Inspired by my Welsh heritage and the national flower emblem I have
wanted to create a daffodil in metal for a while, but never found the
time. Taking advantage of the lockdown and a few days off from my busy
day job in the NHS I found myself drawn to creating a daffodil so I
rolled up my sleeves, put on my apron, got my sharpie, some metal and tools out and got to
work.

When I started out on this project I had a picture in my head of what I wanted my daffodil to look like, this included working out how to turn a flat piece of metal into a 3D flower.  I began with some 0.5mm brass sheet and drew the outline of the flower using a felt pen, (well I drew several actually just in case I melted the first one or three!).

I cut these shapes out and gave them some texture with a hammer and then shaped the petals.  For the flower trumpet I cut simple circles from the brass sheet then used my doming block and tools to shape the disc into a small cup and then ruffled the edges.  The flower centre was created from tiny sterling silver balls formed from molten silver (this is my favorite pass time when I’m not making, melting tiny bits of silver into balls, it’s very therapeutic!), which I soldered in place to create the stamen.  The final piece for the flower was the stem and a leaf.  I formed these by hand from sterling silver, hammering, filing and shaping, then soldered all of the brass and silver pieces together, adding a silver pin to the back.

The last bit is the most time consuming of all, requiring a lot of elbow grease and polish to make the brass and silver gleam.

I loved making this and have plans now to make more flowers, I definitely want to make a bluebell and a freesia my favourite flowers of all time, then maybe a snowdrop, a crocus oh and a pansy, I could go on and on as there are so many beautiful flowers lol! I hope you enjoyed my little blog about making a daffodil and I would love to hear what your favourite flower is.

Best wishes and thanks for stopping by to read

Max

ps you can find the daffodil pin in my shop, link is below.

MaxPring
Hello and a very warm welcome to Max Pring Jewellery, here you will find a range of hand crafted artisan jewellery and accessories.My passion is for metal, I use mainly Silver alongside a little Gold, Copper and Brass. The main thing I love about metal is that it's so versatile, you can melt it, hammer it, bend it, stamp it, shape it, fuse it, add stones to it and if that's not enough you can texture it, paint it, heat it, etch it and polish it too.  You will see the majority of these techniques used in my work as I do love to play!. I find my inspiration from the lush Welsh countryside<em>, </em>living near Pontypridd in the Rhondda Valleys I have beautiful views across the rolling hills and a wildlife reserve just down the road. There's also a lot of old industrial sites where nature has stepped back in, but you can find some really old interesting textures and patterns on abandoned machinery so I'm never short of inspiration.I try to provide a range of items from simple designs that I make time and time again such as my wrap bangles and scarf rings alongside personalised items and one off artisan pieces, perfect if you like a little something different or want to give a gift with meaning.

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