Delft clay casting pt.2: dealing with gas porosity, ring band moulds, and something akin to progress.

I spent another week learning how to cast metal. And today got pretty close to obtaining satisfying results. I'm not quite there yet, but I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.
Last week I've ordered 20g of pure silver casting grain, to make more of my 30%silver 70%copper shibuichi alloy. I made about 5g (as I already had 10g of alloy, and I didn't want to melt all of it at once) more, and tried to cast something presentable.

It was a right amount for the wolf model, but I was still getting loads of porosity. Yes, I learned that those bubbles I was getting in the casts are result of gas porosity: apparently, gas can dissolve in molten metal. That was news for me. And using flux is supposed to eliminate it. However, I was using flux, and still getting the bubbles in my pieces.

So I went back to browsing the web, and at some forum (I really don't know where, sorry) read that if there is even a little bit of solder on the metal you melt, it will behave terribly in castings.

That got me thinking. I melted art clay pieces that I just gave up on. I did my best to clean them, but it was possible that some solder made it into the alloy. So I made another 15g from scratch, using only the casting grain and well-cleaned copper. And that actually helped a bit.
See here:

It's so tantalizingly close to good cast, I don't even know if I'm happy or frustrated.

 Sorry about the picture. But you can see that there are almost no pores here: apart from that huge one between the ears, and one on the paw, and, I think, some tiny ones on the snout.
I wouldn't mind the one on the leg that much, actually, but that one smack right between the ears just won't do. Next time I'm casting this piece, I'm going to add a bit more flux and see if that helps. There are more bubbles on the back, but that can be dealt with. But on the front I have very limited options for clean up available. Still, it's progress.

I also have to work on my ring band moulds, as I can't seem to find a good way of making them, and the metal solidifies in the funnel, without filling the mould itself. I, again, searched the net for pictures of how others make their moulds, and found one approach I didn't tried yet. I hope this one will work for me.

Apart from casting, that takes up huge chunks of my time, I also decided to make another cuff, and made project for another one. I could really use guillotine cutter, or good metal shears, because, even though I'm getting comfortable with using my saw, and getting to even like it (and that's a huge surprise for me, let me tell you), I absolutely abhor cutting through such thick sheet. I mean, it takes up to 15min to cut out 15cm x 2.5cm blank for the cuff! And after passing some length mark ( somewhere between 5 and 10cm ), my saw frame gets in the way, and bangs against the sheet, and keeping it going in straight line is tricky.
Anyway, here's how the cuff looks right now:

Unfinished cuff

It's close to finished, but I need to clean the etching up a little bit, and then of course oxidise it. I formed it, and then slapped myself in the forehead very hard, because I need to use gravers somehow on the etching! That means I need to flatten it again. I get overexcited sometimes, adding myself more work. But that's minor issue.

I also almost finished those lockets I've been working on for forever now. I have to clean them up, add all the finishing touches... and figure out what to do about a teeny-tiny slit that appeared in one joint on the raven locket. That's major reason as to why I haven't finished them yet.

So, that's it for now. I hope I'll have finished, nice castings next week!
Till the next time!
Kasia.

Delft clay casting, pt1: tools issues, copper issues, and a lot of issues in general. And shibuichi.

If you're following me on google+, you may know that I recently ordered supplies for casting. I have a lot of scrap copper laying around, and I wouldn't be able to make anything out of it, so I've decided to try my hand at casting. This way I could still use that copper, and it wouldn't be wasted.
 So, I've got my waxes, crucible, tongs, and of course the delft clay, and got to casting. And found out that melting copper is a pain. It either wouldn't melt at all, or wouldn't stay liquid long enough for me to pour it into the mould. It was frustrating, to say the least.

Tools!

