I Made a Shiny Thing!

Yep, tis true. For the first time in three years I actually sat down and made something out of metal. Woohoo!

I had been feeling a bit despondent about the whole thing, as I realised that all of the designs that look amazing in my head need to be made out of silver clay. Now, I've never sculpted anything in my life, I just figured, you know, how hard can it be right? Turns out, quite hard. I thought I'd have a bash with some Fimo clay first, rather than starting off with the silver clay. So, I happily sit with my block of clay and attempt to sculpt a 15mm high Marie Antionette figure. I officially suck at sculpting. It looks like a frog and I squash it in a fit of pique.

The boy did suggest that perhaps 10 minutes was not really enough time to master the art of miniature sculpture and maybe I should start with something a bit simpler than an 18th century queen, but what does he know, right?

Anyway, I thought I'd have a go at a rollerskate next, as that's the first thing I need to make for my derby charm bracelet idea. My first attempt did make me giggle, if nothing else.

Tada!
Okay, yeah, I really do suck at sculpting :)

I had another couple of goes at just the boot part, as I'm going to be making the plate and wheels from sheet silver and tube anyhow, rather than sculpting them, and it kind of got a bit better as I went along. Not much though...

Had a bash at sculpting some cupcakes as well, which didn't turn out too awful after the first little squashed disaster...

Well I wasn't really getting anywhere with the Fimo, so I decided to set myself a target of at least starting Jennie a derby charm bracelet for her birthday by making a little nameplate charm. Her derby name is Dr Feral, but everyone calls her Fez, so I figured I'd just make a little Fez nameplate in the same font style as her team's (the Suffrajets) logo, which looks like this:
It actually turned out okay, seeing as I'm pretty rusty, although there are a billion things I'd do differently if I started over, as there are imperfections that annoy me about it, but here it is:

And I didn't break a single saw blade :)

So, onwards and upwards then I guess. I need to get back to the sculpting practice, finish the skate and design some more derby-style charms.

I'm off to set deadlines and make a plan...