Studio Devona

Blob of Molten Metal

2006. A blob of heated precious metal glowing orange. This was part of a project for a pendant to start with. The process here is called annealing where the metal is heated until it glows in a certain way then allowed to cool slowly. This makes metal softer to work with because the formation of the crystals within are bigger when cooled slowly. If cooled fast the crystals are small, the metal will be harder and more brittle and less easy to work.

Tinners Hares

2016. I did a trade with someone for some metal tin that originally came from an ingot found on a shipwreck bound from Cornwall so I knew the metal was straight from the old Cornish mines. I did a number of castings with the design of the tinners hares on them - the idea is an old one based on three hares with their ears all meeting in the middle, a design used by miners since medieval times in the region though the origin is thought to have come from the Asian region even earlier. Some of the castings came out better than others.

Athame in Copper

2021. The blade for this was cut from 3mm thick copper sheet then filed and shaped. I set this into a small piece of natural antler. I designed the shape of the blade to look a bit like a scythe.

Ring in Silver and Gold

2016. I designed the main ring first then cast some silver into a tube. The template of the ring was stuck to the tube and metal cut out. My original design had flower petals made from 24ct gold with a gem holder made from 9ct gold. My idea was to set the amethyst gem into this but when I came to assemble it I decided there were too many sharp edges that would catch on clothing so the idea was dropped and just the siver ring was used. Metals were recycled.

Mermaid Pendant in Silver

2004. A silver pendant with a sea theme of a mermaid with cat fish and treasure. They gaze up from the sea bed to the surface where a galleon sails and the sun shines down. I set a piece of thin clear aqua coloured fluorite stone into the top to represent the sea and a small piece of gold through a hole for the sun.

Druid's Athame

2018. A ritual knife made from a thick piece of gorse root and a blade created from some spare bronze that I had left over from another project. The blade was bound on with natural rawhide strip and I used a piece of the same to cut out oak leaf shapes as a feature

Flower Ring in Gold

2018. I designed the ring and made the parts by casting 24ct gold. I used an ancient method of casting into carved cuttle fish bone which left the pattern of the bone on the ring which I like as an effect. The ring was completed and after wearing it for a couple of years I decided I wanted to make something with a more enjoyable design so it was recycled and the metal reused for the new ring.

Silver Dish

2006. The forming of a dish made from silver by cutting out a circle of metal from a 2mm thick sheet then beating it. The metal expands as it is hit and becomes thinner. The more it is hit with the hammer the more of a concave shape is formed but you have to be disiplined about how the metal is shaped as you go along or it will warp hence the guide lines drawn on the metal with a marker pen.

Bronze Casting

2016. This year seems to have been one of adventure when it comes to casting bronze. In the picture homemade bronze is being heated in a crucible to the right temperature for casting into a mould. The mould is for a shaped knife blade and the mould is set into sand to keep it steady and to hopefully ensure no metal leaks out. The bronze was made by mixing some old Cornish tin with more modern copper, the resulting metal comes out the classic creamy colour that was made in ancient Bronze Age times. In order to melt the metal I used a homemade crucible pot which was surrounded by potters kiln bricks which hold the heat of well over 1000 deg C even though they are just thin sheets.

Cast Bronze

2016. A first attempt to cast homemade bronze metal. There was leakage through the mould so the casting had to be redone - a learning experience. However this cast looked really amazing with the ripples and colours.

Athame in Cast Bronze

2016. A second attempt to cast bronze directly into a special kind of sand finally worked out and here you can see the rough shape of the metal blade and a piece of deer antler alongside it which would be used as the handle. The antler was part of a larger piece I found in a wood near Hennock back in the 1990's - I had kept it for decades for an art project.

The continued process of shaping the bronze blade for the athame took a long time but you can really see the nice colour of the metal showing through in this photo. The shape of the blade was something I chose that would compliment the curved shape of the antler handle and I drew this out and planned it at the beginning. With the blade edge I used a rough file to create shapes that made the blade look like knapped flint rather than metal - I was trying to give the effect that the stone age was passing into the bronze age.

Completed Athame

2016. The completed item with the bronze blade set into the deer antler handle. I used silver rods and riveted them right through to make the join secure.

The completion of this project was satisfying as I had learned how to make bronze from two metals, how to cast it and shape it. I also learned how to work with natural deer antler and above all how to make and assemble a knife in ways that were done by people of the past.

In this picture you can see also some gold rings and a gold pentagram symbol I made at the same sort of time - the five points represent Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit.

Bigfoot Pendant in Silver

2017. I made the pendant for a friend who was an enthusiast of the Bigfoot topic who actually spent many holidays in the wild woods of America waiting and watching and claims to have seen one. I cut out silver from sheet and made it concave by beating it with a hammer to curve the metal upwards. Then I used nitric acid to etch the design of bigfoot on the surface, etching away the area around and leaving bigfoot in relief.

Cat Theme Rings in Silver

2010. The rings are fairly simple to make using strips of sheet silver which are bent into circles and soldered. Once filed and polished comes the more detailed time of painting the cat designs onto the surface using shellac varnish. The rings are then dipped in nitric acid which dissolves the metal leaving the areas painted in the shellac standing proud. The shellac is then removed and the metal oxidized to make it turn black to fill in the detail around the cats.

Glowing Crucible

2006. For melting small amounts of silver and gold for things like rings I usually make my own small ceramic crucibles which are one-off use. The crucible is a small melting pot which holds the metal until it becomes liquid and is then poured to make the casting. In this photo you can see the heat making it glow at around 1000 dec C.

Athames in Copper

2018. Athames are essentially knives used in ritual, meditation and  prayer where the knife is symbollic and used as an instrument a bit like a magic wand. As examples, in the mind the knife can be used as symbolism to seperate and cut old from new or to seperate bad memories from the mind after trauma. People can also use pointy crystals or a simple piece of wood in the same way. The athame can be simple or highly decorated.

Here are a couple of athames I made from copper sheet with the blades filed and shaped. I used small natural deer antlers for the handles and notched the blades where they fitted the handles to help them to grip better and not slide out once fixed. I love the way polished copper gleams.

Flower Ring

2012. For this ring I used silver which I cast to create a solid continuous ring rather than a soldered one. I shaped the silver to be thicker at the front not just in width but also in thickness. The flower petals were made from a very thin piece of 24ct gold and the centre of the flower was 9ct gold used as a rivet.

Moon Pendant in Bronze

2016. Using some left over bronze from the main athame project I cast this moon shaped pendant into cuttle fish bone which left the pattern of the bone on the surface. I beat the metal also to give a sort of cratered look like the moon surface. The bronze polished up nicely. This was a homemade metal mixing modern copper pieces with old Cornish tin from a shipwreck - copper and tin make bronze.

Amethyst Ring in Gold

2014. Using gold from an older flower ring I created a new ring with a large oval frame into which I set an amethyst gemstone. After years of wearing it I decided to bring it to life with a more vivid coloured stone. I would have used amethyst again but discovered purple tanzanite which had a much brighter purple/pink look to it. The ring was made in two pieces, both being cast into cuttle fish bone and then soldered together before setting the stone in place. The ring is not perfectly made like a professional goldsmith would create - rather it has a purposeful non symmetry about it which I wanted giving it the look of something made in Tudor times.