11-15-2009, 01:19 AM
All the small marks on the abdomen are from my raising hammer, illustrating just how much working properly shaping the abdominal section was; next time I'll be a bit more gentle though as removing all those hammer marks wasn't fun LOL
An initial sanding (second photo) shows just how much hammering went into shaping the piece and just how much bouging (hammering out imperfections from the back) and planishing (smoothing from the front) is necessary. The thing looks like it has some kind of weird camouflage pattern, no?
After an eternity of bouging and planishing, the surface was more-or-less smooth enough to allow for grinding that wouldn't have to remove half the metal's thickness to get good surface; the mor worked sections clearly have more deep spots from the hammer and are a real pain to work out. I used a flap sanding disc and a regular one on my angle grinder to do the primary and secondary grinding. I also made a test epomidis and test nipples in annealed brass (to look bronzy), and punched in the umbilicus using a shaped steel rod, hammering it on the front, then only at the top edge from the back to make the 'overhang' and then with a ball pein hammer struck the centre to make it very slightly convex. I also had to hammer out the perimeter a little with the heavy domed hammer since it took rather a lot of force to impress the initial shape and while there is a bit of concavity just around the umbilicus on many artifacts, it's easy to introduce more than is needed. Next time I'll make a shaped wooden form with a cutout make it easier.
An initial sanding (second photo) shows just how much hammering went into shaping the piece and just how much bouging (hammering out imperfections from the back) and planishing (smoothing from the front) is necessary. The thing looks like it has some kind of weird camouflage pattern, no?
After an eternity of bouging and planishing, the surface was more-or-less smooth enough to allow for grinding that wouldn't have to remove half the metal's thickness to get good surface; the mor worked sections clearly have more deep spots from the hammer and are a real pain to work out. I used a flap sanding disc and a regular one on my angle grinder to do the primary and secondary grinding. I also made a test epomidis and test nipples in annealed brass (to look bronzy), and punched in the umbilicus using a shaped steel rod, hammering it on the front, then only at the top edge from the back to make the 'overhang' and then with a ball pein hammer struck the centre to make it very slightly convex. I also had to hammer out the perimeter a little with the heavy domed hammer since it took rather a lot of force to impress the initial shape and while there is a bit of concavity just around the umbilicus on many artifacts, it's easy to introduce more than is needed. Next time I'll make a shaped wooden form with a cutout make it easier.
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