I've spent 1.5 day trying to melt the copper. Then, at the second day, I manged to do this, and it aaalmost stayed liquid long enough to pour it, but it hardened as it was flowing toward the edge of the crucible. I deemed that partial success, and was eager to try again, and that's when I noticed this:

 

Poor torch :(

I did manage to melt the copper, but the plastic casing of my torch... not exactly melted, but, well, did what you can see in the pictures. I got pretty scared it wouldn't work, or that I wouldn't be able to change burners, but after it cooled I found out that I can remove the burner and attach another, the torch works, and the only damaged part is the upper right hand side of the casing closest to the nozzle.
Thankfully, the damaged part isn't anything vital for the torch operation, and the damage is superficial, and limited only to this side.

Feels ;(

But it's pretty clear that one won't melt copper without taking damage. So I had buy another. At first I wanted to order something via internet, but then anything I liked was expensive, and I would have to wait another several days before I would be able to continue my casting experiments, so in the end I went shopping, remembering that the shop I got this torch stocked also a bigger one, without any plastic parts near the nozzle.

It's huge and quite scary

This one makes the biggest flame I ever handled, and unfortunately doesn't have automatic ignition. By now, I got the hang of firing it up, but the first time was scaaryy. Sorry for the crappy pictures, by the way.
Huge flame or not, I still had problems melting the copper. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I can get it to a semi-liquid state, and then... it suddenly cools and solidifies. I don't know if I direct the flame wrong way or what, but that's what happens.
So I got rather discouraged and angry. I also remembered I had a little bit of scrap silver, and decided to see if I can melt that. And if I can pour it into the mould. It went much easier, though I had to try 3 or 4 time before I managed to get it into the mould without the metal solidifying half-way through.
However, I had only 2.8g, not enough to cast anything. But at least I got to practice pouring the metal. It's not that easy.
But I still wanted to melt that scrap copper. And today I read about Japanese copper and silver alloy, called shibuichi. It comes in different ratios: one is basically sterling silver, but there are other kinds with bigger amount of copper. It can be 90%copper 10% silver, or 95%copper 5%silver, or 60%silver 40% copper, and so on. There are also mixes with tiny percentage of gold (like 1%). what's more, it melts in lower temperature than copper and pure silver. I decided to make 70% copper 30%silver mix.
I thought I would have to melt copper entirely before adding silver. But, typically for Murphy's Law, when I needed molten copper, it just wouldn't melt. I got angry, and tossed the silver in when the copper wouldn't get to even the half-liquid state. The silver melted right away. And, surprise, surprise... suddenly I had crucible of fully liquid metal. It took seconds for copper to melt as well once the silver was introduced.
I managed to get it into the mould as well, and quite easily at that.

Crucible with a little bit of metal solidified near the edge. The red stuff is borax. Not sure why it's red.

I don't have enough of that alloy to cast any of the models I have, not even enough for one thin ring band, but I'm going to buy a bit of silver casting grain, and make some more.
It has a lovely colour, kind of silverish-brown with a light pink undertones. It reminds me mostly of pink gold, though it's lighter in colour.
I have only one, bad picture, but here it is:

Partial success at casting

The yellow is patina, it can be easily removed with sand paper. It's not anywhere near perfect, but I'm happy I can melt it, and keep it liquid long enough to obtain the cast. I'm not sure why there are those tiny dimples in the casting. I'm going to rummage through the internets and try to find out.
Ufff... so that was the first week of delft casting experiments. I'm definitely more encourage to keep learning this now that I actually have metal that I can melt. The details wouldn't be bad if it wasn't for those bubbles, holes, or whatever these are.
I hope the next week will be more better!
Till the next time,
Kasia.
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Drilling through titanium is not so scary, after all!

Remember I've got some titanium and was having loads of fun flame-colouring it, and a bit less fun wearing saw blades down like crazy? Well, I've finished one pendant (the other one is aaaalmost finished).
What I really feared was drilling holes for rivets. I ordered diamond drill bits to do the job, but was still quite apprehensive about the whole process. I even invented a very high-tech cooling set-up for drilling... namely: yoghurt container with thickly folded paper and enough water to keep the piece submerged. Oh and there was also plasticine layer to weight the paper down. High-tech, I tell you!
As it turned out, drilling was pretty easy. I fell in love with diamond drill bits, and would happily use them for anything, if only the weren't so expensive!
I also promptly broke one, but that wasn't titanium fault, it was all me.
Oh, I also bought rotary tool with flexishaft, and I absolutely love it! I makes drilling (and engraving) much easier!
The finished piece looks like this:

Copper and titanium wolf pendant

Placing the rivets was a little tricky, especially on the side with the pierced out moon. That's why the rivets are not evenly spaced.  I first drilled through copper alone, then taped both metals together, and drilled through titanium placing drill bit in holes in copper.

