Photo Brooch

You will use a photographic image in a composition for a jewelry piece.

Design elements to consider:

• How will this function? (this must be addressed in this piece; plan from the start)

• What kind of juxtaposition can be used to make the composition interesting?

• Can the design use historical jewelry as a reference?

• Can the design incorporate irony, humor, or another emotional element?

• Do not plan on only using an image with a bezel around it. You must use other metal elements or other materials as a supplement to the image to make the design more interesting. 

The Photo Brooch project, is printing a photo on photographic paper (printed professionally, not on any old photo paper), making a border out of metal and filling with resin. Since I knew this project was coming up, I have been thinking about it, and always knew I wanted it to be something kind of personal! We had the option to do something humorous, meaningful, personal, etc. So I have decided to use one of my boyfriend's drawings, as he's so talented, and I have always been interested in his drawings. With his permission, I have decided to use this image, and will create the look of a frame out of metal. I am very excited to do this project!

To see Ken Cotter's art, visit his Tumblr page and his blog.

Tumblr: http://deadendsgallery.tumblr.com
Blog: http://kencotterart.blogspot.com

Materials:

• Copper alloys, other sheet metal (titanium, silver are available for purchase)

• Photograph: high quality, printed on photo paper

• Resin

• Other materials you would like to try incorporating (no glue allowed!)

Techniques:

• Basic sawing, filing, finishing

• Bezel making, soldering

• Cold connections (optional)

Step 1
First the base must be cut out, I have decided to design it similar to a Victorian photo frame. It has a few small parts to be cut, and so I need to keep this in mind whilst sawing.

 

Step 2
The band will be soldered, using the same technique as the bowl and silver ring; where the two ends meet and are parallel.


Step 3
It will then be shaped, as mine is an oval shape, I will use the large mandrel, but with more control from myself and not the mandrel, to ensure it doesn't shape in to a perfect circle.

Step 4
The band will then be soldered on to the base, ensuring that it's centre. At the same, or just after, I will solder the brooch parts on the back of the base, with easy solder as this is the last thing to be soldered. This then needs to be thoroughly cleaned and pickled, for the next part.

Step 5
I will colour it using the ajax pattination, to give it the Victorian effect.  Once it is thoroughly dried, with an air torch, the photo needs to be cut as near to the edges as possible and glued down, with or two layers of glue on top to ensure the resin will not have access to the image. The edges of the image need to be completely covered also.

I had to come to the decision wether I wanted it matte black or cleaned a little with a scourer to have the copper showing through a little for some colour. I decided brown/copper! 

Step 6
Now to pour the resin. The piece must be flush to a flat surface, and so we used to mount board to place the piece on top of, ensuring it's completely flat so the resin pours evenly. The resin is made up of two different liquids; one which is the resin and one which is the hardener. With a ratio of 1:1. It needs to be slowly mixed with a wooden stick, for exactly 5 minutes, no more, no less. The reason it needs to be slowly mixed, is to get rid of any air bubbles, if mixed or whipped too quickly it will create air sockets. Once it has been mixed, it needs to be left for another exact 5 minutes, then poured.

 

Getting rid of air bubbles with a pin!

Step 6

It needs to be poured into the middle of the piece, letting it flow to the edges. Once it starts filling up, I will use the wooden stick, to let the resin run off the tip of the stick, not for it to over flow and more importantly, too add in small parts to ensure it has a domed effect. It is then left to dry for 24 hours.