Home / Recent Work / Isabelle ( a mechanical bell), 2017, Bronze and Brass, 9.5" x 15" x 9.5" / Isabelle, how it was made / Stage 2 39
Creation date / 2017
- 15. The wire has been cut here so the tension is off of it. As you can see, I had to use a much smaller mandrel than what I wanted the spring to end up to be.
- 23. Pushing out the basic facial features on a stump.
- 17. I didn't figure out a hanger for it until right near the end of the project. It took most of a day to make it and add it to the rest of the assembly.
- 22. Basic form created.
- 18. Here are most of the parts, prior to the fina assembly. I had not yet made the little troll for the chain. Including all the screws and washers, there are over 60 pieces. In this picture you can see the two brass sleeves, which were silver-soldered in
- 19. Starting the litte gnome or troll for the pull chain. Here's the blank cut out from 20 gauge brass sheet.
- 21. Doing some miniature raising on a small ball stake.
- 8. The three main pieces all formed and almost ready to join together.
- 16. Getting things set up. I had to assemble, disassemble, and reassemble about a thousand times before I got everything right. I have obviously skipped over the making of a lot of the parts. I was just too busy to bother with photographing everything. Al
- 24. Basic facial features formed.
- 7. Bending with the aid of a wood block. The bronze was extremely hard to bend.
- 13. Here is the pull chain lever mechainsm, the lever has yet to be shaped. inside the brass ring is a one-way clutch/needle bearing. the two cylindrical shapes pointing upward are stops to prevent it from travelling too far in either direction.
- 14. Making springs on the lathe. The springs had to be custom made because I could not find torsion springs with the right configuration. I tried bronze wire first, which looked cool, but the wire was a little too small and didn't produce enough pull. Thi
- 12. Silver-soldering completed.
- 30. The form is now ready to close up.