More Niobium. Pin. 2/2.

Another late night last night, fiddling with the blog and posting publicity for it all over my social networking sites. That meant another late start today, but I worked simpler and faster, so I finished my piece a little earlier than yesterday's.

A minor panic about an hour and a half ago, when I'd just set up the computer to load my new images and we had a power outage. Nobody's laptop was well charged enough to handle the job. Thankfully the power came back on, so here I am.

I had all sorts of ideas running through my head when I went out to the studio this afternoon, so hopefully some of those will come in handy over the next few days. Once at the bench, I decided to do something else with niobium, but to set the voltage lower on my anodiser for a different colour.
The result is a lovely pinkish mauve. Unfortunately, the lights in the shed don't do it justice. I'm so looking forward to receiving the mini light tent and  lights I've ordered, so I can take better shots. Of course, if I started earlier and finished in daylight, natural light would also be a help.

Recently, I made a primrose necklace in titanium and silver. Today's little stick pin echoes that design, in a much simpler form.

Floral Pin. Sterling silver and niobium.

The lighting issues and the lack of a way to limit reflections mean I've got some colour issues here. For a start, this was shot on a white background! I haven't worried about photoshopping.
What looks like a gold strip at one side of the half dome is actually glare from the silver. The brighter area of colour to the centre is pretty much what the niobium piece is like all over. The rest is shiny sterling silver. Again, I'm happy with this one, so there will very likely be some related pieces soon.

I've had a love of titanium for years now. I'm only just discovering how much more versatile niobium is, in terms of its workability and capacity to take surface colour. Also, I love my little anodiser from Reactive Metals, bought with my prize money from York 2010. One of the best purchases I've made for my studio. I'm looking forward to spending more time getting to know this little machine and what it can do for me.

Tomorrow presents an interesting challenge. I have work in the morning for a couple of hours, and the same again in the evening, plus a doctors appointment in the afternoon. Squeezing in studio time will require a bit of creative scheduling. I might start planning my piece tonight, to get a head start.
Too early in the challenge to take shortcuts yet. Time to put pencil to paper in my visual diary!