Back

The copper part is of course oxidised, as well as etched. The rivets are a bit chunky on the back of the pendant, because I decided to make balls at the ends of the wire, and them hammer them flat. That was less because of design choice, and more because I wanted to make my life easier, and have just one side of the rivet to worry about ;)

That photo captures colour better

It was a fun piece to make! I'm now (vaguely) planning to make some earrings out of leftover titanium, and maybe one more pendant(if there will be enough of the metal left for that). I also don't know what I did differently the second time I was sawing titanium, but I actually used up one less blade for a slightly bigger piece.
My thoughts on that metal so far: it gives interesting colour options, is very light, so it's great for earrings, and allows to make bigger pieces that will still be light, sawing it is a pain, as probably is forming it ( I didn't try that, but I'm guessing based on its hardness), drilling through it isn't a real challenge when you have diamond drill bits and go slow. You also can't solder it, so you can go creative with cold connections. Guessing by the drilling process, and the fact that the drill doesn't seem dulled or worn, you can probably engrave it with diamond engraving bits. That's one thing I'm going to try!

It's an interesting material to work with, and I'm going to experiment with it a bit more :)

Till the next time!
Kasia Follow my blog with Bloglovin

That weird salt water etching

Ah, salt water etching. A technique I use very often. Just to remind you (or introduce you to, if you've never heard of it) what it is: it's an etching technique, in which the traditional acids or mordants are replaced with salt water an weak electric current. The piece to be etched is submerged in over-saturated saline solution, and attached to positive charge. Scrap piece of metal is submerged as well, attached to negative charge. It's an electrolytic process.

Etching... see the bubbles? It's a negative terminal

 As with any etching, you need some kind of resist, and from what I read, finding one that works is trickier with this process than with traditional etching. Permanent markers, for example, are useless, as they wear off way to fast. I find nail varnish to be the best resist. Acrylic paint also works, but is more prone to coming off the etched piece. Nail varnish generally last throughout the whole process.

Lately, I've been working on bracelets. And I encountered problems I never had with this technique before. Depth of etching varied not only from piece to piece, but also within one piece alone. The texture of etched parts also varied. It's weird. And I don't get why is this happening. All pieces etched for the same amount of time, 3h. I always etch for this amount of time, as this gives (usually) a really nice, deep etch.

If I ever before had any problems, it was with too shallow etchingt, if I used solution so saturated with copper, that it wasn't as effective as before. But this is to be expected.

I, however, never had a piece that etched through. That is, until recently. I had to discard one project, because there were holes in some places. Again, the same sheet gauge, the same amount of time. Weird.

The first, slightly botched attempt at a cuff

So this was the first in the series of bracelets. Remember I was working on a wolf cuff? I didn't like the result, forgot about it for a while, and then decided to have a second go at it, with a bit different design. I would like this one if it wasn't for the wolf you see here, and another one closer to the end of the cuff.
Anyway, what I really do like about this cuff, is its texture. See here:

Texture of the first wolf cuff.

The texture of the etched parts is gorgeous. The etching is deep, texture is grainy, and just really nice. It looks like this on the whole cuff. This cuff etched for three hours, in freshly mixed saline solution.

Now, after seeing etching results, I decided to have another go, as I felt I can't sell this to anyone. So I made another wolf cuff.

