Metalwork: Recycling a cat food can

 I decided to use empty washed out cat-food cans, because we have four cats, so the cans are readily available  and are always just put in the recycling bin, so I wanted to use them to make something new. After looking at leaves, I decided to use the ridges that go around the can for the veins of the leaves. I cut diagonally across the ridges of the can, then cut out the two halves of the leaf. 

I used a punch and a hammer to make holes in either side of the leaf, then used wire to attach them together neatly. I made three leaves in this way, and when they are all put together I think they would make a nice necklace, or brooch.

 Next I used the base of the can, which is thicker than the sides and has circular grooves, and put enamel powder into the centre circle and put it into the enamel kiln.

 When I took it out and it cooled, I made a copper wire flower shape, based on the centre of the pink flower, and put it onto the enamel, then put it back into the kiln to melt the enamel again, so the wire would sink into it and would hold  it firmly. I then used white enamel powder around the wire part, so a little bit of the yellow was still visible through it.

 I wanted to also colour the outer grooves, but not to cover up the whole of the surface, because I wanted it to have the mix of old metal with new enamel. I used white and red enamel because there was no pink, and think it has worked well. I have not used enamel before this, and think my outcome is very successful in showing the mix of old with new, and also making a new object from an old one. This could be used as a decorative object on its own, or could be made into a brooch or necklace.

I then tried to make something from a can base that didn't include using any new materials, so I decided to use some paper clips and a drawing pin, to add to the can as decoration. I think this worked well because all of the materials are shiny metal, and are designed to be functional not decorative so using them in this way is interesting. I have bent the paper clips so they look like the flower petals, and also used shears to cut the edge into petal shapes.

Metalwork: Surface and texture

In metalwork, we are still in the skills building stage of our course, but I also wanted to link my experiments to my theme of things people have left behind, so some of my pieces include footprints and fingerprints.

Thumb prints made from varnish, which I then put in acid, so the surface was eaten away, but the parts with varnish on stayed shiny. I used a blow-torch to colour the rest of the metal, to contrast with the shiny tin.

The next technique I tried was reticulation, which is heating the metal until it almost melts, which forms a 'skin' on the surface of the metal, which crinkles and textures the surface of the metal. I like this technique but I found it quite difficult to do and accidently melted right through the metal at one point.

Next I used the metal roller. I used a craft knife to cut a fingerprint pattern from paper, which I then put onto the metal and rolled it, so the paper left an imprint on the metal. I think this is a good technique because it can create very detailed textures and patterns.

This is an acid etched piece, I used part of a footprint as the pattern, as if somebody had stood on it by accident.

More acid etching, but I hammered the metal before, so it is not smooth, but dimpled as well as patterned and coloured with the acid and blow-torch.

A lace imprint on tin using the metal roller. I have been looking at fabric/textile imprints in ceramics so decided to try in metal.

Using punches on annealed copper to create footprints, I like the very detailed patterns on some of the punches, and they reminded me of the tread patterns on boots so I tried to make boot prints.

More punching into copper, using a spiral that reminded me of an ammonite fossil. As well as a nice pattern, I feel this photo is also quite a good piece of art on its own.