Bangle Workshop

The bangle workshop I think has been my favourite of all the 3D skills we have been developing. I’m pleased with my final outcome and would like to do more of this in the future!

The bangle workshop in the main PCA building was held in the same area as the laser cutting machine as it’s all relevant to metals/small metals. We met a woman who explained the process of making bangles and and showed a rough demonstration of what to do.

We first had two practice pieces of metal to see how the embedding method works and to check we all understand the process.

To start you have to oxidise the metal by super heating it with a flame thrower/Bunsen burner until it turns cherry red. Once the metals have turned completely red you can remove it and place it into cold water to shock it. Both of these process help the metal to become more malleable.

Once you’ve retrieved the metal you place it into a chemical for roughly 2-5 minutes that breaks up all the black and dirt that the metal will be covered in after heating. Once you’ve removed it from the chemical and given it a rinse, you can use a pumice type material to clean off any remaining oxidisation or finger prints on the metal. Once this is done you’re ready to embed!

To embed the metal you need a template or material with your desired texture, for my practice two I chose some lace and a small fishnet. You also need a huge metal press that squeezes the material hard down onto the metal to create a print. To do this you must measure you material on top of the metal to start with, then turn the handle on the press so that you are about 3 numbers smaller than the original size (this is so that there’s enough pressure to actually embed the pattern). Then you hold the metal to keep it straight and turn the huge leaver until you metal piece comes out again the other side.

The lace materials didn’t work so well on my practise piece due to there being varied thick and thinness to the material meaning that some parts didn’t print so well due to the thicker materials, however this did create an interesting effect, which I think resembles the bark of a tree.

The fishnet print worked really well, you can make out the very small and thin lines from the material and even where there were some small rips!

Once the metal has been embedded you start the firing, shock, chemical and clean process again to enable you to mold the metal into your desired shape. Before you do this you want to make sure you’ve cut the metal to size and sanded down any sharp edges so that you don’t injure yourself (the metal becomes very sharp where it has been cut). For our bangles we used our hand to initially make the first rough shape, then a hammer for the finishing touches.

When your bangle has been sanded down and shaped you can use a brass brush to give the piece back it’s original shine, which makes it look more eye-catching and proffessional.

For my bangle I made a template on paper cutting out small triangles and circles in a random pattern, initially I was going to leave it that way, but when I got to the press I decided to use the fishnet again undearneath my template which created the cross hatched affect on my bangle, but leaving the triangles and circles that I previously cut out smooth. I’m really pleased with the final outcome of my bangle and I think the textured print has an interesting effect on the piece.