24K Gold inlay and overlay (Dreaming of Damascus)

[Barry Lee Hands]

[Janel]

Hi Barry,

 

Welcome to The Carving Path forum! Thank you for the photo to introduce your beautiful work to us. I cannot imagine how complex this process is to do.

 

Janel

[tsterling]

Hi Barry,

 

I've been following your exquisite work over on the engraving forum. Welcome to the Carving Path!

[Phil White]

Welcome to the forum, Barry

 

Beautiful work!! Good to see you here. I look forward to your input on our discussions.

 

Phil

[Jim Kelso]

Wow Barry! Superb work. Welcome again.

Would you mind telling us which bits are inlay and which are overlay?

 

Thanks.

 

Jim

[Dick Bonham]

Hi Barry,

I have also been following your beautiful work on the Lindsay forum. Welcome to the Carving Path.

Dick

[Knife-Scales]

Welcome Barry, your works is really great.

[Barry Lee Hands]

Welcome Barry, your works is really great.

well thank you all very much.

Jim the leaves on the last pic are overlay, the wire is inlay, but really its all inlay, just a matter of degree, because when the teeth are raised it relieves that space under the teeth, so maybe the better term would be raised inlay.

Here is another for you:

 

[Don Barnhill]

Barry,

Welcome to the path. Beautiful work. I'm partial to knives anyway and this is great. Would you mind giving me the addy for the engraving forum? I'd like to see more.

[Barry Lee Hands]

Barry,

Welcome to the path. Beautiful work. I'm partial to knives anyway and this is great. Would you mind giving me the addy for the engraving forum? I'd like to see more.

 

http://www.engravingforum.com/showthread.php?t=3913

[Natasha]

Hi Barry! I cannot imagine how it was done, it looks so beautiful and fine, very perfect done!

[Barry Lee Hands]

Hi Barry! I cannot imagine how it was done, it looks so beautiful and fine, very perfect done!

Thank you Natasha, here is a detail pic:

 

 

[Natasha]

Unbelievable! I cannot understand yet! HOW??????

[Barry Lee Hands]

Unbelievable! I cannot understand yet! HOW??????

I call this " Gilded Pearl Technique"

It is an original technique that I learned myself.

It is partly inspired by work I had seen in Japan where gold is combined with pearl and other things, but the style is mine, which I developed in my work in the gun and knife business in the USA.

I was trained in the USA as an engraver in the 1970's and 1980's.

I have traveled to many places studying damascene and engraving including Japan, England, Italy, Egypt , China, Thailand, and Indonesia.

This technique is a combination of all I learned before, using special tools made solely for this purpose.

When I first imagined it I was in Japan.

http://www.ccn2.aitai.ne.jp/~akane/tanken.html

It was early in the morning, I was meditating in this little garden.

I had been studying the Damascene, and visiting a father and son who make and engrave Samurai swords.

There were all these different techniques floating around in my head.

White pearl kept popping into my mind, and the damascene doors from the Ali Hussein Mosque in Cairo, All these differing images were disturbing my meditations.

Suddenly the gold appeared in the pearl, and the tools, special tools, for guilding the pearl appeared before me like they were floating in the air, like a vision.

When I arrived home weeks later, I had forgotten all about it.

Steve Lindsay soon called and asked if I would be interested in this knife job for a client of his, I said yes, and he sent me the knife.

When it arrived a few days later, I opened the package.

It had the same white pearl I had imagined.

The hair stood up on the back of my neck as everything came back to me.

I made the tools and went to work.

Thanks again.

All the best,

[Jim Kelso]

Thanks very much Barry.

 

Can you elaborate a little on the Eldon Peterson folder? Is the gold all fixed in with the usual inlay process?

 

Thanks.

 

Jim

[Barry Lee Hands]

Thanks very much Barry.

 

Can you elaborate a little on the Eldon Peterson folder? Is the gold all fixed in with the usual inlay process?

 

Thanks.

 

Jim

Thanks, and yes Jim, in the usual manner.

The stems are raised inlays having a channel cut with a lip on the edge and teeth in the bottom.

The leaves are overlays, installed after the stems are finished.

Then everything is sculpted, and shaded.

 

All the best,

[Natasha]

Barry, You are like a poet of your work! Thank You very much! This story is amazing! Do You have more photos of your wonderful works?

[magnus homestead]

Hello Barry,

I've been gazing at the images of your superb works . . . so glad to see you here in this forum. Thank you for sharing so intimately with us. Even looking at the photos is a meditation in itself.

 

Blessings,

Magnus

[sergio]

Hi Barry, hi all. Your work is very beauteful. The knives to.

[Barry Lee Hands]

Thank you all very much.

here are some more pics of the bolsters being engraved:

1, the Drawing

2, the acetone transfers ready to go

3, transfered and ready to cut

4, the stems being laid in

5, the leaves being laid in

6, the cavities finished

7, undercut, then sanded with paper

8, teeth are laid in, gold sheet is installed

9, gold wire is installed

10, gold is sanded

11, then relieved, stippled, sculpted, shaded

12, and finished

[dante lopez]

hhooouuuuuuu! that's a all different thing i love the technique this is possible to do in silver whit gold or only hard whit soft I beth the tool very sharp right ,lovely work an technique I steel amazed , my respect to you ,thanks for shared whit us

[Doroshenko Oleg]

Simply indescribably beautiful works.

Successes!

[Barry Lee Hands]

Thank you very much gentlemen.

[Janel]

Thank you Barry for the excellent photos of the beautiful work that you have done.

 

Janel

[Barry Lee Hands]

Thank you Barry for the excellent photos of the beautiful work that you have done.

 

Janel

 

Thank you very much Ladies and Gentlemen