The second wolf cuff, with better etched wolves

Here, I also wasn't 100% happy with the etching, but decided this one is good enough to put up for sale. I guess other people liked it better than me, as it's already sold. Anyway, I liked the image on this one, but the texture wasn't as nice. And uneven to boot. On one end it resembles the texture on the first cuff, on the other end, the etching is shallower, and the texture is... not as interesting.

Texture on the second cuff

This picture shows the texture around the middle of that cuff. You can really see the difference, but it still is somewhat similar to the first cuff. But near the end...

Texture on the second cuff, near one end

 The grain is sparser here, not to mention those... lines? grooves? I have no idea what caused this. As I mentioned, etching here is shallower, but this is not that weird, considering that it etched in already used solution. What is weird, however, is that the etching doesn't have uniform depth: it's deeper on one end than the other. It also etched for 3h.

The next cuff I made was the raven cuff.

Raven cuff

I'm awfully happy with etching on this one. However, that one is weirder that the last. It etched in fresh solution. For three hours, as is the case with all of them. And the etching is a lot shallower than on the first wolf cuff. And it also differs in depth on this one! I don't get it!
Look:

Texture on one end of raven cuff

Here, it's grainy, and of decent depth. Not as nice as on the first wolf cuff, but pretty nice. No grooves, lines, or any other weird stuff ( and yes, I know I use the word weird a lot in this post).
And the other end?

Why is this happening?!?

A lot shallower, not as grainy, but still uniform texture. If anyone have any idea as to why this may be occurring, I sure would like to know!

And that's not all. After the wolf cuff sold, I decided to make another wolf cuff, with different design of course. So I cut the strip out of the same copper sheet I used for all those bracelets, put it in solution, etched it for three hours, cleaned it... and almost had a fit. Why? Because of this:

A hole!!!

Holes! Holes in the metal! Ugh!

And not just one at that!

I didn't bother with cleaning it properly, there was no point. But, what is, again, weird here? Of course, it etched through only on one side! The other one looks like this:

The end without holes

It's etched to about the depth I was expecting, texture is bizarre, true, but overall it's what I thought I would see after removing the nail varnish. Well, that one went to a certain box, and waits there until I finally decide whether I want to try delft clay casting or not. It would be shame to waste all that copper, after all.

Oh, and I also had one more unpleasant surprise. Remember titanium pieces I'm working on? Well, I made copper parts, cut them, painted them, put them into etching... and one etched perfectly, and the other one etched through, and I had to start over. And they both were etching at the same time!
So frustrating!

As I mentioned, I have no idea why this started happening. It doesn't make much sense to me. The set up is the same. The salt I'm using is the same. The source of electricity didn't change, and nor did the voltage. It's just so weird. Anyone has any ideas?

Till the next time!
Kasia

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Playing with titanium

Last Friday I did something very, very out of character for me: I bought something on an impulse. I never buy stuff impulsively. Never, ever. And this one time I did. I ordered some titanium. Yes, titanium. A small piece: 2.54cm x 15.24cm, and 0.4mm thick. I was really surprised when it was delivered today: talk about fast shipping!

The monster... aka small, thin titanium strip.

Anyway, since Friday I was wondering if I will be able to even cut it, as titanium is notoriously hard metal. I had also no idea what I would make out of it, until yesterday.

Quick and dirty "concept sketches". I started with the wolf one.

Naturally, when it arrived, I just had to play with it! What I can say after one day of handling titanium, is this: it's incredibly light metal. Honestly, I was surprised. Almost felt like aluminium. It's lighter than copper, but much, much stronger (obviously). The strip I ordered came annealed, so it's soft, as far as titanium goes, but it still is pretty hard. I was able to bend the strip a bit, though not permanently. It has also kind of satiny feel to it. I really can't describe it better than that.


I was a bit worried about my saw blades. I just couldn't imagine how many of them I would use up cutting through the metal (or, indeed, if it will be at all feasible with the blades I have). I'm happy to say it went better than I expected. I cut out a teardrop shape, about 2.5cm in height, and maybe 2cm in the widest place.

The titanium blank, and all the saw blades that perished cutting it out.

I used up three blades on that. The last one still had some teeth left.

