Surface of the Sun

Finally you get to see the brooch i was so happy with from last semester.

This isn't the most in focus shot i have of it (i've been doing some better ones- still not fantastic, but better for my dossier), but i felt this had more artistic quality for the piece. It appears to be glowing more, which is appropriate given it's modelled after the surface of the sun around a sun spot.

The technique is repousse' (can't spell it lol) and patination. The patination was just condy crystals (potassium permanganate, some of THE prettiest chemical crystals i have ever seen 83 ) but i don;t think it actually worked >.>
It was supposed to give polished brass a glossy bright yellow finish, but the finish remained neutral polished brass >.<; But yea... nevermind. I like it anyway.

So, it's a brooch, made from brass (1mm? ), gold coloured tiger-tail wire for the magnetic field arcs, hardened steel for the pin shaft and coated in an anti-rust thing that was meant to protect the patina (thats the high gloss sheen you can see). I needed incra-lac, but couldn't get any at the time.
I can't remember how long it took me to make, but as anyone who's done repousse' would know, that alone takes hours. very theraputic work though, much like chain making, only more fun lol.

So, the surface of the sun is actually bubbles of hydrogen formed from the core fusion of protons into helium atoms.
The sun is of course so huge that as it rotates around its own axis, it's magnetics fields drag and get tangled, thus creating high pressure areas on the surface that we see as Sun spots. From these comes flares where the bands of magnetic energy come under so much pressure they can break and shoot plasma out into the surrounding solar system.
Black spots arent actually black either, It's just in comparisson to the rest of the surface, they aren't hot enough to show up as brightly. With the naked eye ( no light filtration) they cannot be seen. Of course, nothing can be see without filtration, because that burns out your retinas, ididot

So yes, my adoration for space goes well with my love of metalsmithing, i wish i'd had time to make a whole series like this. It's abstract, true, but in a pseudo realism way once you know the context

Whatever, i'm wanking on, just enjoy the shiny sun thing.

Original by me, 2010.