![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Puget_Sound_Raven_Fetish.jpg?resize=640%2C142\" "\\"Puget_Sound_Raven_Fetish\\"")
<\/a>I’ve also played around with press forming copper sheet around a small beach rock. \u00a0With the raven skull I made from shortening the beak of a pressed hummingbird skull, I’ve created a Northwest-style raven fetish of a local Puget Sound Native American creation legend.<\/p>\nHere’s the story: \u00a0In the beginning, Raven lived in the spirit world, but one day he carried a rock away over the sea. \u00a0When Raven dropped the stone into the water, \u00a0it swelled and swelled, becoming the land we know today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today I’m working on making a pendant from the little silver hummingbird skull I press formed during our last visit. \u00a0I’m engraving a piece of Grade 2 titanium for the back of the pendant. \u00a0I’m hoping the gray color of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[23,28,32,31,35,11],"tags":[9,3,7,17,16,44,10,12],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6qLAy-AF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3960,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=3960","url_meta":{"origin":2273,"position":0},"title":"Hummingbird Skull with Silver Helmet Pendant","date":"July 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Starting a new press-formed hummingbird skull , this time with a twist. Here are several pressings, and carefully forging away the wrinkles in the copper sheet caused by the pressing. Here's the beginning of the twist - I'm upcycling a failed silver pressing (it cracked!) to become a helmet. Trimming\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Silver_Helmet_Hummingbird_Skull_8.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2292,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2292","url_meta":{"origin":2273,"position":1},"title":"Press-Forming Adventures Part 6","date":"July 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Above are all of the hummingbird and owl press forming works I've been working on...an interesting ride, I must say. Above is the completed silver hummingbird skull and titanium pendant, with leather neck cord. Available soon at\u00a0BladeGallery.com Below are images of a Hummingbird Medicine Pouch. \u00a0This one is for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Hummingbird_Skull_Press_Form_35.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5506,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=5506","url_meta":{"origin":2273,"position":2},"title":"Hummingbird Skull Reliquary","date":"May 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Starting a new reliquary project. This is the first of several elements, a 1075 carbon steel blade in my signature \"knapped steel\" style. Using a small drum sander, I'm carving in the flake scars that would be left from knapping stone blades... 1075 carbon steel blade, one of several elements\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/TomSterling_Hummingbird_Skull_Reliquary_15.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2248,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2248","url_meta":{"origin":2273,"position":3},"title":"Press-Forming Adventures Part 4","date":"July 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, the owl worked out so well, I decided a hummingbird was in order. \u00a0If you recall the \"encouraging failure\" from the first post in this series, I used the copper sheet pressing from that to chase a small hummingbird skull. \u00a0That became the model for a press die. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Hummingbird_Skull_Press_Form_11.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3756,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=3756","url_meta":{"origin":2273,"position":4},"title":"A Tale of Two Ravens","date":"March 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A Tale of Two Ravens (dogtag pendants by Tom Sterling, March 2015) Top left image by Serge Panchenko (check out his excellent work at http:\/\/sergeknives.com) Above is an excellent example of why I\u2019ve been pursuing the press forming process. My intention is to produce a series of works beginning from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Raven_Silver_Helmet_Dogtag_4a1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3682,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=3682","url_meta":{"origin":2273,"position":5},"title":"“Greenman in Autumn” Pendant Dagger, Part 2","date":"December 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I started the engraving by cutting all the major lines. Next I'll inlay gold wire into the Celtic beard... Inlaying gold wire, from top left clockwise - undercutting the line (blue arrows) - hammering in wire - more hammering - all wire in place Clockwise from upper left - scraping\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Pendant_Dagger_121.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2273"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2290,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions\/2290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Hummingbird_Skull_Press_Form_14.jpg\" "\\"Hummingbird_Skull_Press_Form_14\\"")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Hummingbird_Skull_Press_Form_15.jpg\" "\\"Hummingbird_Skull_Press_Form_15\\"")
<\/a>In the above two images, I’ve completed engraving one side of the feather layout, and excavated the void that the hummingbird skull will sit in.<\/p>\n