Student of the Week-Wendy Reich

SumoMe

Congratulations to Wendy Reich our latest Student of the Week. Her Greek rosettes came out beautifully. These rosettes are stylized flowers used as a motif dating back to the ancient Greeks and their original use lost in time. Here is how Wendy made them so wonderfully.

These rosettes are made each tier separately so the proportion of one tier to the other is vital. The way we accomplish this is to scribe circles on our 22k gold sheet that work proportionally and make our petals to fit within these parameters. To give the petals the silhouettewe are looking for we pull our 22k gold wire to 22 gauge then mill it through the flat mill to .017. The real trick then is to make 9 or 10 petals that fit within our scribed circle,are the same as each other and fill the space properly. They must also create a small void in the center of the circle to use as an attachment point for the other tiers. I usually recommend that student experiment using fine silver wire milled to the same measurements. Any of the 22k gold petals that don’t make it to the finished piece will eventually have to be melted down and re-milled. Since this is a significant time investment, it makes sense to play around with the silver wire until you have a great prototype petal. Once you have it, you flatten it back out to straight and use this measurement to cut all of your 22k wires. You also want to take a sharpie and mark the spot you used on your pliers so you can bend them all consistently. These small details are vital to making your piece come together, hopefully without losing your mind in the process. This doesn’t mean you might not reject a few of the gold petals along the way but it will cut down significantly on the scrap you generate. Once you have everything just so, you are ready to copperplate your wires and enrich your backsheet in preparation for fusing. This is where we will leave off. Please take a moment to appreciate what outstanding work Wendy did. Well Done!