Hey guys, A few months ago now I was approached by someone
with a challenge… That’s him… Oliver… Look at him. He’s
got guilt written all over his face Anyway, so this bloke Oliver writes in and
says, "Oi, make a replica of this genuine Viking necklace out of silver."
"Sorry mate, I don’t do silver,” I said, because that’s me there, looking all thoughtful
and sultry. "Why not?" says he.
"Expensive stuff silver," I replied. "S'alright," he said. “I'll give you the
silver." "Ah, yes,” said I, beginning to sweat a
little, whilst still looking rugged in my armchair. “It's got a chain see... I don't
do chains." Then Oliver said, "That’s alright, cos I
do. You cast them thingies on the ends and I'll do the chain."
If you’ve followed my videos lately, you’ll realise I’ve been dabbling more with Fusion
360 and Blender. I’ve also been using a resin 3D printer and castable resins.
Well back then that wasn’t the case. Just a couple of months ago I was happily plodding
away with Lost PLA. And I knew if I wanted the kind of detail you can see in this image,
then I needed to do better. This meant teaching myself to use Blender
and before anyone says anything, I realise now that the Sculpting side of Blender might
not have been the best choice for me. But I was enjoying playing with it, as I often
do, so there was no stopping me. It’s important to realise that this picture
is the only reference material I have. I’ve got no other pictures or dimensions, just
Oliver’s guess of about 3 or 4 centimetres long. So my perspective may be off. Also,
at the time I was doing this, I didn’t have a graphics pad. Everything was done using
an ordinary mouse. This wasn’t a quick process for me. It took
a few weeks to produce something I thought looked fairly similar, but I was doubtful
that Lost PLA could do a good enough job for me.
And as if by magic, and Elegoo Mars came into my life and things suddenly became a lot more
fun. Accurate prints with castable resins were now possible for me.
Just when I thought I was finally going to get this on a sprue, Oliver got in touch.
He wanted me to cast him some coffee bean cufflinks. Yes, you heard right. Coffee bean
cufflinks. I was all ready to go and it was time to pull
out the gorgeous, highly polished Silver ingot that Oliver had sent me. Unfortunately, I
couldn’t find it under all these scraps. Yes, I’m teasing. Scraps or not there was
still probably £80 to £90 worth of silver here. It was a very generous and trusting
thing that Oliver did. I used a brand new crucible to as to not cross-contaminate
the silver.
Well, for my first ever attempt at silver, I was very pleased.
The silver turned black due to oxidisation during casting. But look at the detail. It’s
amazing. For something so small, the process has captured the features beautifully.
After an overnight soak in white vinegar, the black oxidisation was gone, leaving a
matt white surface. This just had to be lightly sanded away.
It was still a long way from being finished, but I couldn’t resist giving it a proper
polishing. Wow – just wow. I’ve never polished silver
before and I was amazed by the results. The moment I saw that shine I knew I’d be hooked.
So how does this compare against the original? Well, it’s no replica… it’s more a ‘similar’
if I’m honest. But for my first venture with blender, an introduction to the world
of resin 3D printing, and a cherry losing dip into silver casting, I’m quite pleased.
And that’s as much as I was willing to do. In honesty I was a bit scared of ruining it.
But if you want to see how this Viking necklace received a handmade silver chain, weaved link
by silver link into this fabulous creation, then you need to go and visit Oliver’s channel
right now. Don’t tell him I said so, but he’s amazingly talented and, definitely
don’t tell him this bit, but he’s become a good friend of mine. We’re talking of
doing a few more projects together in the future, so feel free to drop either of us
a line and tell us what you think of that idea.
I hope you enjoyed this slightly disjointed and out of sequence video guys. Do head over
to Oliver and see this fabulous necklace in all it’s glory. Take care and thanks for
watching.