Tussey Mussey

Finally we're onto the project I've been looking forward to all module.  A tussey mussey.
Most people had never heard of such a thing, but I'd bought my mother one many (many) years ago.
They were brooches popular with the Victorians, that were in the form of a tiny vase that could hold a flower or small poesy.  I've created a Pinterest board for research.

Despite being told that this was our chance to design something ourselves, the structure of the piece was very specifically dictated (must be fabricated using a cone, dome and tube) leaving very little room for individuality.
Another limitation of the design was that it must be constructed entirely from a provided piece of sheet.  This meant that we had to work out a very specific cutting plan in advance.

I started thinking about possible designs over the weekend and jotted down a lot of ideas.

I even attempted to turn the whole structure upside down and put the cone on the bottom and the dome on the top.

I settled on a Victorian inspired design, with a lace type border around the top with the tube section fitting under some long pointed extensions from the cone section.

I have a tiny shell cameo at home that I thought suited the Victorian feel and decided to set this on the cone section.

We were provided with paper templates for the cone section that would work with the cone forming jig available.
The rest of the cutting plan would be dictated by this template.

I mocked up a cone in copper using the template provided so I could measure the diameter of the narrow end.
This allowed me to calculate the required width of the tube and size of the disk required for doming.

I produced a cutting plan in MS Word and used it to assemble a paper version of the piece to check that everything fit.

I transferred the plan onto the gilding metal sheet using the acetone method and pierced out all the pieces (except the back piece).

Once the main structure was assembled, I was not happy with how wonky the long pointy parts were, so I reworked it to remove these.

Although this adjustment improved the design, it proved to be my downfall.
The meeting of the conical and tubular sections was not a perfect fit so I filed both to even out the seam.
I filed clean through the metal!!!

I was able to insert another piece of metal into the hole, but it the solder join remains annoyingly visible.

Shown here is also the tiny buff stick I had to make from coffee stirrers, in order to get into the nooks and crannies of this piece.

Sick and tired of all the buffing, I Googled how to remove the pink copper coating that occurs when brass is annealed or soldered.

I found a recipe of warm distilled white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide.
Wondering where to get hydrogen peroxide, I remembered that the mouthwash I use contains it.
Not perfect but I thought I'd give it a go.

It works a treat :-)  Stinks, but works a treat.

The photo shows the tussey mussey after it's been soaking in the mixture for an hour or so (face down, so the red patches show the colour before).