Critique Request Today's work, what do you think

Dani Girl

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Here's what I've finished off today. About a day and a half roughly in the Milo knife.

The other piece is the top of a small Piston that a chap is going to mount onto a home made bicycle.





 

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Sam

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Really clean work and nicely designed. I've said it before and I'll say it again, your engraving is better than most of what we see posted in this forum and it's been fun watching your progress.
The only thing I don't care for is the lettering. It's cut to perfection, but it screams computer font. Add some design touches and changes to make it your own.

On the bottom photo, shoot more at an angle so the engraving is illuminated like the top photos. Shooting straight down renders poor results.
 

mitch

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The only thing I don't care for is the lettering. It's cut to perfection, but it screams computer font. Add some design touches and changes to make it your own.

my own first impression was how perfectly the lettering was cut- almost 'machined', but as Sam noted, in hand engraving that's not necessarily a good thing. the engraving should be cut well, of course, but the design needs a little more personality.

it's a treat seeing how far you've come, Dani!
 

Marrinan

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I can't agree more with what has been said, You are now far beyond the women using the rotary tool to make her art. you have mastered many skills in a short period of time. Congratulations on an amazing body of work. Well done. Now we look forward to your adding your advice to the newer engravers coming into the trade -Fred
 

monk

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the knife's a beaut for sure. love the bird. you have just made history on the forum !! hooray ! your piston is the very first to be shown here.
 

Dani Girl

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Thanks everyone, I'll try to answer everyone, starting with Sam, That last photo is a scan so it should print out actual size if anyone wants to look at how fine the work is. I know it doesn't do anything for the eye. Thanks also for the tip on the script Sam. I appreciate and value your opinion.

Brian Marshall... thank you. I agree there is a pretty remarkable difference between my work a couple of years ago and now. Hopefully that trend continues

Thanks Mitch and Layne, David and Fred. And thank you very much monk... Yipeeee I set a record. hehehe

I am more than happy to put my two cents worth in helping all the new people coming into the sport... (not that it's worth much more than that)
 

Dani Girl

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I used the chemical blackener on this one. I got the whole bird and the scrolls and name done, then blackened and sanded it off... when I did I found I rubbed a bit too much of the bolino out and went back and added some dots and a few more mini lines just shoving a 120 in by hand until it pulled itself up with light pressure. You can get up a decent bit of speed doing it that way. Then I put a little bit of black W&N oil paint into the bird alone and wiped off the top.

The bird's beak got way too dark on the first run so I took my burnisher and just rubbed the bolino back in a little, which gives it the interesting finish it has. Worked pretty well... I thought anyway.

My ability to control shading using the handpiece exactly as you would to stipple needs a little work, more than a little... but it worked alright I thought.

You should see this bird again one day as he would like me to do a titanium dogtag with the green bird coloured in. I have to ramp up my voltages first so he's going to have to wait a bit.

Thanks for letting me share again with you my friends. Thanks for posting.
 

Dani Girl

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On those three damascus folders the rivets were, somewhat visable so I decided to attempt to include them in the design, otherwise the scrolls would have started differently... but no one will ever know now.



 

Dani Girl

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Ok, not all in a day's work. Just thought I'd add what I've been up to lately as I've been a bit lax posting on here lately. This should basically have everyone up to date on everything i've been doing lately.
 

matthew.townsley

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I like the designs in the photo with 3 spyderco knives that graduate smaller in size.
It's good to see how much work you are getting through!
Also, was that a gumnut design on one of the designs?
 

Dani Girl

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Sleep, actually been getting too much. Apparently more than 9hrs of sleep is a cause for depression... along with a huge list of other things. I enjoyed going to an 8 week seminar learning about depression recently... and I'm back to one day a week at work, so If you don't see loads of stuff posted up on here it really means that i'm just being really really lazy.

So I'm actually trying to sleep less.

Yeah, the gumnuts... I wasn't stoked with my work on that one but the customer was. On one side the gumnuts that stick out into the blank space are nicely engraved but on the first side they are just a silouhette which kind of ruined it for me... so I did it differently on side two.

Got my first gold ring to do some nice decorative engraving on through the shop today, could be a challenge, haven't done a ring since I started.
 

Big-Un

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After so many years of looking at shading, your shading suddenly allowed me to "look" at how to give the illusion of depth on the acanthus leaves. It seems I spend too much time looking instead of studying and actually seeing. You and Silverchip have opened my eyes! Thank you for posting your work, and I really like the three Spyderco's.

Bill
 

Dani Girl

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Thanks Bill. The real key to developing your own skills is learning to reverse engineer everyone elses and pick out the parts you like
 

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