A Maker Cloche - Baby Anvil 2.0

I like to think of myself as a Maker even though I often feel like I have imposter syndrome. It is likely self-induced, however, regardless of how social media makes me feel, I LOVE Making Stuff!

I had little bits & pieces of my past projects and tinkering laying about, so I thought that I should combine them all into one memorable cloche to motivate myself as a crafty person and a content creator.

This project is based off of a tiny anvil I made with a piece of steel and an angle grinder. I figured an anvil isn't complete without a proper hammer so I made one out of wood and distressed it to make it look like metal.

Cloche

Scrap wood & metal

Knick Knacks

Hammer

Chisel

Glue

Clamps and/or Vise

Chain

Nails (if you didn't blacksmith them yourself, store bought is fine)

Leather

I uploaded a YT short of the build. I hope you enjoy Tiesto, lol.

I have liked a cloche since, I don't know when. I think it goes back to when my grandmother had one in her house and it displayed a little house. I inherited it when she passed and repurposed it to display my skeleton key collection, which she helped me procure over my childhood years. In a way, it not only commemorates her & my collection, but her involvement in feeding my habit to collect and to my love of a garage sale / thrift store shopping. We both loved a deal!

Going along that same outlook, I am commemorating my journey of skill building and my DIY Maker-ness with this project. I am combining bits & bobs of past projects into one display.

I started by gluing together two circular pieces: the base is laser cut from Techshop (waaayyy back in the day) and the top offset one was made with my circle cutting jig. The anvil base is a block that I kept and thought the grain structure looked cool. That was glued and clamped in place. The wood then got the yakisugi / shou sugi ban treatment. I love that technique (1-3)!

I have recently been working with copper and have grown to enjoy it. It is relatively cheap, easy to cut, bend, shape, stamp, and smith. I am still trying to build my skill with this and if I had my druthers, I would be able to melt my scraps back into an ingot...someday....someday! In the meantime, I had a little stamped 'Make It Kozi' piece of copper that I will mount to the base as a plaque (4). I traced around the metal on the base and chiseled out (5) a recess for it to live (6). I used a dab of CA glue to keep it in place even though I wanted it to be force fit (7).

I have seen various blacksmith's secure their anvils to wooden bases using chain held by nails they likely smithed themselves (or RR spikes). Following suit, I grabbed a spare chain I had in the bin and some rusty nails. No not the cocktail. The chain looked vintage like something that would secure an anvil but likely came from a Cato or Spencer's. It had that '90's vibe to it (1). You know what I mean, Viewer!

I laid the chain where I thought it would secure (2-3) and took that portion off by moving the jump rings. I drilled a hole with my hand drill because I figured it was appropriate given the build as a whole (4). I then secured the anvil on both sides (5). It is a little more loose than I like but this thing isn't functional, so it is all good. I suppose in hindsight, I could have secured it from all 4 sides but that also could get too crowded.

My original idea was to simply lay the "hammer" across the top of the anvil. It does look cool but any little bump sends it flying off. I decided that using leather straps would be more conducive to keeping it secured. A diagonal storage in mind, I cut a couple of leather bands and CA glued them in place (1). I figured the red leather was nice since, well, I had it on hand, but also because I have used it to make grips for tiny blades I have made in the past. In particular, I did it for my first trashed saw blade build I did with Zidane's butterfly sword from Final Fantasy IX and then again with Ashitaka's sword from Princess Mononoke I made in Kiridashi form.

I made the bottom strap a little smaller to keep it from sliding around too much. That gave it a snug fit but the top one was loose enough to not be annoying to store (2). Not that I would be playing with this a lot but you never know (3).

At this point, the anvil base was basically complete, however, I felt that it was still missing something. You know the feeling.

I realized that many other bases I have seen had a metal wrap around it and I wanted to mimic that, as well. Looking around I had scrap piece of a metal clothes hanger (1). That would be malleable enough and thin enough to meet the task. I also couldn't make a tiny anvil stand without using my RR track turned anvil, so I got to work (2)!

I cut two pieces I felt would wrap around the top and bottom of the base. The block is 1.5 x 1.5-inches, so I cut a 7-inch piece. The metal will stretch but I wanted a little more just in case. You know what they say, you can remove material, but you can't add it back. I pounded the two pieces flat, trying to keep it as straight as possible (3).

I learned during my copper-work, that if your piece starts to curve when you don't want it to, you stretch the inner curve by pounding that edge to straighten it back out.

After achieving that, I marked and bent the edges to press fit to the base's top and bottom (4-8).

Full Disclosure: I got lucky that the band fit over the nails/chain that keeps the anvil in position (9). I didn't originally plan for that but if you do, keep that in mind. Also, the back of the band in the cloche is not attached. That helps maneuver it into place but also I didn't want to weld it since I assume that thin piece would either A) melt, or 2) burn my wooden base. I didn't want to take any chances now that this is complete.

The glass cloche goes on top, putting it all together (10). I cleaned off all the fingerprints and dust and we are good to go!

Take a little time for yourself to internalize all you have accomplished and if the mood strikes, commemorate it, too. I hope you liked going on this journey with me and I will catch you on the next one!!