Backing it up

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the back of our bezel pieces were important too.  For these pieces we embossed designs into scratch foam for both the back and the bail.  This was done with a ball point pen and an assortment of other tools.

Of course the design will come out reversed and it is difficult to get a good idea what it will look like.  Wanaree uses Silly Putty to test the designs.   Just soften a piece of Silly Putty, push it onto your design and you can instantly see what it is going to look like.   The design on the far right is the one I chose.  I didn't like any of them until I gave them the putty test.  But, the two on the right look far better than they appear here.  We did the bail designs the same way.  

This isn't the best picture. I think I'm going to take the flex-shaft to it and get the high points much smoother.  

This was not my original backing.  The piece I made for the backing the first time was too small (thus the need for the thicker border in the drawing.)  It was already dry before I realized it wasn't the right size so as with lots of metal clay greenware it would be used in something.  In this case I used it with a ring shank I had made during my Rio Certification class and had never fired.  Voila!  A new ring (for sale....... size 7 1/2 if anyone is interested.)