A Week of Making Hair Forks
Metalwork is my favorite of all the handcrafts I do. It began when I was small, and there were two things that sparked it. The first, was my grandfather.
Both of my paternal grandparents were silversmiths during the Depression. They supported themselves and their parents with their work for years. Working in Silver City in CT, mainly silver plating, they were involved more in industrial silver work through that time.
As time moved on, my grandfather went to work for Pratt&Whitney. He began machining metal for air craft through WWII, and ended up working for them until he retired. His older brothers fought in all the wars, but he was not allowed to go because of the bloodline rules.
Anyways, his workbench in the basement fascinated me, but what hooked me was one day when he was out replacing a rotted board on a step out back. I was hovering, watching him pull up the old board, flip it over and put it on a brick, and tap the old nails out. I didn't speak much back then, but I watched...and he knew, so he would watch my expression and answer my questions.
He explained that so long as the metal nail was in one piece, it was still good. He showed me how he put it on the brick and straightened it, and then I followed him into the basement (hoping to get a glimpse of the brown cow under the stairs that made chocolate milk, but it was elusive). He turned on his grinding wheel and I watched him sharpen the tip of each nail, and then drop them into a coffee can. Then we went back out and the nails worked just like new.
Somehow he 'forgot' a can of bent nails outdoors under the porch, and a hammer. I was maybe 4 or so, so I figured no one knew what I was doing ;) and I spent weeks out there figuring out how to straighten those nails.
The second thing that hooked me, was finding a few ball bearings. They were so smooth and heavy, and so different in every way from the nails...I wanted to know how to transform the nails into those shiny smooth bearings...and that has become my favorite part of metalwork. Watching the transformation, from raw metal or wire, moving and shaping it, and then to polish it. It still feels like magic!
This, is what a week of making hair forks looks like...
Day 1 cutting the wire...
Day 2 is bending...
Day 3 until they are finished, I hammer...This type of hammering is called Chasing, where you actually move and shape the metal with the hammer...
Near the end of the week, I have to grind the ends to make them smooth. This is the prep stage for the final polishing...
I don't have photos of the polishing stages, but there are a few, and they take another 2 days minimum to finish...
https://www.etsy.com/shop/silverdawnjewelry?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
Thanks for reading...I hope you enjoyed :)
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STOPThose are beautiful! Where do you find the marbles? Resteemit to show more of your talents to others!
Thanks Weetree :) I either use stone spheres, or find people who do glass blowing and can make them from their scrap glass...and a few who just make alot of them. Often I will have limited styles because I can oly get a few of a given sphere.
The ones in the pic are fantastic!
I love this! I love hair forks!! Beautiful sharing. <3
Thank you Safiyah, I sell them here if you want to try one https://www.etsy.com/shop/silverdawnjewelry?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
English version below
Vraiment superbe!! Je travail aussi un peu le métal, surtout l'acier inoxidable. Mais je ne connais pas les techniques pour le faire, j'ai appris par moi-même par essai et erreur. J'en fais des bracelets et des boucles d'oreilles. Je n'ai jamais essayé cette technique que tu appelles chasing. Cela donne vraiment un bel effet! Je crois que je vais tenter l'expérience la prochaine fois que je vais m'installer pour travailler le métal. En ce moment je suis surtout dans mes projets de jardin et de dessins! :-) Merci pour le partage de ton travail! Bonne journée!
Really gorgeous!! I also work metal, especially stainless steel. But I do not know the techniques to do it, I learned by myself by trial and error. I make bracelets and earrings. I have never tried this technique that you call chasing. This really gives a nice effect! I think I'll try the next time I settle down to work the metal. At the moment I am mostly in my projects of garden and drawings! :-) Thanks for sharing your work! Have a good day!
Thank you NS, you can find youtube videos on chasing I think. It takes years to get it right, but once you start, just don't give up. It is the subtle angles of the hammer that move the metal, and then learning by feel exactly where to hit the metal and how hard, to get it to go where you want. Good luck!
Thank you for those explanations. :-) I will do my best and learn!!
Nice post. I just Followed you. Please follow me.
Thank you Shada...
Fascinating. Do you use other metals? My sister used to make metal bonsai trees and used semi-precous stones for the leaves. She twisted the wires around the stones, then twisted the wires together to make branches and the trunk of trees. Then she would glue the tree on a piece of driftwood or granite. I love your work as a wearable piece of art.,
Hi Kate :) Yes, I make them in nickel, bronze and some styles in brass...Brass is the softest of the 3 metals though, so I make more in nickel and bronze.
I have made custom forks in sterling before, and I make other jewelry in sterling, but try to stick to 90% recycled.
I Love those trees! I used to have one that a man I knew years ago made :) I used it for many years as a display for earrings when I did craft fairs, and then it lived in a window for more years until one of my daughters adopted it.
<3 Those are beautiful hair pins. I chopped my locks really short (pixie cut) but your pieces made me miss having long hair.
Oh, yeah...long hair is such a part of us. I chop my hair every few years and then always miss it while it is short...but then it grows.