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 it from the sheet and pressing it on top of the copper bird makes a very tight fit, then silver soldered permanently in place. The remaining little helmet crack over the beak will become one of my (in)famous repairs…
Imbedding the skull in pitch to chase and sharpen details, followed by rough carving the eye holes.
Freeing the skull from the copper sheet and beginning to prepare the titanium backplate…
Adding copper staples to repair the helmet axe damage (over the beak) and making tiny copper rivets with a miniature blacksmith’s nail header. Did I mention this is an inch and a half long?
Finished the skull and helmet, and starting engraving the skeletal wings and feathers. Another day or so to go…
Sculpting the titanium skeletal wings in Japanese-style shishiaibori (below the surface in-the-round) and detailing the feathers. One side finished
, one to go…
Finished! That ended up being a lot of engraving…feathers eat up a lot of time! Shown with a 20 inch leather cord.
Thanks for Looking!
Tom Sterling
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