An Electroformed flower about to be heated

I am going to heat this flower but am going to heat it with a flame that has very little oxygen to see if it will stop the lacker in side the copper shell from reacting and splitting the flower open in half

heated electroformed flower

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electroforming and heat: The flower split into two

The flower now has a brittle feel. I have come to a realisation that i cannot solder with these electroformed flowers so I'll have to think of a good way to attach them to the piece of metal(?) that I want to use. I need to make a whole lot more!!

electroforming and heat!

So i've crossed a problem in my journey of electroforming flowers, when i try to heat up the electroformed flower a reaction between the heat and the lacker takes place and the flower splits in to two, horizontally, leaving it looking very beautiful yet incredibly delicate. the funny thing is that it is the exact look i was looking for yet 100 times more delicate than i thought!

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Busy

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Plastic hydrangeas

I am trying dying plastic and recording which plastic I used to keep a record of it for future use! I enjoy the way that i can see through some of the plastics.

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Crit

I had such a nice talk with Brenda. One way I could strengthen my hydrangeas that have been electro formed and burnt away is by adding a layer of clear enamel to the back and the front of the enamel and to see what colour comes out they could be really beautifully enamelled! I need to stop worrying about the jewellery form that is going to be created around the hydrangeas and just start exploring more with my electro forming by experimenting a whole lot more. There is no problem with my work being very delicate, who ever buys it if they do will just have to be careful. I need to not focus on the metal thickness es and just start enjoying my process of electro forming and the element of surprise in it!
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The process of my electroforming- techniques

So there are lots of chemicals, lots of science and a whole lot more. So I started out with tech's rectifier which is normally used to electro plate. I did not do science at school so this has been quite a challenge as I did not even know that somwthing called a cathode and anode even existed. I mixed up my electro bath chemicals, got my object lackered and then painted with copper dust to make it conductive and started the whole process. But the process never started as I could not get any amps on the amp meter, I could only get vaults. After sitting on the couch hoping things would some how get better, I phoned my dad to ask what the solution was but the only thing he could think of was to tell me to check if there was current in both the negative and positive conductors. After a whole lot of experimenting on possible reasons why the rectifyer did not have any amps. I by chance tried adding another piece of copper from the cathode to the actual object I was electroforming and the amps shot up! I was so delighted! obviously there was not enough connection. I then ended up setting the amps to 2 amps and I completely burnt the flower causing it to get balls of copper on it that flaked off.

Copper conductive dust

The rectifier I am using

electro bath- becareful!

Conductive flower

Wait and see.......

The viability of my work?

wow big word... at the moment my greatest point of interest or concern (I dont like that word as i feel it brings a negativity to the issue) is how can I make jewellery that is sellable but still has my own hand made delicate feel in it that my work has at the moment. I feel like I need to create work that looks very delicate just like my hydrangeas do but is not really that delicate when handling it. I dont even know if it is possible because as soon as I start adding more thickness to metal it changes the feel of my flower. one of the main characteristics I focus on in the hydrangea flower is the delicacy of the veins and the thinness of the petals. I feel like I will sell these pieces of jewellery more if they were not so delicate but then I would be changing my jewellery and the designs that make my jewellery mine. ????