FMP Heating and Moulding 20th April

Heating and Moulding   20th April

With less than three weeks to go till the deadline of the project, I have no time to lose. I wanted to start making today so I got to college early to sort out what I have to do. It's important to organise your work load so that you can plan out a time scale to ensure you can complete everything.

After a quick talk with the tutors, I could get right into my work. The first thing to sort out was the copper heating. Having already cut out my template on Friday, I saved myself a lot of time so that I could get right into the making.

I needed to start today with the heating of the thicker copper sheets so that it was softer for me to mould.

Before I started heating the copper, I first ground some borax flux in water to make a paste. I then painted a thin layer of borax flux onto the surface of the copper. This helps change the colour when heated, while the paste burns off the chemical reaction of the two leaves the copper with a different texture to it than if it was just heated normally. I placed the copper on the stone bench with a blowtorch heating it for the copper to change colour. This was about 3 to 5 minutes. The colour of the copper changes depending on the time you heat it. This means that no two copper pieces can be the same, which fits in with my project perfectly.

I heated two pieces of copper using this technique so that I could see the difference in the metals depending how long its heated.

Once the copper was heated, I could quickly place the hot copper piece into some water. Leaving the copper to cool for a minute or two, I could remove it and be ready for the next step.

Having the now softer copper ready, I could place it into the wooden template. I marked out where I need to drill the holes for the screws to hold it in place. I could then start the hard task of hammering out the shape I wanted using some of the larger stamps the college has, but also the ones I made myself.

It is a slow process, but I found it a lot easier to do with the thicker copper. I was less likely to puncture the copper while hammering it out. I was also able to make more of a dramatic raised surface than with the thinner copper. As I was using the stamps, the copper was getting more difficult to raise the surface as the copper was becoming harder while I continue to work the metal. This wasn't as much as a worry with the thicker copper as it was able to take more impact than the first test piece I did.