One of my favorite things to do in the winter is to experiment. I try to use the "down time" to push design and technical skills to their limits. This last winter I focused on learning how to work small pieces of brass, copper and silver in the same ways I have been working steel. I also focused on how to combine the different metals while still keeping their heat patina's intact. Shown are a few of my favorite pieces which range in size from about 12" x 3" to about 4ft x 2ft. What is NOT shown in the scrap pile I accumulated while doing these experiments. For every success there were ten failures. But, as I got better and understood the materials more, less and less pieces were trashed. The trick was learning how to minimize physical damage of mistakes (which is hard on small pieces). All in all this was one of the most educational winters I had ever done.
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