to make sure that each piece was the same size) I marked out the 3 sides on 0.9 g metal and cut them out.

1st rendering

Here is my first rendering....I'm using Rhino for Mac..and using the default rendering package Tucan that comes as standard....I really want to use Maxwell but as the Rhino for Mac is a Beta version there is no Maxwell plug-in for it.

Bank Holiday weekend

As its Bank holiday Weekend not much done on the design front...but boy did I get some DIY Done!!!!