Hi Jon,
At first I'm sorry that I answer only today. But I was for a few days "hors de combat“.
Thank you for your friendly comment. Those "Pebble-chains" were in many exhibitions a runner. Here:
http://grainsofglass.ning.com/forum/topics/stone-texture-recipes?commentId=4554471%3AComment%3A70517
you can found a description, how I the metal-part of the chains produced. And within this, you can download a PDF-file how I did the enamel-stones. It is a great pleasure to make the "stones" because all enamel-mistakes are allowed.
To your question how to produce the hemispheres. I have a description onto an old hard disk. I'll connect it the next days with my PC and then I send you the description.
Edmund
Hi Edmund
Thanks for the pdf I appreciated it, good description. Sorry to hear you have not been well I hope you are feeling a lot better.
I will keep your pdf as I anticipate I might want to try doming.
By the way, I do copper and nickel electroplating - I bought equipment and supplies from a knowledgeable supplier. One of his interests is electroforming and since this topic first cropped up I have been interested perhaps more at an academic level than a practical one whether electroforming could be used for this purpose without leaving any traces. The obvious solution is just to plate a sphere coated with a conductor but that leaves something inside the sphere.
After reading your pdf I think I can now see that two accurately made hemispheres could be easily joined by electroforming if the edges were filed to 45 degrees and still met fairly accurately. The electroforming would perform the same role as a butt weld with chamfered mating edges. It would be necessary to mask out the majority of each sphere. Electroforming is simply electroplating but with much thicker deposits.
This may not be a very practical solution, especially if the solder method is quick and efficient, it may however be useful to someone who needs to avoid solder at all costs. It would be necessary to file and sand the final seam line which will be deposited copper.
I believe that the result would be truely seamless, it would take a while to do the electroforming as it is a slow process but it could be done unattended so it is a "switch on and then go doing something else" option.
I have several electroplating tanks and the smallest fits in a shoe box so it is not necessarily bulky - my tanks are kept filled ready to be used at a moments notice so despite an initial investment in time and money it becomes a very easy and hassle free thing to do once set up.
I think it would be necessary to drill small holes at the poles of the sphere so that electrolyte would drain easily as it would inevitably find its way inside during the electroforming process.
Kind regards
Jon
Many, many years ago I attended an art school in southern England. She was housed in a magnificent old country house. There you could learn in courses all kinds of art, from theater to solo and orchestral music, wood, ceramic and metal work, etc. .. There I learned know electroplating, but I never worked with it. I would imagine that one can also produce seamless balls with technology. One would have provided a Styrofoam ball with conductive paint and then, probably under constant turning of the ball, set up the metal layer. If the layer is thick enough, one can drill two holes in the ball and then put it in acetone. Acetone dissolves Styropor on very quickly. After some rinsing, the ball should be ready for enameling.
Edmund