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Roses
The roses were made of several different parts. The stems, petals and leaves were fabricated separately. Since I'm not good at forge welding, I MIG-welded the leaves and petals to the stems and then formed them at the forge. The stem is 3/16 in. diameter and the rose is about 14 inches overall in length. The metal is protected in the traditional manner - while still warm to the touch, beeswax is rubbed over the surface. This helps seal the metal and to a reasonable degree, prevents rust. Each rose takes about 2-3 hours for me to assemble and finish.
Candle Holder
This is the first item I made on the forge I constructed in my garage. It was made from 3/8 in. round stock (basically a round bar). The curves were formed by hand over the horn of the anvil. The glass cup which holds the votive candle is an antique glass insulator that was originally used to insulate electrical wire in the old days.
The hardest part
of making this candle holder was wrapping the insulator with the metal.
I went through a couple of them before I managed to find the right temperature
for working the metal. Too hot, and the glass would often crack or shatter
from thermal shock. Too cold, and the amount of effort it took to shape
the metal would often break the insulator. A candle holder like this probably
took nearly 2 hours the first time I made one, but I have since done enough
of them to have the time down to about 45 minutes.
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