wire-smith-crafts

Front (left) and back (right) are nearly identical, but not quite. On the front side the thicker vertical coils are raised above the thinner horizontal wires, so they stand out more, and there are gaps between the sections of the vertical coils. I'm calling that the front because I think the higher contrast between thick and thin looks better. On the back everything is smoother. Not sure if that reads from a distance though.

The design is surprisingly springy. I bent the gold-colored one into an arm-band and it's flexible enough that I can just shove my arm through the gap and it closes again.

(I wanted to add this as a reblog of the clicky device that was a prototype for this but of course tumblr can't put videos in reblogs.)

Little fidget that goes "click". Mostly a prototype for a louder noisemaker that I want to make, but also a fun little Device in its own right.

Most of these were quick experiments to try out a technique, or components for projects I never built. So I usually forget about them. It's only when I gather them all together that I remember how cool they are in their own right. Giant collection of shiny objects!

This pauldron is still very much in progress, but it's far enough along to show off! Just ignore the super thin copper wires holding everything in place. Left side with the single copper circle is the front, right side with two circles is the back.

It's shoulder shaped! With cool copper designs! And GLOWING BLUE!

Under the cut I've got some photos of what it looks like with the glow turned off. Next step: fill in all the flat surfaces with structural filigree so that it looks like single a solid object.

A sphere bauble and an octahedron bauble!

I say flimsy but really it's probably stronger than I think. I'm just spoiled by my usual steel.

Statistically this one will probably not be the final success either, but at least it's gotten further than the last few! And it does have the advantage of simplicity: the pieces can slide past each other to accommodate my wrist motion, but they can't flop around in other directions because they're strapped to my arm.*

I've got the first section pretty much done and most of the design work laid out for the other two. So (fingers crossed) all I need to do is wire up the "surface" of the other two sections, and probably add cloth backing and padding, and I'll be good to go!

The cutter/engraver head is very good at making scooped-out gouges in things. The channel it leaves is very rounded. Not great for inlaying wire into wood but great for recessing two thick wires across each other like lincoln logs.

The "cutting wheels" do cut steel but they are TERRIFYING. Sparks everywhere. Not great on a WOODEN homemade workbench IN MY LIVING ROOM. Maybe useful for sheet metal, maybe, but for wire I'll stick to pliers.

The grinding/sanding/polishing attachments make things so shiny! Not sure how often I'll use it, in practice, but very cool capability to have. I'm a little worried about dust and ventilation though, even with a mask, because LIVING ROOM.

I don't quite understand the drills. I already have a perfectly good drill.

I'll probably try to pick up some routing bits to see if I can find something better for inlays.

Neat little prototype of some moving linkages. Prototype for what? No idea yet. But it's a cool type of motion so hopefully I can find a use for it.

This was supposed to be a quick side project: make a few gears, throw them into a frame so that they'll move and look cool, call it a day. Unfortunately, the frame took frustratingly many tries, and the spinning arm is taking even more than the frame. The precise sizes of stuff matters a LOT when trying to get gears to mesh nicely. Who'd have guessed!

I'm still not satisfied with what i have now. It sticks and jams rather than running smoothly. But after three consecutive weekends of "I just need to re-make one more component and I'll be done", I should take my victories where I can get them. It IS a Contraption! It DOES spin! And it DOES look cool doing it!

From back to front: two flattish glass gems (red and blue); three cages for blue glass spheres; and then two pure wire constructs.