Speaking of which, today was spent sun-up 'til sundown in the studio working. Normally I can spread my work between home, school, and in between home and school, but the nature of the beast kept me underground all day. That said, the good news is that over the course of the weekend I made advancements in my twenty-Persia-tiles project. And so here is a chronological picture list.
Beginnings
I have always been fascinated with the ancient Near-East; as a child it was primarily Egypt that I knew about, watching documentaries on the History channel about such things. Being Catholic, I also knew of Israel; but it was not until recently that I started to learn more about the interconnectdness of all of them, and it was actually through a story - Prince of Persia, the one released 2008 - that I started to get more interested in Persian history. The most influential designs came from these pictures. There were others, but these three were the most important, imagery-wise.
Unfortunately I do not remember where I found these images; please note that I do not own them.
Design
Ancient Persia has a rich and complex mythology. Perhaps one of the best examples of its mythology is Zoroastrianism, a forerunner of Judaism and Christianity, and named after its prophet, Zoroaster. As mentioned elsewhere on this blog, his proper name was probably Zarathustra; Zoroaster is likely a Hellenization. Zoroastrianism was a religion that clearly emphasized the difference between Good and Evil forces, and Zarathustra was keen on ending the paganism he saw around him, considering all gods but Ormazd to be servants of the evil Ahriman. Note that Ormazd did have servants of his own - the sx Immortals, among others. Sounds quite a bit like God and His angels arrayed against Satan and his Legion.
Onward
The actual work aspect of the project has been (as hopefully expected) the most challenging piece of the puzzle. I started with etching; I have been etching at home, and I am glad I did that. It has taken my etching far longer than the 1-2 hours that it should be taking. More like 5. Why so long, I do not know; perhaps it is just I am going for a deeper etch than other people.
Tiles post etching.
Tiles ready to be etched for rollerprinting.
Completed tiles. The Top Right tile of the second picture has been etched and solder inlaid in the eyeys and nose. Many of these have been patinaid with Liver of Sulfur
Etched and Solder Inlay. Not complete; after his eye is finished being sanded he will be patinaid like the others.
Rollerprinting
Rollerprinting is a relatively quick, easy, and painless process. It might take a few tries to get right, but each try is a sneeze considering the amount of work it takes for other jewelry processes. About the most involved thing one has to do might be a bit of annealing afterwards. This is why, when two of my other designs failed (miserably, I might add) I replaced them with rollerprints. I had originally intended three first-tier rollerprints and two second-tier rollerprints, but I ended up with five first-tier.
First-tier: when one uses a found object to create a rollerprint - straight from object to copper.
Second-tier: a rollerprint that started life as another jewelry process - I.E. a pattern cut out of a
brass sheet that is rolled over a sheet of copper to produce the final product.
My two second-tier rollerpints will come from these tiles after they are etched:
The First One
Indeed, this was the very first tile I made, shown here before it was fully done.
Left: the 'maquette'
Right: the finished First One
Three tries at another rollerprint. The far left was the one I ended up using.
The five finished first-tier rollerprints. All but the First One (bottomm right) also have a hammer texture.
Inlay
These two tiles have proven to be nothing but trouble. On the left we have the unfinished lamination inlay; on the right, the unfinished 'puzzle' inlay. Both are horrendous tasks. The puzzle was a failure three times in a row before it came to the form in the picture below; my first time around it melted halfway. Part of the lamination inlay melted as well. I had to fill holes in my puzzle inlay's silver flame. Hopefully when I grind it all down it will be all right; for now, it's a mess. I do not foresee myself ever using that puzzle technique. But those are often famous last words.
The solder inlay was challenging too, but it was a much easier inlay to get straight by simply dogging on. The othetr two, not so much. There is just something about inlay that seems to be tough.
The Road Goes Ever On
As Tolkien's famous Hobbit once said, the Road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began. I have finished a number of tiles, but there are more to be done. A chasing and repousse, finishing up my brass etches and their accompanying rollerprints, and the two inlay tiles above. A total of twelve tiles finished as of now, and eight in the works. Most of those eight are almost done, but for some grunt work. Hopefully it will all turn out; the next post on the subject will be a post of the finished product.
Sidenote: I have been documenting my work for this tile project, but I also did some investing today. Casting-investing, not money-investing. It just occured to me that I forgot to take pictures of my three models before I invested them; ah well, such is life I suppose. I can only hope the cast turns out; I also hope I invested it properly. I did it all by hand, following the McCreight book's directions on the subject, as I did not know how to use the machine. Hopefully....well, hopefully it will all turn out, as I have said multiple times. A lot is up in the air right now concerning this sort of thing.
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