Thursday 20 June 2013

Our Creative Space...


We were in İzmir last week. Usually we are there for 3 days, 2 nights, we shop till we drop for supplies and go back home. This time we were there for 1 week. Shopping went a little slower as we had more days, and I went every morning for about 5 hours to a silver smith's atelier to learn to work with silver.


 The atelier was incredibly shabby (without any chicness) but amazing stuff comes out of it. The silver smith himself was very patient with me and offered me lots of help, advice and tips and after 6 days I've already learned alot.


 Here a peak to the old fashioned tools.


 Here often molds are used to make lots of  the same model at once, after that only small details have to be soldered. They use the disappearing wax technique for that. So for each silver piece a wax piece has to be made. Once enough of the wax pieces are made they are attached to a tube and then put in to some kind of pipe. The pipe is then filled with plaster and this is burned in the oven. In the oven the wax disappears and a large plaster mold remains for lots of pieces at once, this is filled with sterling silver and ones cooled of there are dozens of rings or whatever kind of piece was molded.


 I didn't learn this wax technique as what I will make of silver won't be made in large quantities besides they will be made according to shells, stones and other natural shaped objects. But it was fun to find out how this system works.


 I took a bunch of eye of shiva shells with me, and created bezels for them.



 After the bezels are soldered I saw them in the shape I wanted.


 And here is a sneak peak of the first pieces I made.



 Slowly more will appear in the shop :)


See more creative spaces at Our Creative Spaces.   

9 comments:

  1. I always think silversmithing is magical!
    Beautiful bezels!

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  2. So pretty! Congratulations:)

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  3. WOW Estella, you are such a fast, talented learner!!! You are great at silversmithing already, the bezels are gorgeous!
    I found the pink wax rings in the silversmith's atelier so cute ;)
    xoxo

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  4. Magical! beautiful bezel, amazing post...

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  5. Love this post! First I thought it was your studio, and I was surprised to see how much it had changed :D. Would love to see that wax technique live, might look in up on youtube, maybe someone uploaded something... It's so interesting.
    And about those shells - I thought at first they were Creme Brulee, the dark brown ones, and then that they were something that you'd burned in order to have them this color and to have this effect :D
    Very cool :)

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  6. Oh wow, your new silver pieces look fantastic!

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  7. How cool! I envy you and hope one day I also will take a class for silversmithing!

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  8. Wow, Estella, Its amazing!!! Id love to learn such things also!!! Love your new items!

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  9. A very well spent week. I like that work bench with all the extra curves and knobs and worn years of use.

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