A portrait. Finishing silver plates.

[Jordi]

Hi, this is the last portrait I engraved. It is done on a silver plate, cut, and glued on a rectangle of brass, and then it goes on a wood support. I was in a rush and couldn't get pictures of the finished piece, sorry.

I don't like working on flat silver plates because sanding and varnishing is an awful experience!! Light reflections everywhere!! I do it by hand, and must measure all my movements with care. Do you have any tricks to get a plain sanded surface? And varnishing without getting tiny bubbles? Thanks.

 

[KCSteve]

Absolutely stunning!

You folks who haven't seen this before, take a closer look. It's not a photograph and he doesn't have his arm on her shoulder - it's an incredible bit of bulino held in his fingers.

Jordi

Other than using something flat and hard under the sandpaper I've got no hints on the sanding.
For the bubbles in the varnish you might try a FoodSaver - that's a home appliance that lets you suck the air out of packaging. They have accessories that let you seal things like canning jars. With a little work you can make your own home vacuum chamber. Put your freshly varnished piece in the chamber, pump down the pressure and the bubbles should be gone.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Jordi

Beautiful portrait. You've captured the smile in the eyes really well and it lights up the whole face.

You could try spraying the varnish with a small airbrush. That would prevent any bubbles.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Abigail]

AWESOME!

Cheers,
Abigail

 

[Peter E]

VERY impressive work. The texture of the hair really adds dimension to the portrait.

Thanks for showing it,
Peter

 

[Tira]

Beautiful work! Do you varnish to stop the tarnish? Maybe something like argentium would work and not have to be varnished.

 

[Dulltool]

Gee whiz...
It doesnt get any better than that!... wonderful.

 

[Mike Cirelli]

Excellent work Jordi. Until I read and click the picture I thought it was a photo.

 

[Sam]

Jordi, that's quite impressive! Beautiful job.

 

[david bain]

thats really good

 

[Jordi]

Thanks to all, specially Steve, Andrew and Tira for your suggestions.

 

[pierre]

superb work Jordi, you have show to us that we can have a high definition engraving with the line technic, neat and very clean, congratulations.
Pierre

 

[Leonardo]

A beautiful job Jordi! I am sure that you have enjoyed it very much because portraits is what you like most.

For the plate treatment I would suggest you to use a 3M abrasive sponge for the polishing and, after that submerge all the plate in a bath made with light varnish solution. You can dilute 1 part of varnish in 3 parts of thinner, then immerse the plate in the solution, take it out and let dry. After that you can engrave the plate through the varnish don caring very much about anything than engraving.
Leonardo.