Friday Feelings!

[The Justified Sinner]

But not in a bad way. 

I received an email from the editor of 18kt website today. The editor, Marta Sanchez, had just written an article on my excellent friend and colleague in Italy, János Gábor Varga and he recommended her to contact me, which was generous as well as flattering, so there will soon be an interview on the website. 

 

The idea of inviting a maker to name her or his favourite three makers for inclusion in an article is a good one and possibly a fun project for Crafthaus in some way... I'll leave that out there for people to consider.

 

Got quite a lot of work done on Fashion:Victim today, though it is all a bit slow-going as I'm having to wait until the middle of October for an element of the piece to be carved in Whitby jet by the marvellous Kevin Dixon at 105 Jet in Whitby (it is actually great to hear that he is so busy that he can't manage it until then: so many people are in exactly the opposite situation at the moment). Today, the settings were all affixed to the bangle and it was cut and the hinge begun:

 

 

Although I'm clear about the basic ideas for the piece and the drawings have been done, there are some practical aspects which are vexing; I wanted these tiny raptor claws made in sintered zirconium oxide, which is the material used for dental implants:

 

 

Unfortunately the lab I contacted couldn't make them hollow in the way I wanted, so I've had to think about making them in silver. I milled this one out today:

 

 

I'll cast this, then modify the casting, take a rubber and re-cast it so that I can cover the sphere with the tiny claws (unless I can find another lab to make the zirconia ones).