The Metal Artist Forum

Enjoy!

http://www.metalartistforum.com/demos/12...atlog6.htm

Thanks for posting this Matt.
It's hard for me to join these due to the fact I work so early in the A.M. I do so enjoy reading through them as I have time.
Thanks,
Tom

I just went through the whole demo again, very informative! Sigh...more things on my "To Try" list now

Saign, I have a couple questions, since I couldn't get my chat room window working right the night of the demo...

When you say a piece begins to "taco", I assume that means that it folds up like a taco shell?

Also, when you are flattening the piece with a rawhide or dead blow hammer, what is the purpose of that? is that because the piece gets warped when you remove it from the pitch? Are you supposed to avoid hammering on the design area or are you flattening that too?

Thanks for taking the time to do a fantastic demo Saign. Great work too! The photos and clear explanations make me want to give it a try. Thanks to Matt for his effort as well.

thanks
Shawn, That is exactly what I meant when I said taco, as when you do any hammering on metal it is going to want to move in other places besides where you want it to, from the molecules compressing. So after each pass the piece will be warped an out of shape from working it. That is why you use pitch instead of lead, because the pitch acts like an adhesive as well as a backing. And that is also why you use a soft hammer to flatten it. The work should be stiffer than the rest of the peice due to work hardening but try and just unwarp the peice(if thats a word?) with soft blows

Hi Saign,

I just read through this whole demo. Great! Thanks for the effort and content!

I have very little experience with Reposse'. Several years ago a bunch of the MetalMeet crowd got together to make copper weathervanes. We got some pitch but I don't remember where. It's black and stinks...kind of like tar smell.

What I noticed in your talk was that apparently the RED pitch is softer when at room temp and the black stuff is more brittle at room temp. When we were working on the weathervanes we kept having to heat the pitch as it got hard.

I guess my question for Saign and others is, please talk some more about pitch.

heres one
here
here
another
another
another
another
This should fill in some blanks for you. If you want more there was 5 pages of threads with pitch in them,running a one word search.

Thanks Glen. I should have done a search first myself.

The black pitch was probably roofing pitch and can be had at any roofing supply house. It's cheaper, readily available, and more cost effective for large pieces. It also stinks more and is a PITA to clean off. I'm using a large pitch frame filled with black pitch borrowed from my repousse instructor right now. It does seem to get a little more brittle but can be softened easily by putting it out in the sun - at least that works great here in Florida at this time of year

Thanks Kerry. The red pitch can be somewhat brittle as well. It moves well slowly. If you have shallow relief it would be great. If your planning to do all of monique's face on it, you'll have to reset a ton of times.

My suggestion is: Raise a dome as you started in your first attempt. The highest point being the tip of the nose. Push down the rest of the features using metal stakes, shaped blocks of hardwood whatever, until the shape gets very close. You might have to go back and forth a couple times to get the correct shape, but at least this way you maintain thickness throughout, with alot less chance of splitting. Then buy some of the northwest medium( its cheaper than the red) and do the last final details in the pitch. In 90 degree temp the medium is pretty soft. You can stiffen it up by putting it in the fridge periodically or can stiffen it up wit a little plaster dust. Just add a little at a time while molten until you get your desired consistency. My two cents