The Portland Engraving Project - Day 10

The Portland Engraving Project - Day 10

One down, five to go….

Here’s our first figure finished. All the copper wheel work is done but he needs to be polished and some final detailing added. I won’t polish him until the other figures on this side are completed. The final detailing is to add his tattoos and a logo onto his t-shirt, stuff like that.

Light & shade – black & white

The polishing of your work is as important as the work itself. If you polish, or highlight the wrong area of your work, it can take from the piece. Use polishing wheels that are the same size as the copper wheels, going over the same cuts/depths. Using only large wheels will shine up the ridges rather than the depths. Remember, we’re playing with light here - excessive polishing of a single area will make it appear ‘dark’ or black in the context of the engraving palette.

 What now…

Over the coming days I’ll be working the other figures on this side to bring them to the same point - engraved but yet to be polished and detailed. We’ve covered pretty much all the issues you will encounter, drawing the figures, stoning them out, engraving the background and figures and any repairs. We’ve met engravers with different styles and had daily tips. The stuff we didn’t cover (yet) is how to make copper wheels or look at other engraving techniques – drill and stipple. The next update will be a week from today when I’d hope to have this side fully completed. A further update will cover the other figures and the addition of the handles. The last post will show the finished piece just prior to shipping to Morley College.

Today’s Tip - photograph, catalogue and note every piece you do – you’ll appreciate the information in the future.              

Meet the Engravers

If you’ve developed an interest in engraving and want to learn more, check out The Guild of Glass Engravers for info. There are courses in the UK (Morley College and North Lands Creative Glass); The Jiri Harcuba School are running a course in the coming weeks with Pavlina Cambalova; locally Eamonn Hartley is running a course in Waterford College of Further Education. There are lots of other weekend courses organised by professional engravers, you just have to search them out. I might even organise one myself!

The Portland Engraving Project - Day 9

Day 9

Heading for home

Our guy is taking shape so we’ll do a little work on his head. This isn’t a portrait so ‘a face’ will suffice – big chin, small chin, frown or smile it’s up to you. Initial depths are forehead, cheek bone and chin. The smaller features will require some accuracy but try cut them in one go – a narrow wheel for the front of the nose fading back into the cheek bone depth; a really small rounded wheel to cut the lower lip, slightly wider flat to cut the upper one over it. Do the same with the eye, soft line for lower lid, heavier for upper leaving a raised ‘V’ which will become an eyeball. Use a ball shaped wheel to do the nostril and eye, job done.

Oops – what now?

That’s the ideal but usually something goes a little awry, in this case I’m too deep on the cheek and not enough on the upper lip; the eye isn’t great either and top of his skull is too high. What happens next is hard to catch photographically or put on paper – you just work at it until you get the depths correct and the features both located and finished correctly. Luckily there are some easy fixes here. Adding his hair resolves the skull issue; I considered a hat or a pair of shades. I’ll re-do his upper lip and eye as there’s glass to work with. Worst case scenario is having to deepen the pillar ‘behind’ him effectively erasing the finer features of this face and start again.  

Another common error is that you’ve slipped and left a mark outside the outline. The options are;

Polish out the slip using rough then fine polish depending on the severity of the slip. If you use the largest wheel possible and polish a larger area, if will not be noticeable. Small wheels will leave an ‘inclusion’ or distortion on the surface. Always polish into your work.

Re-engrave it with a wider wheel. It depends on the job but is it possible to ‘go big’ and incorporate the error into the image with either a slightly bigger wheel or by going deeper? If you’re confident enough to try again, go for it but ask yourself why you slipped in the first place?

Hide it - assess the damage and consider if adding to the engraving is a viable option. If it’s a deep chip, you may have no choice but to add something (appropriate) to the original image – be creative.

And Finally………

With his head sorted out, take a long hard look at the overall figure – are you happy with it? Are all the depths correct, the folds in the cloths, the feet & hands? If so, good job, if not, now’s the time to rectify them.

Today’s tip; Keep your powder and polish clean – contamination of either will lead to chips and/or scratches.

Meet the Engraver – the Apprentice

This guy has some skill and technical ability and is eager to learn. He needs to develop the patients, knowledge and vision to get to the next level. Right now he works to achieve a basic standard; he makes lots of little errors but learns from them. He’s not afraid to ask. His circle takes several cuts, doing a few degrees at a time; it has some corners, is more oval than round and has visible joints…… but it’s done and better than the last one.

Lesson – Stick with it, you’ll get there - it just takes time and experience

The Portland Engraving Project - Day 8

Day 8

What!

We’ve stoned out our figures, we’ve added some background detail and examined several techniques and styles so it’s time get working on our figures. Working to the principle that the deepest is the nearest our first guy is the perfect starting point.

Our friend here is now wearing a T-shirt, pants & soft shoes and has ear-phones around his neck and been to the barbers, which will outrage purists but I did say it would be modernised! Draw the clothes on the glass. You’ll notice that your pen/pencil has to follow the contours of the depths; your wheels will have to do the same. You can start anywhere but it’s advisable to go with the larger wheels first and work down to the smaller ones - work the whole figure rather than focus on one area.

