More old stuff

Here's another oldie, from the same time as the rhino. This one is a combination of casting and fabrication. The gorilla was carved in wax and cast (by me!) in sterling. The box he's sitting in was entirely fabricated from sterling sheet, meaning I cut it out with a saw and stamped (or chased, as it's known as in the biz) all the detail in will various steel chisels and punches. Then the whole thing was soldered together and finished. Ack! That was alot of work! It, too, is fairly huge and doesn't really work as jewelry, but is kind of cool as a little diorama.

As I was editing the photo, I looked up from my monitor here at work (shh, don't tell please!) and on the wall is an enlargement of the original photo I used to carve the gorilla from! He's a big silverback that I saw in 1989 in what was then Zaire and is now the Congo. The photo was taken with a 50mm lens, not a zoom. He was less than 10 feet away from me. I hope the big guy is still around.