Whilst this is not a direct jewellery post, all the techniques are derived from the art of making jewellery, so there’s that.
The eyes are very important.
I use different techniques for each sculpture.
This eye is from another Dino war machine,made of blackened silver on a polished white gold background and set with a gold screw.
I wanted a reptilian type eye for the Tricera War Machine.
Something hard and emotionless, that when you see it peering through the bush, you know you are in deep dwang.
I made a bunch of test eyes and eventually decided on the tawny colour of ground brass.
First I make the eye cover, which is made from a rod of borosilicate glass, like the glass blowers use, and I melt a bulb of about 10 mm in diameter.
Like this.
Then I cut the little dome off with a diamond disk and I polish the back.
Glass is soft, so all I do is sand the backs down with 220 grit, then 1200 and 5000 grit and then a polish on the polishing motor and it brings it up to a fine shine.
I use a setting burr to get the marquise shape.
One could use a graver, but this works just fine.
Then I blacken the marquise shape with black paint.
In the final ones I will use vitreous enamel, but for the test ones paint or even a Sharpie worked just as well.
Here is a test one to work out the cats eye effect that sanding the metal with course sand paper in one direction gives you.
Here is another test model showing the pseudo cats eye effect.
So then I soldered a 3 mm thread onto the back of the little eye disks.
Then I glued them together with a slow curing resin.
Ready for use.
This eye is on the Pterosaurs Bow
This eye was made with a coloured glass rod that has a angle faceted on it.
It fits into a polished silver tube to maximize reflected light.
Then a small diamond ball frazer was used to make a dimple in it which was blackened to represent the pupil.
The glow comes from the light reflected from the other side of the head.
This eye is on the Fodiator Bow.
The tube screws into the head through polished brass and silver cups.
On the tube, which was made of 1.5 mm thick metal, I engraved/removed a recesses with a 2 mm ball frazer.
Then I blackened the tube with Liver of Sulphur and then I polished everything up again.
This left black marks down the side of the tube in the recessed areas.
I cut an amethyst in a standard brilliant and then set it in the conical shaped tube.
The convex shape of the brass cup reflects the sides of the engraved and colored tube, giving an interesting pattern in return.
I think there is lots of potential for this technique and I have used it on several occasions in rings and pendants.
The Dragonfly Fighter was a glass ball made as previously described.
It was then set in a silver tube with polished white gold foil at the back.
This tube also screws through a heat blued titanium ‘cup’ which itself is set in a silver surround.
The eyes in another dragon I made .
These are made from some garnets that I cut into a cabochon shape with a tiny gold reflector behind it.