 

Let’s iron this out….

Take a crease in the t-shirt and examine it; folds and creases in clothes usually run from an extremity (an elbow or knee for example) and fade out gently. You should carve them the same way, starting with a strong definite line and then smoothen out the end as the tension in the cloth eases. It’s important to draw and get the line of them correct as they help re-enforce the figure’s posture.

 

The sleeves present a new challenge – they are wider than the arm. Use your copper wheel to cut the end of the sleeve and smoothen out the muscle it covers. Again the depth will add to the image but the lines you cut for the end of the sleeve and then the folds and creases in it will ‘dress’ the guy. Engraving the clothes means that a lot of the muscle definition will be covered or softened but the depth in the figure remains. In some cases it is necessary to remove a ridge altogether; a good example being a skirt where the legs underneath will be obscured but you have to stone out the depths of the anatomy first to make it look right. Similarly, take care when doing things like the neckline on a t-shirt as it may traverse several contours and depths so accuracy is vital. 

I’ve referenced accuracy in draughtsmanship a lot with clothes, this next part being critical. If you have to engrave a sleeve that’s foreshortened and the internal part is visible you need to use very small wheels to carve the arcs at the top and bottom. They will underpin the illusion that it’s a hollow, tube like form that surrounds the arm. Do the arm first, then cut the sleeve deeper with the internal area last - it only needs subtle shading. 

Today’s tip - The abrasive will eat into the glass and your wheels – file them often to restore profile

Meet the engraver 6 Mr.Techno

Mr. Techno is a master of the engraving craft and doesn’t really feel challenged by this work anymore - he’s looking at the future for a faster way. He wonders how he could marry his is love of computers and new technology to his engraving knowledge. He’d do a circle using computer generated artwork, a mask and sandblaster as it’s faster and can be replicated thousands of times – it makes him popular with accountants and marketing guys.

Lesson – Technology is great but you should respect the integrity of the craft.     

The Portland Engraving Project - Day 7

Day 7                                                                                 

Let’s talk technique

So far, we’ve taken out big scoops of glass and shaped them to give the basis of our figures. They resemble the pencil sketch ‘bubble figures’ I mentioned earlier, recognisable and human figures but no real detail. All of this was done with stone or diamond wheels so we have depth and substance in our figures.

Just before we begin with copper there are 4 specific techniques we need to look at in detail.

1.Straight Cut – it’s often the case that one of your wheels will match perfectly the line you want to cut. For example you could engrave a rope on a sailboat with a sharp wheel; the metalwork on your Eiffel Tower engraving is perfectly suited to your favourite flat wheel – you just sharpen the wheel, charge it with slurry and engrave. 

2. Creating an edge – sometimes the image requires an edge to be carved like the shape of our sail, the side of a building or the ground. Prepare as wide a wheel as is workable in the given area; rather than present the glass flat to the wheel, angle it slightly so the edge/one side of the wheel cuts but the other side does not. The resulting cut is angled into the surface giving the edge on one side, trailing off on the other.

3.Shading – if you need to ‘colour in’ an area use as large and wide a wheel as possible. It should rotate slowly, be regularly re-charged with slurry and most importantly, move the glass in a circular motion. If you don’t, you’ll get an uneven finish with small ridges in it – not good.

4. Carving – If you carve a depth into the glass, most likely it will need to be shaped. Recoat the wheel with fresh slurry and ‘feel’ where it cuts/grinds. If you’re doing a pear shape for example start with a central vertical oval and then carve to the left and right, broadening out the bottom of the shape as desired. Allow the wheel time to carve but smoothen out the cuts so they become one – see shading above.

Earlier I mentioned how the wheel profile determines the cut profile; let’s revisit that. Imagine a (4 wheel drive) rally car turning hard on a gravelly surface and the tracks it will leave. As the back of the car swings out, the rear wheels spin and stones fly everywhere. The front wheels however are working differently. They also pull the stones under and spit them out the back, but they’re angled in the direction of travel. Now think about how this applies to copper and glass. Depending on how to present the glass to the wheel, you can determine how the waste glass/slurry mix exits. If you want to avoid chips along any edge/ridge you’re engraving, then present the glass so the waste material is drawn under the wheel and exits out into the engraving work, not onto clear glass. Mr.Havel, (Maestro in Crystal, ISBN 9781856079402) the original designer, engraver and sculptor in Waterford Crystal, to whom all of us ex-WC designers, engravers and sculptors owe our skills & livelihoods, in his best Czech-English described it thus “indaway out, not outdaway in”.  

Today’s tip; Wipe excess/waste slurry into your work, not out over clear glass – saves polishing scratches later.  

Meet the Engraver 5. Captain Slow

Our Captain Slow has a motto – steady ahead. He has huge technical knowledge and considerable skill but he works at his pace and won’t be rushed. He knows the finished piece is worth waiting for. He goes by the book, is technically perfect and the result shows it. He draws the circle on, measures it, prepares the wheel, cuts part of the line, checks it and then repeats the same actions to do the next section.

Lesson – steady progress pays, rushing will lead to errors.