Click for close up on those poor blades

Now I'm wondering if I should buy better blades just for titanium, or if there's no point in that. I wouldn't like to spend £4 on 10 blades only to find out they dull as quickly as the ones I'm using right now.

After that was cut...

The first blade was done for.

After I cut the shape out, I had a bit tidying up left do do, especially in one place. I filed the sides down a bit, and this went pretty fast. I was surprised, I thought it would be much more difficult.

By the way, the little teardrop shape can't be bent. I mean, I just used my hands, and didn't apply unreasonable force, but it's really stiff. I'm trying to imagine hardened titanium, and I can't ;P

The shop I ordered the titanium from had also niobium, and I was tempted to buy that instead, but there is one little, teeny-tiny issue that was the key factor in my decision to buy the dreaded titanium after all. Niobium has some awesome oxides, that come in an awesome array of colours. Titanium has pretty much identical colour range, with one difference: you can colour titanium with a torch, but, as far as I know, you can't do that with niobium. And I didn't feel like playing with high voltages required for anodising niobium. I mean, they start low, around 10V, but go beyond the 100V mark, and that's positively scary.

The pendant I started working on requires only one colour: deep blue. There will be another part of titanium visible, but I plan to leave that one its normal silver-gray colour. The second one will require light blue and gold.

As I was experimenting with flame colouring today, I made a mistake and overheated the piece. That changed the colour I was aiming for, the deep blue, to light blue with some whitish splotches. So I had to sand that down, and start again. This way, I got an answered to my question: will I be able to obtain two colours on one piece? The answer is yes.

Heat coloured titanium. Not perfect, but just look at those hues!

When you heat titanium, its colour changes somewhat in this sequence: first, it's getting a bit more... silver-ish. Then, a bit brownish, that it gets a really nice golden colour, and then the colour shifts towards blue spectrum: first a purple, then deep blue, then sky blue, then gets almost white. From what I read, the next colours would be greens and pinks, and finally dark grey, almost black. I didn't get to those colours though.

 What is important here, for me, is that when I was making a second attempt at deep blue, I wasn't working on an entirely clean piece. I sanded a part of it, but another part stayed sky blue. Thanks to this, I know now that for the second piece I can easily obtain sky blue and gold on one piece of metal. The coloured part didn't change one bit.

 I must say, I absolutely love the wide range of colours you can create this way! Flame colouring titanium is much easier than it is with copper: I know, I tried. Apparently, I'm hopeless with obtaining heat patina on copper

Now I just have to wait for diamond drills bits to arrive, because you can't solder titanium, so I will have to rivet it and the copper together. I did make first opening in the copper part of the pendant today, just to see how the two look together.

First opening made.

It looks better than in this picture. I didn't cut all of them, as it was pretty late already, and I though my neighbours wouldn't be very happy if they had to listen to drilling for much longer ;)

After one day experience with titanium, I can say that it's definitely an interesting material to work with, and its colourful oxides provide a whole range of possibilities. I can't way to finish this piece, and to see how it will turn out!

I'm also wondering if my engraving bits would survive engraving titanium... they do have diamond tips, and I have two sets of them, but still. I wonder how long they would last...

Till the next time!
Kasia

Mixed media pendant and locket in progress

 Remember I wrote some time ago about making a locket? Well, I'm making a third attempt right now, and that one looks like it may actually get finished :) The first attempt became rubbish pretty quickly, the second... wasn't looking that bad until I started to finish it off, and noticed just then that one of the walls got soldered on skewed. After that I took a break form locket-making, and yesterday started a third one. I also completely changed the design. On a more difficult one. Typical me ;)

But I'm pretty happy with how it looks like right now, and I'm only a chain, a bail, and finished hinge away from completing, so I hope this one will end up nice and all. Although, if it will be good enough for me to even consider putting it up for sale, I have no idea how to price it. I don't think I can use my usual pricing formula, because I had so many problems with soldering the hinge knuckles on, that I spent 4 hours today on this task alone. Yes, four. And I was quite close to losing my mind by the time I finished it. But I did finally manage to solder them on, so as far as the hinge goes, I just need to set a hinge pin in place. I hope this will go easier.

