Inspired by Tulips; the Exploration of Creating a 3D Shape in Metal

Keirsten Giles has once again written up a fantastic blog post about her studio adventures and explorations. Hopefully you are as inspired as I am by the peek into her journey of creating a tulip shape in metal. Make sure you click on the link about coins and hammer embossing. You will love it. 

-Jen 

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I love metal beads and other three-dimensional metal shapes; unfortunately it is difficult to find such ready-made items in a finish that matches my own metalwork, and I don’t do any casting, or work with metal clay so I can’t easily make my own. I decided to try achieving a 3D shape with simple cuts and curves. My inspiration was tulip blossoms:

Photo by John O’Neill courtesy Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jjron)

I just love this shape.

I used a tulip-shaped vintage brass beadcap for a starting point, picturing it spread flat in my mind (I still thought I might use it so I didn’t want to actually smash it flat).

From Calliope’s Attic on Etsy

(https://www.etsy.com/listing/109318905/medium-tulip-bead-cap-raw-brass?)

I sketched out a couple of large shapes that I thought might work, with four petals.

I eventually bit the bullet and just smashed the beadcap I had, thinking, “Well, I’m going to make a bunch of these from copper, so what do I really need it for?”

I scanned it, and then made several different sizes on the computer and printed them onto card stock to make templates from:

the actual template is included at the bottom of this post for you to save and use

Then using my new templates I cut out several sizes from various gauges of copper sheet—22 gauge for the very large ones, and 24 and 26 gauge for the smaller ones. I etched the 22- and 24-gauge shapes, and embossed the 26-gauge sheets with coins and a hammer . I punched center holes with my Beadsmith hole punch pliers, and then annealed all the textured shapes to make them easier to work with. Just for fun I made holes in the edges of the petals on one pair.

I began by using my doming set to produce slightly cupped shapes on the petals.

Then I domed the center of each shape, first resting the doming punch in the center of the shape and pressing the petals against the ball with my fingers, and then hammering the punch gently into the cap.

Et voila!

I’ve used one of the small embossed pair for earrings, with clear quartz:

I made the largest ones from 22 gauge sheet. These required a little more man-handling—I had to curve the edges of the petals inward a bit with my pliers.

The large ones may be part of necklaces eventually, and maybe I will use a pair of the larger ones for a lariat. I have to say I preferred the three-petal bud to the four-petal. I may rework the four-petaled ones a little bit to give them a rounder shape. All in all, it was fun!

-Keirsten Giles

The Cerebral Dilettante

Lune Artisan Jewelry on Etsy

Lune Artisan Jewelry on Facebook

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If you would like to experiment with your own tulip shapes, Keirsten is very generously sharing her template with you. First, click it to open the image, then right click to save it to your computer. Print it out, and use it. Make sure you share your results!