Creating the design is the toughest part of the process.
The Creation of a Master Ark Original
People often ask me how my pieces are made. Here's a short description.
First,
of course, comes the idea and creating the design for the piece. This
is often the longest part of the process. The flow of ideas is pretty
constant, but actually coming up with a design I like can take a long
time. Once I have it I draw it out and redraw it again and again, each
time refining it a bit more. When I have the final design at the
actual size of the finished piece I make several copies of it. One of
these copies is glued to each piece of metal that I need to cut for the
piece. Then I sit down with my jeweler's saw and start cutting. This
piece is only two layers of metal. Some of the pieces are three or
four. Once each piece is cut out I spend a lot of time with small
jeweler's files smoothing each cut. Once all the pieces are finished I
lay them out and silver solder them together to create the total piece.
On this piece I used brass and copper for the top layer and sterling
silver for the background. After soldering the cut pieces onto the
silver, the silver was cut around the pieces, more filing, then
polishing. This creates what is called the Master.
A
silicone mold is made from the master. Then a wax replica of the
master is made from the silicone mold. This wax is invested in a heat
resistant plaster, the wax is melted out, and metal is cast into the
cavity, creating an exact copy of the master. This copy will have
casting sprues attached where the metal entered the mold and will be
rougher than the original, so it must be trimmed and filed and polished
until the quality matches that of the original piece. Once it is
polished the stones are set and the piece is done.