So, here it is:

Still a lot to do, but I like it.

It's greenish inside, because I took those pictures after the first batch of pickle stopped working, and before I made another one. It dried in the meantime, and the verdigris patina is the result. I don't know if you can see it, but there are two layers inside: the raven in a foreground, and a branch in a background. Surprisingly for me, I didn't have any problems with sawing the bird out, nor with soldering it and the branch inside the locket. A major miracle, I feel.

As for the mixed media pendant... I was reading something, someone mentioned mixed media jewellery, someone else was complaining how they've got too many interests, and how to combine all of them, and I've got a light bulb moment, and just had to try something like that. And that pendant (well, right now a part of one) is the result:

 

I'm shamelessly happy with it

The frame of the pendant is copper, the painting is acrylic and Indian ink on watercolour paper, with mica powders on the moon and on the spirals on the wolf's face, and the painting is encased in resin.

Funny thing is, I really don't like painting miniatures, yet somehow always get ideas where I have to paint or draw one anyway. Though I had a lot of fun painting this one! And I already have and idea for a second pendant.

One picture is just not enough

I really like how the frame turned out. I had no idea how it was going to end up, I only knew it will wrinkle. But I just love the look of it. And I rather like that folding it like that is somewhat unpredictable.

However, there is one slight problem: after I poured the resin, I carefully passed a torch over it to get rid of bubbles. And I did. There were none. And yet, when the resin was almost dry, I check on it... and there were two huge bubbles on the lower right hand side of the pendant. And they popped, and left two dimples in resin. You can see them in the pictures. I will have to add another layer: the dimples will still be visible, but the paper won't be exposed to outside world.

If not for those dimples, I would be ecstatic about this one.

And I also made a mistake: I got over-exited about the painting, encased it in resin, and  then realised that for the bail I designed, I should wait with it until the end. I wanted the bail to go directly through the loop. And now I can't do this, because I can't solder anything that near to the part with resin. I designed another bail, and will see how it will turn out.

I also made three cuffs, and a ring, but this post is getting long, so that's it for now:)

Till the next time!
Kasia

Homotherium's jewellery debut!

As I've mentioned in previous post, I've been thinking about merging my passion for jewellery with my passion for palaeontology, and I did just that! The first palaeo-pieces are dedicated to Homotherium, and in particiular, to Homotherium latidens, an Eurasian species. 

For those who don't know much about that saber-toothed cat, let me write an introduction: Homotherium is a genus of machairodontidae family (one of several families, spread along three different biological taxa, of animals commonly referred to as saber-toothed cats), one that lived during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs. It was a rather successful genus, ranging from both Americas, Eurasia and Africa, and existing for approximately 5 million years. Homotherium is sometimes referred to as a scimitar cat, or a scimitar-toothed cat: this is because it has a different, shorter type of canines than its better known cousins like, for example, Smilodon. Its canines also have serrated edges, and those probably helped with cutting through thick hide of the preferred prey.

You already saw that one, but introduction without a picture is no introduction!

Homotherium displays an array of adaptations to life in cold climates, and more cursorial lifestyle than typical for most cats. It had large nasal opening, which allowed it to breathe faster (by which I mean it was able to breathe in and out quite rapidly, and that's really important if you want to run fast, just ask any horse ;) helping with running and cooling the brain. It had also large and complex visual cortex, which suggest it was more diurnal rather than nocturnal like most other cats. Homotherium's limbs were proportionally long, and, interestingly, its forelegs were longer than its hind legs, giving it sloped, hyaena-like appearance. Feet on the back legs were also partially plantigrade, to allow a greater contact with substrate on which the animal walked, making it easier for it to move across the snow.

