On the Construction of a Copper Armillary Sphere

Apart from making jewelry for Lithic Design, I have found over the past couple years that I really love making art objects.  Astronomical and nautical instruments have always fascinated me, so I figured an armillary sphere might be the perfect Summer project. 

Armillary spheres are representations of the celestial circles around the Earth.  For instance, these spheres usually have rings like an equatorial colura (measured in degrees with rotation around the North and South axes), an equatorial (measured in degrees with rotation around the East and West axes), and an ecliptic (a western zodiac symbol ring with a 23.4 -degree offset to match the earth's tilt).  

If that all sounds like gibberish to you, you're not alone.  It took a lot of research to figure out what these things symbolized and how they moved.  In the end I still don't really have a firm grasp on most of it.  After hours of researching and sketching, I decided that art value was more important than scientific, mechanical, and historical accuracy for this piece.  I would love to continue learning about these instruments and make a functioning sphere one day, but for now I'm quite happy with how this endeavor turned out.

Here's a look into how my armillary was constructed:

Sketches of the Rings and Sphere Setting

A much fancier stand than I actually created!  Maybe I'll swap it out in the future. 

Hand drawn details for the etching process

holes drilled, all resist applied before etching in ferric chloride

Looking back at this, I really could have just used the thermos body that came with the top...It sure does keep out particles though! 

Soldered eye pins

Rings soldered together and pins starting to be soldered in place

Salt and vinegar bath to clean up the base and rings 

I honestly regret not getting a picture of the riveting process for the body and base.  It was a ridiculous two-person act.

Finally finished up after more cleaning, a patina, and final polishing.

What's next?  I'm have astrolabes and nocturnals on the mind, so either of those might be in the queue.  

- Kaley

A Look Back at 2014

About a year ago I started the process of rebranding my business from "Odds and Ends by Kaley" to "Lithic Design".  I couldn't be happier with that decision.  When I first started selling on Etsy in 2010, I had no idea how much I would grow as an artist, and it's nice to finally have a name that fits so well for my store.  For those who aren't familiar with the term "Lithic," it refers to anything related to rock or stone. Fitting, no?

To back up even further, I'll add that I never expected anything to come out of my metals fabrication class five years ago.  Never would I have believed that I would have the workshop I do today.  2014 really brought my bench to life with the addition of some much needed improvements and additions, like a nicer torch, fume hood, and other various tools.  I can't really convey the pride I have in my bench setup or the fact that I was able to make it happen.

I am so incredibly grateful for all of my customers, friends, and family who have encouraged me over these years.  Without you, none of this would be a possibility.  Looking into 2015, I hope to create more beautiful pieces with settings that reflect the stones they feature.

I post very infrequently on here, but there are other ways to keep track of my new work, sales, and behind the scenes pictures:

Store: Lithic Design on Etsy (lithicdesign.etsy.com)

Facebook: facebook.com/lithicdesign

Instagram: ShopLithic

A huge thanks to all of you, and a Happy New Year!

- Kaley

Various Finishing Tools

Part of my craft show setup (though I only did one this year)

Packaging Station

Polishing. Forearm game is strong.

A messy bench shot

An Art Nouveau Inspired Ginkgo Crown

Recently, I've been obsessed with Art Nouveau- particularly the jewelry made by René Lalique.  Art nouveau takes inspiration from nature and curves, and Lalique's pieces are the epitome of that idea.  His work is often over-the-top but incredibly imaginative.  Another factor that drew me into Art Nouveau is that jewelers during this time period used semi precious gemstones more and more as opposed to precious stones like diamond and emerald.  Here are a couple head ornaments by Lalique that inspired me to make one of my own:

Source: http://maries-jewels-royals.blogspot.com/2012/01/artsy-tiaras.html
Tortoise Shell and Moonstones

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonycarr/3593670232/
Peacock hair brooch with opals

While being able to cast portions of the crown would have been wonderful, I figured I could make a version of my design with simple metalworking techniques.  Ginkgo leaves were the inspiration for my tiara:

A lot of redrawing/sanding/filing is involved in achieving just the right shape of ginkgo leaf.

Hand cut and engraved...

