Lantern Flower Brooch #2

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Here’s my second Lantern Flower brooch. This one is folded plate copper formed into the shape of the flower using form-folding techniques. The berry on the inside is a copper half-moon sweat soldered onto and domed with a piece of plate bronze, which I then soldered onto a flat piece of plate bronze to create the berry.
The tiny seed above the berry is a melted ball of silver which I drilled through, then inserted a piece of wire so I could connect to the chain, which means that the flower part of this brooch is actually reversible. If it flips one way or the other then the other side is still presentable and you can wear it whichever way you prefer. The twig part on the top is the part that actually has the pin back on it as well, so if you lean forward or to the side the flower will dangle with your movement. The twig is bronze roughed up with a file, then copper-flashed by annealing, then liver of sulphered for colour, then re-roughed up to give it more texture. The chain was a bit of scrap chain I bought.

Related articles

• Lantern Flower Brooch 1 (monikacorbett.wordpress.com)

Rhinoceros Beetle Pt 2

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So here’s a view of my rhinoceros beetle pendant pre-cleanup and assembly. It’s also missing it’s wing covering on it’s back. The wings here are cut out of plate, and the legs are very thin pieces of plate twisted where the joints are to illustrate the way a real bug’s legs would be articulated.  I also did some detail work on the wings which involved several hours of sitting with a hand-drill basically carving out a form I wanted. you can’t see it on the wings here, but it will be evident when I post a finished shot.

Rhinoceros Beetle Beginnings

Aside

Here’s my first progress shot on my Rhinocerous Beetle pendant. I sawed the bottom piece out of plate copper and domed the head lightly before bending the horns up in a tube-type form. The body I textured with the long head of a riveting hammer before doming it. I left some small tabs to rivet it together when I was done.

If I were to try this again, I think I would dome the body first and then draw and cut out the bottom form based on the length that the dome wound up. As it is I wound up with a very tight fit between body and base, which I was briefly worried wouldn’t match up.