Polishing up the bronze

I've been polishing for the last few days.  I don't know why I hand polish my pieces instead of throwing them into a tumbler.  I guess it's part of the process for me.  After putting all that work into making the piece before it goes into the kiln, I have a need to come full circle by polishing. 

So all that color you see when they come out of the kiln....gets polished.  Most of it goes away leaving just a shadow of what was there.  Some pieces retain  more color than others.  Don't know why.  It's a mystery!!

 A big ass lentil, some coins and other pieces.  The coins came from molds of the originals.  I bought some ancient coins a while back so I could mold them.  The coins are really cool and some date back to 300 A.D.

 The piece on the right really held onto it's color when I polished it.  Again...I don't know why.

 I drive through an industrial ghetto on the way to work everyday.  There is one bridge I go under with these huge metal girders and rivets...hundreds of huge rivets.  Seeing this everyday has sunk into my conscious and subconscious brain.  You see girders and rivets show up in my work all the time. 

 The pieces with holes will be laced with leather.

I love the piece in the center.  It came out much better than I expected.  It's from a mold and very dimensional.  More coins

 Except for the sundial, these pieces are Adinkra symbols from Ghana. They each have their own meanings. I made these too large. I need to make them much smaller.  I can see these being worn as small medallions close to the neck or included in a grouping of items. 

The sundial is from a pottery shard in the Louvre.

Smaller pieces, earrings, and some dog bones that I used as connectors in necklaces. 

I still have more bronze pieces to make. The list is piling up in my head.  I'll get back to the bench again Thursday night and over the weekend.  And the housework will once again pile up....I need a maid...anybody want to clean my house for jewelry??

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