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The Making of a Vessel-
"Caught in the Current"

First a circle must be sawn out of a sheet of copper.
I then file the sharp edges, and mark concentric circles
on the outside of the bowl so I can keep track of each
round of hammering.

The circle is "raised" over metal stakes, using special forming hammers.
The circle of copper can be sunk first in a bowl shaped depression made
in wood, to speed the shaping process. Sorry, I didn't have pictures of
that step.

The copper becomes work hardened by the hammering, so in between
courses of hammering the copper must be annealed with a torch to
soften the metal, making it more pliable. It is then soaked in a mild
acid bath called "pickle". This eats off the black, sooty oxidation that
occurs with annealing which is called firescale.

The vessel is also "bouged" in between courses. This
means its shape must be refined as the heavy hammering
sometimes leaves the vessel lumpy. The mushroom
stake that I used to refine the shape can been seen
underneath the bowl.

I fill the vessel with a tarlike substance called pitch. This allows me to
hammer the outside of the bowl to make heavy grooves. The pitch
cools and provides resistance so the bowl keeps its basic shape.

Here you can see the pitch filling the cavity. I like to sit in a comfortable
chair and hammer against a sandbag on my knees. I am a little unusual
that way. I may have to anneal, pickle and refill the bowl four or more
times before this stage is finished. Emptying the pitch out takes 20+
minutes since the pitch is flammable and must be heated and poured out
slowly. Then the piece is pickled to clean it and then refilled with pitch
another 30 minutes or so. I usually have to let the piping hot pitch cool
before I am able to handle the bowl and before it is the right hardness
for hammering.

Here is a view of the piece after I have emptied out the pitch and sawn
the decorative edge. To get to this stage often takes me four days or so.
I can only hammer for about 45 minutes before my hands need a rest.
The fastest I've ever raised, shaped and enamelled a bowl was three days.
I usually work in intervals around other projects and plan cooling times
around meals and my schedule. I can't fill the bowl with pitch and let it
cool too much in the early stages. It must be worked while warm or it gets
too hard to make deep grooves. However, if I am only refining and
planishing out areas to make finer hammer marks, then I need the pitch
cool, so that it is hard and very resistant.

Here's another view of the inside.

This is a view after I've begun drilling holes around the edge.

Here you can see the copper branches I made which I later threaded
through the holes at the edge.

The vessel here has received its first layer of vitreous glass enamel on
the interior. You can see a red sieve of blue powdered glass enamel
which I use to sift on the glass.

Glass has been sifted onto the exterior of the bowl
(that's the powdery blue color). It's held in place
by first spraying with a clear glycerin-like product
made for enamels called klyr fire. I am holding it
to steady it on the wire trivet as I carry it to the kiln
behind me.

The bowl going into the kiln. The interior has been fired already and
appears green, the outside is covered in the powdered glass.

Inside the hot kiln,over 1500 degrees Farenheit.

The red hot bowl cooling on the counter.

Half cooled, it turns an olive green, but will ultimately
cool to a teal blue and green color.

After the final kiln firing, the branches are attached by tension.

The bowl almost ready for electroforming. Electroforming is a type of
heavy plating using copper. The copper is grown on exposed metal in
an acid bath using electric current. This produced the gnarly organic
growth on the branches.

Here you can see the electroforming tank, buss bars with the anodes
which are attached to a rectifier and a filtering system.

The bowl is suspended in the bath and connected to the buss bars. Current
is run throughout and copper molecules will be deposited on the exposed
edges and branches of the bowl. The final steps are, neutralizing the acid,
cutting off the connecting wires, and then patina is applied to the copper.

After many days the final product!