Texturing Metal - craft class

Good morning ladies, I hope you are all well this Bonfire Night morning.  Not really sure if Bonfire Night morning makes sense.  All the fireworks seemed to happen round our way at the weekend.  When they started I went rushing out to see if the buns were OK.  They just looked bored with it!

On Saturday me and my wonderful mum went to another class at The Bead Shop, Nottingham.  It's a good thing they keep adding classes or we'd have to find something else to do!  This class was texturing metal.  It was an experimental class rather than a class where you go away with a finished piece.  This has been on my WIP list all year since I got some hammers for Christmas, but it was good to get some advice and tips.

We started off making some coils.  The silver one is 1.5mm wire and the copper one is 0.8mm, though we used 1mm too.  Once we'd made some coils, we had a good old bash.  We used a chasing hammer and there was also a Beadsmith hammer with interchangeable heads to give patterns.  I wasn't keen on that on the wire, I think it'd be better on sheet metal.  Above the silver one has been bashed flat at the top, then textured.  The bronze one is also hammered flat.

I used two different heads on each side, this one gives it a bit of a shimmer.

Next we moved on to colouring the copper with a heat gun.  I always thought you needed a torch for this so it was good to know I can use my trusty heat gun.  Heating for different lengths of time gives a different colour finish.

Here I was experimenting with heart shapes - the one on the left is a clear winner.  All were hammered flat.  The left one hasn't been heated at all, the middle one heated to an amber colour and the one on the right to a purple/blue colour.

The class was really interesting and now I need to get my hammers out and have a bit of a go!  Better get the dining room sorted out so I have a table to work on...