Piles of cast components are rather exciting in and of themselves.
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| cast leaf components, 3 sizes |
Suddenly the entire idea of breaking designs into components seems so obvious. Why didn't I do this before? Not only did I mold leaves in three sizes, but I cast my simple rock rose in three sizes as well.
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| cast rock rose components, 3 sizes |
To work with the drawings I made before, I must combine these components in various ways.
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| leaf design #9 |
For many of the designs I need "stems," so I formed two different lengths in sterling clay, fired, finished, and molded those as well, again allowing for extra shrinkage.
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| long and short stem models, after molding |
Once I have quantities of these components to work with, the fun begins. I dump them out on my work surface and start experimenting with different arrangements.
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| experimenting with designs from components |
When I find something I like, the components are permanently combined. Because all the components were cast in Argentium sterling, I simply lay them out as desired, with good overlap, and fuse them together.
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| first fused design from cast Argentium components |
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