Thursday 25 January 2018

Water casting fun

I have been a little AWOL this week as I had a rather special girlie staying. Daisy and I had some magical days and as the weather was horrible we crafted non stop. Today though I am going to share another of my silversmithing projects from last year which got forgotten about with all the excitement of Christmas. 
A couple of weeks ago I showed you my up-cycled Murano pendant. If you missed that project you can see it here

With every project I make there are always little bits of silver left over. As I have been attending classes for over 16 years in all that time those little pieces of silver have turned into a whole bag full of "waste" and our tutor decided that our valuable silver could be turned into something usable using a technique called water casting. 

Boy was that fun...but without proper safety measures could be really dangerous.
We put some of our off cut silver waste into the furnace and melted it. We then carefully took it out using long tongs protected by aprons, gloves and gauntlets. This photo was our tutor showing us how to hold the container.it was cold at this point..when we actually did the technique we were well gloved up. 
 Once the silver came to temperature and was liquid we tossed it into a water bath.
 
 Out came these very cool, rather organic shaped pieces of silver. These pieces below came from 3 separate water casts. I could see leaves, branches...
and a "rose". Can you see it too?
I cut off the spare silver under the "flower."

 I then designed myself a pendant....as I could also see leaves and a stalk in my water-cast pieces.
  I soldered my "leaf" under the bud....looking more floral at this point.
 Then saw a "stalk" which I filed down and soldered this on too. 
I then filed everything and soldered a hanging loop to the back.
After a final polish my "rose" pendant was finished.

Here it is.

My card today is one I recently made having enjoyed a day being able to play with my Lavinina fairies. This one is for my sister in law 's birthday.  I made an oxide background using black soot and antique linen. The sentiment is a Tim Holtz die cut.

I would like to enter her into the following challenges;

C.R.A.F.T 1/2  distress your project/vintage
The house that stamps built 1/3 anything goes
Creative Moments 1/3 anything goes
Let's Craft and Create 3/3 anything goes
Noor UK anything goes
Shopping our stash 1/3 birthdays

How quickly the week is flying by. It is nearly the weekend again. Thanks so much for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave. The sun seems to have returned today thank goodness and today was quite mild and sunny. Let's hope it hangs in there for a good weekend.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

18 comments:

  1. Beautiful pendant Jane...you are one very clever lady as I have said before. I like your card too...Lavinia fairies are always a favourite and that gold sentiment is lush! xx

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  2. What a wonderful technique.....you are clever, your rose is absolutely brilliant!!!
    Pretty little card too. :)
    Glad you had a lovely time with your little crafting buddy!!
    V x

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  3. Wow! What a fun way too use up some of that scrap silver! And you ended up with a gorgeous pendant that definitely looks like a rose. And your card is also gorgeous!! Love that background and the gold sentiment is perfect! Thanks for playing with The House That Stamps Built.

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  4. So interesting to find out just what you can make from left over pieces of silver. I saw a ballerina in that very small piece. Lovely card too.
    hugs
    Margaret M

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  5. I've never heard of water casting, a fun way to use up old silver pieces. Your card looks very liquid silver, too! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  6. Your card is beautiful, gorgeous stamps and a lovely 'moody' background.
    Beautiful pendant too, interesting to read how you made this unique piece of jewellry!
    Thanks for sharing with us at Creative Moments.
    Chris
    x

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  7. I like your background! Those colours can be so tricky to make them look nice and you definitely did make them look gorgeous! Thanks for joining the Creative Moments Challenge.
    Jennifer
    Creative Moments Design Team
    http://carabbiemomentsofcraft.blogspot.com/2018/01/challenge-135.html
    www.scrapatini.com

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  8. Such a cool oxide background -- love it! Glad you linked this up to The House That Stamps Built this week! Do join us again soon!

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  9. What a Wonderful card!
    Thank you for joining us at CRAFT Challenge:)
    Have a good week.

    Monika

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  10. Your rose is absoluetly beautiful and so unique . I actually saw a fairy and a goose with a hat on sat on a nest. (yep I know keep on taking the pills,!! ) hugs Mrs A.

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  11. I was seeing fairies in the silver so your card seems the perfect match for your water casting. Very cool technique. Thanks for sharing it.

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  12. Beautiful card with a beautiful background! Thank you for joining the CRAFT challenge this week.

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  13. How COOL is that rose pendant you made?!!!! So gorgeous! Your card is also fabulous! Great background and love the fairy! Thanks for joining our Birthday challenge at Shopping Our Stash!

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  14. Dear Jane,

    What a stunning rose pendant, absolutely beautiful! And oh how I can relate to those girl's crafting marathons, cold&dark days here are used just like that! So very happy you&Daisy share the same passion!

    Happy last days of January, my friend!

    Yours,
    Mia

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  15. Gorgeous rose pendant and card Jane! Love the background and fairy on your card! Thank you for sharing with us over at Let's Craft & Create challenge. We hope to see you again.
    Sherry x - DT for Let's Craft & Create

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  16. Beautiful!!!
    Thanks for joining our challenge at Let’s Craft and Create Good luck and I hope you’ll join us next time again.
    Jolanda
    (DT member)

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  17. Lovely card and thanks for sharing at craft this week good luck

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  18. Wow you are so very creative!! Such a pretty rose and also love the card! Thank you so much for joining our January challenge at Noor! Design UK of "Anything Goes". Hopefully you make it back for February's! Hugs!

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Jane x