electroformed hydrangea Rings

I was not sure about these electroformed hydrangeas when I was making jewellery and trying to incorporate them into designs, but after usin 2 of them to make rings that fit together I am pleased with how they look on the hand. My first hesitations were beacuse I was not sure if the flowers would look too stiff or "formal in metal" but now I like the way the flowers look as if they have been captured.

Hydrangeas

I cant beleive it, I thought I was the only jeweller who makes real hydrangeas out of metal but it turns out Im not. This jeweller is doing the same thing as I am doing but I also use electroforming. look http://www.etsy.com/transaction/28202959 .

hand made or electroformed

So there is a big difference between the hand made hydrangeas and the electroformed ones. I do enjoy bith but the have two very different feel about them. I think it is kind of funny that my electro formed hydrangeas are actually 1 step away from being real but they dont have that soft delicate feeling of the hydrangea, where as my hand made ones all together have the soft delicate characteristic of the real flowers even though I have stylised them. but then I could have just 1 electroformed hydrangea on a shank and it would look like a hydrangea, wherte as if I were to take just 1 of my versions of the hydrangea that I hand make it would not have as much of a feel of the real flower. This brings me to realise that my hand made hydrangeas get that " feeling" i want to create by grouping them together, so then is that the characteristic of the flower I am focusing on if they need to be bunched together? all along I have been trying to get the veined detail on the hand made ones where as that is not actually the main characteristic that gives them that feeling of being hydrangeas! complicated!

from here I want to explore using the tube and putting the hydrangeas on it and setting a little gem stone in the top of it.

Here is my latest hand made hydrangea piece:

creating rings from moulds of my electroformed then cast Hydrangeas

So for so long I have been trying to create a hydrangea exactly as it is in real life except in silver without casting it as I was not satisfied with the loss of detail that happened when casting. I have finally acheived my goal (i have taken so long to blog about it, I actually acheived it a while back!). Here are my pics of my silver hydrangeas:

The detail does not show in the picture. The shank i am testing out reminds me of a vase. I think I am going to explore further this vase idea!
Here's where I got my vase idea from. I placed my shank down on my desk and then realised!

casting electroformed hydrangeas

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electroformed hydrangeas

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electroformed hydrangea

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1st step silicone molds of electroformed Hydrangeas

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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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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.......

Other Jewellers that have used electroformimg

I am in the process of designing and trying to make a ring with a setting out of wax and then electroforming it but I have no idea how it will work. I have just seen on carrot box a lady who has been electroforming objects to make rings etc. look at the link below http://olgakosica.com/index.php/photos/album/25/photo/363.html
one of her rings with a setting is similar to what I am busy doing.

electroforming process- technique

The first electro forming I did was where I was taught by Kirsten at her and her dads workshop where she showed me their process of how they electro formed shoes for their business and she helped me elecrto form some leaves and flowers. I had prepared my very dried out hydrangea flower by dipping it in lacka (spelling?) and letting it dry as you can see below. I had already attached the copper wire to it making it part of the flowers conductor.

I love the crinkled up edges of a dried hydrangea! each flower has its own character as they each take a different shape when they dry.

Next I had to cover all the surface area of my hydrangea with conductive copper dust which can only be bought in KG's so Kirsten kindly gave me some! The flowers look so pretty in the copper paint! The sinker is to weigh the flower down so it does not float in the electroforming bath.

Now we had to wait to for it to dry..................

Electro-Forming- Technique

Iv tried casting, I'v tried making by hand and now I am on a new discovery of trying electro-forming! Just like electro-plating where you take a conductive object and you plate it with another metal using anodes and cathodes and positives and negatives ..... (I did not do science!!) But this is the tricky part, I am taking an organic object that has nothing conductive in it and i am copper plating it so it is actually being formed into metal by creating a metal cover over its outside, and what happens to the inside I donot know but am going to find out along the way!

A very lovely lady Kirsten has been extremely helpful by starting me off and teaching me a few things (alot of things) and even letting me use her electro bath and chemicals to help me start off my electro forming flowers. Her dad and her have a "Baby shoe" bronzing business and they have been sooo kind and helpful.

I have come across many challenges already and have not even properly started yet. It has been the most challenging process I have tried for my research so far just in terms of finding out scientific "stuff", having the guts to phone people I don't know and to ask questions and use equipment that is owned by someone else and then also trying to source products that come in kilograms when I need less than one thenth of that, but I was so greatful to find people that were so willing to help me.

So the next at least month is going to be some extensive testing and documenting to try and explore electro forming as much as I can. at the moment my only set back is that I need to get Plascon thinners and they only sell it in 10 leters and I need a cup of it! :)

today my challenge is to find out the ratio of copper sulphate to acid to water for a 1l beaker and not a 95 l bath. I have to do the math!! and I need to get that thinners!! And to start my first batch of electro plating at home!