Apart from being adapted to a more cursorial, active lifestyle than most cats, it was also a big-game hunter. It's typically associated with higher altitudes, and most common in the North, alongside big prey animals such as mammoths and woolly rhinos. Some evidence suggests that it specialised in hunting juvenile mammoths. This in turn suggests that those cats probably hunted in prides, similar to modern day lions. Animals whose remains are found alongside those of Homotherium's would be very difficult for an individual cat to bring down. Homotherium was about the size of a modern male African lion.

It first became extinct in Africa (about 1.5 million years ago), than in Eurasia, with the youngest found remains estimated to being about 28 000 years old (though that may not be correct estimate) about the time when climate shifted, and forests became more dominant in the landscape. Homotherium was a cold steppe hunter, and the shift to more forested environment favoured prey it was not well equipped to hunt). The genus lasted longest in North America, until about 10 000 year ago. Evidence from South America is scant, with a few recorded fossils of 1.8 million year old H. venezuelensis. It's hard to tell how long the genus lasted there, but it certainly did partake in the Great American Interchange, alongside Smilodon. 

It also happens to be one of my favourite saberteeth (hope that's the correct plural;) 

And as for the jewellery:

There's a necklace:

I must say that it was fun to make it (and earrings as well). I wanted it to feature Homotherium specifically, and not just some generic sabertooth head. To make the image, I first found a picture of Homotherium's skull (and it was H. latidens to be exact), drew a grid on it, copied in on a piece of paper, then scaled it down, drew soft tissue on the skull, and then scaled the whole thing even more, so it would fit on the pendant. It was an interesting exercise. The rest was easy, and typical: adding scrolls to the design, making the chain, the bail, oxidising...

And while I'm writing about the skull: it's rather long, and the lower jaw has down-turned flanges, that helped to protect the canines. The skull has also a well-developed crest, and that means that these animals had a hell lot of muscles to power the lower jaw. 

The necklace is 50cm ( 10 4/16in) long, and the pendant is 3.2cm (1 4/16in) in diameter. 

I forgot to use polarizing filter. Oh, well...

 There are also earrings, as I've already mentioned:

The images of the heads here I made exactly the same way as on the pendant. I must say that fitting them on a 1cm wide strip of metal was fun... I also decided to solder a jump ring to each earring, instead of making a whole in them. And of course I ended with solder all over the place. And what is really irritating about that? I had a little dish with yellow ocher pastel powder at hand. I just forgot it was there. I will either get really good at soldering, and stop getting solder everywhere, or will invent some extremely effective way of getting rid of the stuff, or maybe I will actually develop some decent memory, and stop forgetting about things like using something to stop the solder from flowing where I don't want it to go... The second one from all of these is the most probable development ;P

I've also got a new lens, and I already like it much, much better than the old one.

While making the earrings, I decided to play with a saw a bit more than usual, to practice. I know, it's not a very intricate shape, but I'm happy with it, especially because I managed to cut each earring in one continuous loop. That's really good, considering my sawing skills... or lack thereof... I now actually have some hopes of developing decent sawing-capabilities. Not so long ago I would not believe it possible. Unthinkable: my saw started to cooperate with me ( or, more likely, I stopped stopping it from doing its work properly) ;) The earrings are 4.5cm (6 with ear wire) or approx 1.8in (~2.4in counting ear wire) long.

So, that's that. Necklace is available here, and earrings here. And I also got renaissance wax, and I'm going to see how it works. Right now I now only one thing: it stinks like shoe polish ;P I hope it was worth the price tough. 

Till the next time!

Kasia

PS. should someone like a print with Homotherium, or, I don't now, a mug or something, I'm on redbubble. And I sometimes actually upload something there... 
PS2. Sources! I forgot to list the sources I used, and now I'm embarrassed! So here we go:
Ascanio D. Rincón, Francisco J. Prevosti & Gilberto E. Parra "New saber-toothed cat records (Felidae: Machairodontinae) for the Pleistocene of Venezuela, and the Great American Biotic Interchange", Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 31 (2), pages 468-478, DOI:10.1080/02724634.2011.550366
http://www.wired.com/2010/11/facing-homotherium/
http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/h/homotherium.html