Hey all! I was discussing an art project I’m working on with John, who was showing me the ropes with the gas forges last week. During that conversation he recommended getting in touch with this group since I’m working with non-ferrous metals.
Here’s the original inspiration for the piece I’m doing. I won’t be doing anything approaching this level of detailed embossing, but the template for it will be the same: 7 or 8 plates soldered together around a metal base. I’d like for the piece to be close to this aesthetically, particularly the bronze sheen and being mostly metal. It will be the container for a glasswork geometric piece that will go inside the “well”.
At first I was thinking of re-forging copper/bronze/brass plates into the sides, and similar for the base. That would of course require a lot of physical labor, and I have about 6 weeks left to work on it.
Last night the idea occurred to me that I could possibly just plate over existing metal, for instance, taking a stop sign (zinc-aluminum) and somehow plating it bronze. Obviously this has it’s own challenges!
I found this bronze plating kit, which is a bit pricey ($150 for 1.5 gal), and I’m not 100% sure that would be enough to plate the entire piece (possibly ~25 square feet just for the sides @ 24x19" for each of 8 plates).
If anyone has any ideas or input, I’d greatly appreciate it!!