Here she is all full of (intentional) holes.

I spend a lot of time trying not to put holes in the metal but this time i wanted 'em. I just backed it up with plywood and put a big drill through, goes through like its cheese. The centre hole for filling the bowl with water i did with a hole saw/plug thingy. Interestingly it sort of melts as it goes through so gives it a bevelled edge, quite neat really. The poor angel suffered a hole through her chest and the big'un through her... well through her.  Notice i rolled out a sheet of plasticine to back it up for the hammering action to start.

Slight progress...

So the pewter did arrive yesterday. The delivery guy was intrigued to find out just what this heavy flat thing was but was satisfied with "pewter sheet".  So i've drawn out and angle and marked on the holes that the rose stems go through. Even managed not to put a hole through her boobs or face!.....now comes the hammering bit , which i'm rather looking forwards to. I've not really done any on flat sheet before, i hope it is easy and smooth as it looks like it might be , but i wont hold my breath. I've left a good margin at the edge to rim and turn so it fits like a lid on the bowl... that's the hope anyway....Smoke me a kipper!

The new shed in its glory, Its been raining for months so the turf i put on the roof and confidently expected to die is flourishing, in fact its too long! rather typically i've half finished it and now all the small jobs are being ignored.

My bench constructed out of HUGE 8" wide planks from the builders merchants with the idea it would deaden noise and stop the bouncing about. Its on a block pier and stakes sunk into the earth floor. I can recommend and earth floor as its just earth! And if i drop things they don't bounce away to be forever lost! Notice in a fit of organisation i've hung everything up, i know if i cant see a tool i wont use the dammed thing. Quite a lot of light gets through those glass bricks too and they were cheap from Truro Reclamation. Rail track is waiting and polished.

The other end and what the wife likes to say is her end, notice the fancy front, that burnt out my £10 jig saw! But its there to try to limit flexing. The etching press is very useful for flattening metal. See the Cardoon is doing wel outside too.

Of course what everyone needs is a bowling ball on a stick. I had expressed and interest in a bowling ball meaning a wooden one to help shape the bowls but that's what the wife came up with and who am i to argue. Its uber bouncy and might well be good....the compressor is there as i thought id spray paint the craggy wall, what really happened is it made an awful mess and gave me a head ache.

And big news I got and anvil! Its probably been used for the last hundred years to beat horse shoes and its well worn not flat but boy is it heavy!, rings like a bell too.

 Now on with the motley. Nice hammer ah! and a bit of pewter see what i can make out of this....

 Apparently i can make a mess out of that...the air was blue i stretched it just a might to far. See that chink of light that's what disaster looks like in a pewter bowl. In fact there were three splits. that's triple horrible. I had to scout round to try to save a couple of days work. i have some ultra low melt solder, but i had to borrow some "backers number three" flux from a mate. (i bough him a new lots..ten quid!)..so what could possibly go wrong.

Plenty can go wrong and usually does.I can for example solder two holes up fine then in triumph linger a second to long and blow a hole straight through it...the air was blue the chickens blushed.

No time to cry over it all, it is a blow someone wants to pay me for after all i started again.. and here it is sans any splits and pretty deep. Its going to be a "rose bowl" so it has to be a bit deep.

No time to cry over it all, it is a bowl someone wants to pay me for after all i started again.. and her it is sans any splits and pretty deep. Its going to be a "rose bowl" so it has to be a bit deep.

 And after a bit of frantic hammering and thinking of designs i fixed on Tudor roses as they are bold and ordinary roses look like cabbages in relief.  As usual i make it harder by putting foliage on it too.

Her it is Plasticine on the outside and beaten out. A bit of adjustment was needed as it looked better on the inside than the out but i'm sorting that out.

The plasticine is ever the problem i mixed some with Vaseline in an effort to get it softer to mould in but it made it incredibly sticky to and very hard to remove. Eventually i steeled on coating the bowl in Vaseline and putting it on top of that which made it easier to get off but still hard work and very very hard to clean up. My idea of a proper Rose bowl has a top too, with hole sin it to place the rose stems in and i have a nice angel design in mind, but no pewter. So I'm waiting for that to arrive from Birmingham right now. Pewter prices seem a bit lower than the last time i bought it to but postage more!...cant win ah.