Completed cuttlebone cast with a journalistic style shot
Introduction
Now that the piece is cast it is tempting to hurry up and finish it. With my first couple of cuttlebone casts I just tied a ribbon or a necklace right around the button and said the piece was finished. Later on I realized that proper finishing is what makes a great piece “pop.”
Finishing a piece is a multistep process. First you must decide how to hang the piece, and if it did not cast exactly as you hoped, what to do with it. Second, you must create an area to put the finding, or the hop that a necklace cord can go through. The third step is polishing and cleaning the piece. The last step is taking good pictures of the piece to use in your portfolio
Deciding how to hang the piece
Deciding how to hang a piece is very important. Remember to fight your initial instinct to hang it from the button or how you originally designed it. Look at the piece from different angles and try hanging it in different ways. Upside down is not upside down until you decided that it is.
Sometimes you will have miscasts. These can range from one little area not filling to only a quarter of the piece fills. I have had pieces where the bottom third filled and the top third filled but the middle third was just a burnt alley way. It is always tempting to throw those pieces back into the scrap. I would recommend fighting that urge and looking at it more closely. Sometimes the piece can still be used as a pendant, especially if you think about hanging it in a different way. I have found that small miscasts sell well at art fairs and that it is good to have a few pieces under $20 or $30 at the table.
If you don’t believe a miscast can work as a pendant on its own you can always add it to another piece or add several of them together. I have put small cuttlebone parts into pendants with stones ha. You can also chain several of them together to form a unique piece. Just take a second before throwing miscasts back into the crucible for melting.
Creating a finding area
This pendant has the finding soldered right to the button
After you have decided how to hang the piece you need to either create a finding area or create a chain. If you decide to solder the hoop directly to the piece remember a few golden rules. For starters the cleaner the better, which mean you want the pre soldered closed hoop and pendant completely clean in the pickle before you solder it on.
Remember when it comes to soldering you want a plane to plane contact not point to plane or point to point. That means you want to flatten a small area on the piece where you intend to solder a flatten area of the hoop. This gives the two areas a plane to plane contact.
You can flatten the area several ways. You can either use a file, sand paper or a power tool like the flex shaft. The method you use should be whatever is the most comfortable for you. For myself I tend to use a file and then smooth the area with some sandpaper.
For chains it is easiest to completely construct the chain before you either solder the hoop to the piece or attach it around the piece. Making chains is a great way to practice solder and can really add an element to the piece. Chains are time consuming to construct and if the piece will be priced cheaper you might not want to go that route.
Adding a finding
When adding a finding to a cuttlebone cast there are a few methods that work well. First having a third arm is essential because it holds the hoop in place. I usually balance the piece on the edge of a siderite board that is on top of a honeycomb. I try not to balance it directly on the honeycomb because the honeycomb can suck up a lot of heat.
I line up the two planes I want to solder and place the solder I intend to use on the table. I add the flux and heat the piece. I usually heat it until the flux turns glassy then turn off the torch. I place the solder onto the piece touching both parts. I have a stainless steel pick ready in case I need to move some solder.
When heating the pendant remember that the cuttlebone cast is actually a huge hunk of silver. It has more condensed mass then sheet silver. When applying the heat do not apply too much heat to the hoop because if the hoop heats up too fast it will pull the solder up onto it. Therefore focus the heat on the pendant and occasional flick the flame upwards. Sometimes for really large cuttlebone cast pendants I will only apply heat directly to the pendant until the solder runs. Then I bring the heat to the hoop and watch it fill the area between the two parts perfectly. This takes a lot of practice.
For chains I put the hoop through the area I want it to go then solder it shut. Sometimes I can balance the point on the siderite board, which is super easy, and let it fill. For more difficult chains I will use the third arm and use the pick to put a ball of solder where I want it.
Polishing
The best way to polish most cuttlebone casts is in the tumbler. Before throwing the piece into the tumbler let it clean in hot pickle for a few minutes or cooler pickle for maybe an hour. If the piece is solid silver, which cuttlebone casts tend to be, then just put it into the tumbler for 3 to 12 hours.
You can also hand polish the piece with a rouge cloth or with a polishing wheel. This seems a little excessive to me unless this is a high quality piece you intend to sell for a lot of money or it has a stone set in it. Remember to polish it well before selling the piece or before taking photos.
Taking pictures
I need to reshoot this piece not on a black background
Taking good pictures of cuttlebone casts is difficult. If the photograph is too dark the ridges come out but the piece looks gloomy. If it’s too bright you don’t see the ridges. It really takes a lot of practice and time to get this right. Also every cuttlebone pendant is a little bit different. Remember to keep all the photos you take and wait till you look at then on a larger computer screen before deciding which ones to toss.
If you are intending to sell these pieces online then you need to think of more journalistic shots. People tend to like journalistic shots when buying handmade goods online. That means there are parts out of focus and the piece is on a multi-color or fun background. Not just the standard black velvet or grey board background
Conclusion
After you have completed the finishing process, you come to naming and pricing. I have found that it is crucial to give a cuttlebone cast a good name. I have sold cuttlebone cast pendants on the name alone. Don’t just name it “cuttlebone cast #34” look at it and come up with a name. If you can’t come up with a name just show the piece to some random people and ask them what they see and then bring out your thesaurus.
Giving a cuttlebone cast a price is hard. Because you used scrap silver, the price of cuttlebones is cheap and because in theory it doesn’t take too much labor to make a cuttlebone cast pendant the cost should be low. If you go by normal percentage markups for most cuttlebones you won’t make that much profit. I tend not use a formula of 20% or 50% more then materials with cuttlebone casts. I mark it up as much as I feel is fair and reasonable which could be 500% for smaller pieces. Although that piece will still only cost $20.
Lastly when selling cuttlebone casts remember to tell the story. People who are interested will love the fact that it is an ancient casting method and comes from a squid like creature. I usually ask people if they have friends who own birds and then describe a cuttlebone from there. It is also fun to mention that Forks in Harry Potter picks at a cuttlebone in her cage in front of Harry in the book Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets!
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