Third Prototype

I melted my first 2 prototypes and started from scratch. 

The first change I made was that I focused my flame towards the centre when I melted the pattern in the silver to try to prevent bubbling near the claws. I was also advised that the claws broke due to the crystal structure of the metal changing due to the intense heat of melting so I followed the advice of hammering the claws to compress the crystal structure and then annealing the claws so they could bend easily without breaking. I am glad to say that it worked, and the claws stayed intact, as seen in figure 1. 

In the first prototypes, I tried to wrap the wire around the melted pattern, but I struggled, and the brooch wire kept kinking. I changed the way I attached the pin, so the wire didn't kink and looks more discreet from the front. My brooch pin was also flat in the first test which isn't right as I forgot to accommodate for fabric, so I took that into consideration in this prototype (Fig. 2).

Figure 1 - Bowes, K., (2020). the front of the brooch.

Figure 2 -Bowes, K., (2020). the back of the brooch.