Framed Metal Art - Experiments in Blacksmithing

Recently I've been working on some framed hand made pieces that are a natural evolution of our style of art nouveau inspired metalwork. The leaves and swirls that I naturally doodle as soon as there is a pen in my hand translate really well into forgework, and I've been experimenting with that. The first framed piece started as a last minute idea I had the day before Reivers festival, just using up a few bits I had made but not turned into anything. I've laid the pieces out and TIG welded them together, letting them sit a little way over the edge of the frame.

I loved how the mounting holes are off centre and punched through the square bar.  We did this by heating the bar to a yellow heat and using a hammer and punch to make the hole. It’s a two person job, David holding the metal and me with he hammer and punch. We had a few attempts as the initial hole needs to be exactly central on the bar, and also to be held completely vertical or the material will bulge on one side and look really off!
I was so happy with the piece, I was almost a bit gutted when it sold straight away at the market!

No two of these pieces will ever be the same, even when I have used the same flowers and style of hand made leaves & swirls. I love the unique ness of them.

We ordered  a bespoke makers mark of our fox logo but there is too much detail, it doesn’t mark the steel well enough. It might be suitable for copper or possibly very thin steel but won’t mark the 12mm square bar frame I had intended it to, so I’ll need to simplify and try again. As they’re one off pieces I think it’s really important to mark them, in much the same way as an artist would sign or initial a painting.

These are intended as indoor pieces of art, to hang on a wall or be placed on a dressing table. They are finished in a clear lacquer as we wanted the natural colours of the metal to remain. I love the anthracite grey of the mild scale against the silver shine where it’s been buffed with the grinding wheel, it would be such a shame to cover this up with a durable outdoor finish, so these are indoor pieces until I find a suitable way to rust proof them without losing their character. I’m tempted to experiment with some small highlights in gold leaf as well, but I think any other colours are unnecessary.

I’m currently working on a slightly larger rectangular piece featuring a different style of flower and leaves, plus one of my dragonflies. I'm especially pleased with how the Ivy is looking. These started off as laser cut blanks which I have shaped and textured. Adding the leaf veins is a skill I'm still mastering, though I did discover that using a round ended chisel rather than square made a massive difference in terms of neat continuation of longer lines - they look really accurate. This could look wonderful wrapping around the frame, but then the piece wouldn’t sit flat on a wall, so I’ll need to either find a solution probably involving spacers at the back, or decide the idea is not worth all the messing about.

I’ve also sketched out an idea featuring three frames with a continuous design, it's only very rough at the moment but I think the three could flow really nicely together. So that’s the next thing I’ll be working on – really excited to get started on it!