The other day I looked at new sketches and drawings of designs I’ve made and began to draft a Gantt chart to begin work. While setting up a small casting in delft clay I looked at the trays full of old inventory from festival shows going back to 1993. I became underwhelmed.
The original plan was to sort, finish, polish, re-work, etc over three pounds of bracelets, rings, earrings, belt buckles, work-in-progress to jump-start a web storefront. The problem with the plan is it’s a continuation of the old work I didn’t like and the inventory in its present form represents a psychological ball and chain. So, why mess with it at all? Except, maybe, to melt it down(link to short youtube video).
- Marshall Hansen Design silver old stock going into crucible
- scrap sterling silver in crucible beginning to melt
- more salmon orange colors in the charge
- just before flux then pour into ingot mold
- fresh sterling ingot about 40g
- about 1.25 pounds of sterling ingots made from my old inventory
The deep pitting on my ingots is from using charcoal briquettes ground through a cheese grater for ingot mold release/flux sprinkles before/after pour.
Marshall