Author Archives: brucep3

It’s TeaTime! Silver Tea Caddy Spoons

3 Replies

Sterling Silver Tea Caddy spoons. (AU$280 )
These spoons make a beautiful gift that will be used and cherished for a lifetime… and for tea lovers, that’s every day. The perfect gift for any occasion, individualy hand crafted from solid Sterling Silver, sand-cast, forged and fabricated, each one a treasure. For him or her or both.
#teacaddyspoon #maketeanotwar @hammerandhandbangalow @hammerandhand_hobart @byron.bay.nsw @byronshireartstrail.com @byronshireartstrail #letshavetea #housewarminggift #weddinggift #giftideas #tea #teatime #silverspoon #silverspoons #metalsmith #metalartist #teatime #house #home #handmadecutlery #handmadegifts #handcraftedspoon #handcrafted #hand #sandcast #blacksmith #thylacine #rabbit #hare #tassietiger 

SAVE THE DATE! 5pm Friday 16th August 2019

Leave a reply

DSC04634.JPG

Save the date!

           FLUXED

5pm FRIDAY 16TH AUGUST 2019
Hammer & Hand Jewellery & Metal Collective Byron Bay members are presenting their annual exhibition of new works.
 
            Save the date!

flux | flʌks | noun1 [mass noun] the action or process of flowing or flowing out: the flux of ions across the membrane. • Physics the rate of flow of a fluid, radiant energy, or particles across a given area. • the amount of radiation or particles incident on an area in a given time. • the total electric or magnetic field passing through a surface. 2 Medicine an abnormal discharge of blood or other matter from or within the body. • (usually the flux) archaic diarrhoea or dysentery. 3 [mass noun] continuous change: since the fall of the wall Berlin has been a city in flux | the whole politicalsystem is in a state of flux. 4 a substance mixed with a solid to lower its melting point, used especially in soldering and brazing metals or to promote vitrification in glass or ceramics. • a substance added to a furnace during metal–smelting or glass-making which combines with impurities to form slag. verb [with object] treat (a metal object) with a flux to promote melting. ORIGIN late Middle English: from Latin fluxus, from fluere ‘to flow’.


instagram  @hammerandhandbyronbay

Sand Casting Jewellery Lessons in Byron Bay

Leave a reply

 

Bruce Pringle is teaching one on one Sand Casting Jewellery Lessons in Byron Bay!

Melt and pour!

Melt and pour!

The lesson consists of three hours intensive, one on one instruction, with a further 2 hours of supervised solo practice.  

Full Fee, $300, includes materials.

Book now , call 0409960614 or Email bruce@brucepringle.com

The Lesson

A “one on one” lesson in traditional Jewellery sand casting techniques that will result in competency in the basic techniques.

This lesson consists of three hours intensive instruction, with a further 2 hours for solo practice with Bruce available to answer questions as needed, for a cost of $300

He teaches the technique of sand casting jewellery, using “green” sand.

This is similar to the popular proprietary product, “Delft Clay”,(an oil sand), sold in most jewellery supply shops.

Green sand (so named because it is wet, like green wood is wet), Is made up of a fine sand with a percentage of Bentonite clay. (between 5% and 15%, depending on the sand) and a little water to make it damp.

Bruce will start with a demonstration of the process of packing the “master” into the flask through to pouring the molten metal.

You will work side by side with Bruce, to make and pour your own casting… This will be repeated twice.

Your first piece cast will be of a small hare, in bronze and the second, a plain silver ring.

After this, you will have the opportunity to further practise the skill for a couple of hours, using your own “master”.

(This “master” could be something like an ornate button you may have, a seed pod, a medallion or something similar).

Once, having achieved competency, the average time taken to complete a casting, from packing the flask to pouring the metal is about 30 minutes.

* In foundry work, the terms cope and drag refer respectively to the top and bottom parts of a two-part casting flask. The flask is a wood or metal frame, which contains the molding sand, providing support to the sand as the metal is poured into the mold.

About Bruce Pringle, Metalsmith

Bruce is an experienced and passionate teacher and a self taught metal smith of some 40 years experience. 

A jewellery maker, Silversmith, a Decorative Blacksmith (30 years), a knife maker, foundry worker, (both sand casting and lost wax), Steel and Bronze sculptor, Stainless steel utensil maker, skilled in electro etching, welding and Plasma cutting.

Affordable Housing

Leave a reply

Everyone wants a home… Investment opportunity … Somewhere to shack up with your sweetheart…If my sweetheart wore this on a chain around her beautiful neck, thats where i’d make my home!

Home sweet home, Sand cast silver pendant

Home sweet home, Sand cast silver pendant

 

The Three Hares

Leave a reply

“The Three Hares”… an ancient symbol found painted at the apex of many of the ninety or so Buddhist caves at the eastern end of the Silk Road in western China, dating from around the 4th century AD. They are also carved into the doors and alters of Christian churches in England, from around 1500 I think…?… adopted by Tin miners as their symbol at around that time too. Mystery as to the meaning… I reckon, because of their shared ears, that knowledge needs to be shared for the wheel of the dharma to continue to turn… What thinks’t Thou?… Sand cast in Sterling Silver or my “custom” bronze with a little fine silver in the alloy mix.

I’m working a new medium into my work.. CONCRETE!

Leave a reply

Wanting to add volume and envious of ceramic but wary of the fragility, I have turned to concrete… The Ancient Egyptians  and the Romans used it and combined with metal (ie Fero-cement), It is proving to be just what I’m looking for.

The concept behind these pieces, (not the horned beast, though), is around the idea that after the Big Bang.. the elements, up to iron (Fe 26) were the first to seed the universe and with Iron and Calcium (Ca 20) being so plentiful on earth… and Iron being Blood (Hemoglobin, Hgb, is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of all vertebrates) and Calcium being bone… We are still banging on.

So!… in our journey to subtler states, we of Blood and Bone are journeying “Toward Completion” … which is the title of the two figures… one Red and the other White.

(The horned beast is titled “The beast that mistook the moon for its lover”…and is also fero-cement,  with gold leaf on steel for the moon).

Honey Bee, you are driving me crazy! Sand-cast silver

Leave a reply