These pieces soldered on pretty easily, but I had trouble getting the smaller pieces to adhere to the base:

Please excuse my gross soldering block...

I finally decided on two simpler pieces so that I could solder bezel cups to the front.  Here's how it turned out after oxidizing and steel wool-ing:

Not so bad!  It's much simpler than my inspiration, but simplicity is sometimes a good thing.  I used a rainbow moonstone in the middle and a labradorite cabochon on either side.  Feldspar minerals are my favorite, and they go so well with earth toned copper.  

I'll keep this one for myself as a display piece, but I might consider selling some similar pieces in the future.

Keep on the lookout for new jewelry soon at Lithic Design!

-Kaley

Sunstone and Sterling Silver Ring Process Post

This started off as a normal post about my shop process, but as with most things in life, the outcome was a little unpredictable.  In all honesty, I think I'm happy with how the ring turned out, even if it isn't what I originally wanted.  Here's a little look inside my small workshop, and the process by which I make one of my sterling silver and gemstone rings.  I go into a bit of metalsmithing terminology, but I hope it will be easy enough to follow for anyone.

Sometime last week, I made a sketch of a ring for the Oregon Sunstone I ordered.  Since the stone is a rounded square (cushion) shape, I wanted to make something that reflected the shape, while still playing into the "sun" motif of the gemstone.

The first part of my soldering process for the day was cutting out two identical squares and filing the corners so that they were slightly rounded.  With one of the squares, I brought two pieces of hard solder to their melting point and removed the flame before they hit the flow point.

 That piece was thrown in the pickle, and the other square was stamped on my anvil with my Lithic Design maker's mark:

 Once the first square came out of the pickle, I layered the two squares on top of one another and sweat soldered them together before throwing them back into the pickle.

 The next step was to cut a bezel strip that would be just the right size for my sunstone.  I was out of 3mm bezel, so I cut a 5mm strip down instead.

Once cut and shaped to fit the stone perfectly, I soldered the bezel together using another pallion of hard solder.

Between this step and the next, I made four little silver spheres by heating pieces of wire to their melting point until they formed a ball.  Balling these on my soldering board helps create a flat back which is perfect for making spheres that are going to be attached to a sheet of silver.  For perfectly spherical granules you can use a ball bur to make a little round divot in a block of charcoal and melt a piece of metal in that.

The bezel I soldered was set on the two pieces of sweat soldered metal from before.  Very carefully, I placed four pieces of medium solder on the outside of all four corners of the bezel.  After the solder began to flow underneath all of the sides, I turned my flame off, re-fluxed, and placed a sphere on each corner of the top square.  I knew that I had just enough medium solder from the previous step to melt under all of the spheres.

Next up was to form the ring band.

I've been using precut strip for any plain ring bands I make.  It saves sooo much time. The last step was to solder the band to the back of the setting with easy solder.

After a pickling, I did some bristle clean up, filing, etc.-

Then the ring was finally ready to oxidize!

For my patinas, I use liver of sulfur in nugget form.  I decided to oxidize before setting the stone so that I could polish the metal under the stone.

It's a bit hard to tell in the picture, but it became apparent that one of the four spheres was yellow toned, even after washing the ring and brushing the oxidation off with steel wool.  I set the stone before re-evaluating the yellowish sphere, assuming that I could just polish the top layer off to a silver shine, mirroring the other three spheres. Unfortunately I couldn't, and I became increasingly frustrated with my futile efforts.

The only option I could think of was to oxidize the ring again and leave all of the spheres dark so they would match.  There was no hope in removing the stone.  To my dismay, everything turned black except for the one yellow sphere.  At that point, it became evident that the sphere wasn't silver.  I thought back to weeks ago when I was experimenting with the melting point of brass.  I must have picked up one of the spheres from that day without thinking.

At that point I was totally stuck, but after calming down a bit, I realized that it actually looked pretty interesting.  The contrasting brass and oxidized silver created an unexpected element to the ring that directly related to my geometric sun motif!

In the end, the ring wasn't what I wanted, but it was something unexpected and even beautiful in a way.

If you are interested in purchasing it, the ring is for sale on my Etsy.

-Kaley