Still Life (or the evil cone – RAW52.9)

By Carole Zakkour on March 6, 2011

I really like hollow geometric shapes and I’m trying to learn how to render them in metal. I’ve been wanting to make cone shapes for a while, so here I am this week, practicing how to make a cone. A pointy one. Not a cone with the top cut off – I think that’s called a frustum (what an ugly word!)

Anyway, a real pointy cone. I had no problem with the geometry, and calculating the area to be cut out of the sheet was a snap. I started making it out of 20ga sheet (0.8mm), but soon discovered there was no way on earth I was going to be able to bend that thing into shape, so I switched to 22ga (0.64mm). Well that wasn’t so easy either. I was reluctant to use any thinner sheet because I wanted the shape to hold up when worn as a ring. So I kept going with it. I broke 2 pliers but kept at it until I got some kind of conish shape. I didn’t know what I was doing. Zero. I think I just got lucky and ended up with the shape.

I made the sphere and cylinder to go with my cone (actually so I can hide all the imperfections) and decided to call the ring “Still Life” because it reminded me of a charcoal drawing. The imperfections are barely visible!

I think it turned out pretty good! At first, I had a scratchy finish on it with no oxidation, but I could not take a decent picture of the ring, so I oxidized it and finished with a brass brush and I like it better this way.