Self- evlauation

For the total cost of 141.66, I am pleased with the overall look of my model as the use of brass metal shows that the item is a piece of jewelry, without the image of the original on show. I believe that brass sheets were effective and layer up well, though I knew there would be areas where the viewer cannot see the metal's surface underneath the feathers and overlapping plates. For a highly polished finish, I would like to use gold solder and wire if I were to make the object again. Perhaps an overall cheaper option for this project would be to make another Kingfisher hair piece with Silver backing. By cutting aluminium by hand and using regular solder, the project would have become less focused on the finish of the metal work, and more about the feather enamelling. I feel that making a smaller piece would have allowed me to try the technique of laying individual feather filaments alongside each other, to fill a much smaller area. However, by simply chopping all the feathers into square shapes and laying them out in diagonals across the plates, the mosaic effect in the original is achieved. This is evident in some places in my model, though I was inconsistent by laying the larger feathers in swirling patterns to the shape of the plate. I believe that the use of real Kingfisher feathers was appropriate to the function of the object by accurately representing the colour and sheen of the original. Though I have found sources discouraging the use of Kingfisher feathers in Jewelery, I believe that this was the most accurate method to convey the issue discussed in my back board and therefore, should be suitable for use in educational models. After all, if it is legal to buy Kingfisher feathers for Fly fishing and craft purposes, many people can easily get hold of them without considering where the Kingfishers have come from and if they are endangered.

Cleaning up

Once my backboard was printed and fitted to the foam board, I decided that the gold foam surrounding my object would not fit neatly within the cut out square, leaving a bumpy, unprofesional finish. For a more clean cut display, I made the decision to remove the foam completely from the backing, leaving a black painted space surrounding the object. This ties the board together as black is used to back the image of another Kingfisher hair piece I chose to use. The space for the object was masked off using a cut out that I drew slightly larger and simpler than the laser cut tests for the backplate. While this area was to remain gold, I sprayed the surrounding boarder with black, matt paint. Once this had dried, I secured the object in position with strong, double sided tape to make sure that it is secure but removable without damage to the object.

Prior to attaching the replica to the backboard, I noticed how some areas had attracted dust or dirt into the glue. To get rid off some of this excess, I brushed on boiling water to re-melt the glue where it had been applied too thickly. I could then use another brush to bring some of the glue off, finishing with paper towel to absorb the excess moisture. The effect of doing this meant that the colouring in the kingfisher feathers could be brought out to a greater intensity while areas of clumped glue where removed completely.

Presentation and backboard

My backboard has been simplified from my original plans so as to fit around the A4 object and it's foam casing. I will be printing the Illustrator document as a PDF on a large format printer in the visual communication department of the University. The paper to be used has a slight gloss finish, ideal for bringing out the intensity of the colour ink. Once I have secured my print to the foam bard, I may wish to reinforce the back of my board with MDF as there are gaps between the brass sheet and foam board. I will also decide whether to use acrylic on top of my graphics to protect my display board and object.

Finished model

Assembling

Once the process of layering feathers and twisted wire detailing had set, I could start to bring all the plates together. Removing the shapes from my brass sheets took a while as each piece had to be cleaned up and sanded to remove the tabs. Once I had all my plates, I could begin to assemble them in my decided order, allowing certain areas to overlap. When I was attaching the feathers, I tried to make sure that the real Kingfisher sections would be placed in the most vi sable areas once the plates overlapped. I am allowing plenty of time for the assembling process as areas can fall off and move while the glue is setting. I have also incorporated small strips of foam tape as explained in my diagram.

Costings

Using realistic materials and processes has proven this to be quite an expensive project so far.
Here is a summary of what I have spent:
Brass etchings, (3*A4 at 0.3mm thick, + tooling + postage) = £105.00
Duck feathers dyed kingfisher blue * 28 = £2.56
Kingfisher wing covert feathers * 10 = £7.80
Kingfisher wing feathers * 20 = 17.00, (+ 10 free)
Glue: had
Braso: had
Tools: had
There are currently more feathers in the post at a cost of £9.30.

Still, compared to an original piece this is extremely cheap ! Surviving hairpieces can be found on ebay in varying conditions for hundreds of pounds. A piece as big as my hairclip would cost thousands today.

Drawing to PPD's guidelines

As I have been editing the colours to my drawings, I have been in contact with PPD to ensure they are correct before committing to them being brass etched. Their company proved very helpful as they provided guidelines and sample files for me to follow. Firstly, I had to adjust all my illustrator files onto two layers to include tabs and a boarder to hold them to the sheet once they were cut. After emailing this I was then instructed to draw a boarder round each piece so that the minimum of brass would be wasted. This process took much longer than I expected as all the shapes are fairly close together with their boarders overlapping. The way I drew the lines meant that they did not always join up completely, making the fill process fill in black where it shouldn't. To get around this, Will showed me how to selectively fill sections once I had brought the layers together on one layer. During this time I also realised the pitfalls to my tabs being one mm thick. PPD suggested that these areas could be half etched, but I decided on the slightly cheaper option of making the whole brass sheet thinner. Will showed me what 0.3 thickness brass looks like, and I decided that this would give a better flex to my plates as well as speed up the etching process.