The Making of Wire

Ancient way of making wire:

1.Bash out a blob of gold into a flat sheet, ( use a smooth rock for an anvil)

2.Chisel off a strip, ( A stone chisel is ideal (!))

3.Roll strip between two hard surfaces- (perhaps two stone blocks)

The strip will roll/twist into a round wire.

So thats what I did. ( see gold earrings above on green)

(actually, I used clay bricks instead of rocks. And a steel chisel. Sorry)

The result:

grosso modo ma bella!

Drawn wire (the current typical method of wire production) is passé!

Well, its very predictable anyway.

Still the history is also interesting. (WARNING: goldsmithing geekiness ahead)

Theophilus' Treatise (early 12th Century) is thought the first technical description of wire drawing.

A solid rod of metal is pulled through a series of conical holes in an iron block,to make thinner and longer.

A page of Theo's ramblings in german, in case you didn't follow my description.

AD 1389. the first illustration of wire drawing? ( Mendel Bros.)

Workshop of 1576. Note the draw-table with crank wheel (apprentice-powered) on the left. Different draw plates on the wall. Drooby hats and hosiery for all. (Stephanus)

1698. The illustration is more sophisticated, but the wire-making is essentially the same. This wire-drawing workshop has a nice wheeled draw-table, and... drooby hats. No puffy shouldered tunics though. (probably for the best )

Note draw plates on floor. (Weigel)

Historical info from here

Andrew Oddy (British Museum)

OK!

Yawn.

Silver Dust Fusion!

This is a detail of a blackened silver brooch I made a while back. Its all hand fabricated, rather than a cast burn-out of a real plant... I snipped the buds out of really thin sheet with little scissors and then scored texture on them with a pin. They are about 5 to 8mm across. Can you see the fine, grainy texture in the stems and so on? ( click to enlarge) This is done by heating up the silver 'til the surface is just melting- flashing- then at that exact moment, sprinkling on silver dust! The dust fuses to the momentarily molten surface! Yikes! ( its tricky- you might melt the whole lot, the sheet is ≈0.1 mm thick dude!) ( just incase you thought I wasnt much good)

While I might be congratulating myself on this technical prowess, in Actuality, I havent been able to get any one to buy this piece, so it has been languishing in a box... in my workshop... for ages... maybe its too delicate? sigh.