Shelbyvision.com

Artistry in Metal A sampling of the unique metal sculptural and hollowware art by metalsmith Steve Shelby.

11/09/2025

Dog urn #146, for Luna, an Akita. Hammer-formed brass, about 7" across and 3" high. Shipped out a couple weeks ago. This was the second urn for this client. The first one was 15 years ago, for his previous dog, also an Akita, so he wanted this one to look as much like the first one as possible. Fortunately I had plenty of photos of the first one to go by.

07/26/2025

The Shoehorn in Action! It was suggested by Ruth Laug that I make a video of my Calcicornusaurus Shoehorn in actual use. I had never actually used it for it's intended purpose, so I went out on the front porch and tried it out for the first time, and recorded it with my phone camera. Cameo appearance by the neighbor's cat.

07/24/2025

Calcicornusaurus (Brass Shoehorn), I got the base for it made, and took some more professional-looking photos of it. The base, or stand, can sit on a horizontal surface as shown, or hung on a wall. I have added some photos of a few of the processes along the way, for those of you who like to know how things were made. I didn't have time to take a lot of photos on this project, so it's not very comprehensive. There's a caption with each individual photo. Questions are welcome.

07/20/2025

Here's something I just recently made, "Calcicornusaurus", a shoe horn, made from 16 gauge brass sheet. When I tried photographing it, I realized that it needs a stand! So now I'm busy making a stand for it to hang on. When that's finished, I can get some better photos, which I will post here.

05/19/2025

Hammer-formed copper swan, about 6" x 3" x 3". I made this about three years ago as a practice piece for a big swan that I was commissioned to make. I got the practice piece about 90 percent done, and having learned all I needed to know, set it aside to start on the big one. I finally got motivated to finish it, needing something to show in the Artlink Fort Wayne Members show coming up shortly.

$I found these steel cabinets in an online auction for a tiny fraction of what they could cost new. My workshop needed st...$

03/27/2025

I found these steel cabinets in an online auction for a tiny fraction of what they could cost new. My workshop needed storage that is MOUSE-PROOF. I found that the open shelves I had were a perfect place for mice to live, and it seems impossible to keep them out of the primitive wooden structure. The cabinets turned out to be much bigger than I expected, and were a huge problem to move into the only space where they could go. I have put descriptive captions with each photo.

02/28/2025

Cat urn #61, for Livia, brass, shipped about a month ago. This was an extreme custom job, a real departure from the usual, at the customer's request. I took the challenge just to see if I could do it. It took twice as much time as The standard cat urn, something I will keep in mind if anyone else wants one made this way.

06/26/2024

I've been preoccupied with a lot of peripheral things lately. For some of the one-of-a-kind tools I make, I often need a big chunk of steel, and I can find what I need on Ebay, but it is pretty pricy buying it that way. I found an online auction for a fabrication shop that went out of business that had this collection of cutoffs along with the rack. I had the winning bid, and got the whole mess for about 1/10 the price I usually would have to pay. I went and got it yesterday, about 70 miles away, drove all the way home in a torrential rainstorm. Today I got it all sorted out and organized, most of it is on the rack in the barn (first photo) and smaller pieces in the workshop (second photo). In the third photo are two pieces of bearing bronze that were included. Those two pieces alone, if purchased new from McMaster-Carr, would cost as much as what I paid for the whole batch!

04/21/2024

More work on the raising, stages 7, 8, and 9 (descriptive captions with individual photos). As you can see, by the end of stage 9, I have a big problem: cracks all around the top inch of the piece. Obviously I did something wrong, probably should have raised the outer 1/3 twice for each time raising the whole. I think I will be setting this project aside for a while and ruminate on it. It has served it's initial purpose, of demonstrating the usefulness of the vise V-jaws and the stake angler, both of which performed flawlessly, except for the T-handle for the tightening screw on the stake angler, which came unwelded. As far as the raising project goes, I see two possibilities: (1) Do no more raising and incorporate the cracks into the design of the finished piece, or (2) cut off the last inch all the way around and continue working with what's left. What are your thoughts?

04/12/2024

Getting back to this raising project, stages 4, 5, and 6, giving the new tooling a big workout. By stage 6 the sides are just about parallel. I want to go farther yet, though it could take a while since I have very limited time to work on it. I'm putting descriptive captions with each photo so you can tell better what's going on.

03/18/2024

More testing. This is the third stage of raising for this piece. Going back to the vise with the V-jaws. First, using the crimping stake, notice that the vise and the stake are not moving at all. I clamped the stake so the bottom of the shank was not resting on the slide of the vise for support, and it didn't move down at all during the operation. Then on to raising: I rotated the vise so it's in line, rather than at a 45° angle, and stabilized the workbench to make it less movable, and that made a big difference. There is still a little movement of the stake, but it's happening at the pivot point of the stake angler, due to a little bit of play in the mechanism. It's not enough to be a problem.

03/14/2024

Putting the new tools to the test with the roughest handling possible, raising this 13" diameter 16 gauge brass disc. The first stage I did using the vise. Notice the movement. The vise and all are moving together. I determined that it's because of the way the vise is mounted. Not a big problem, but I felt like it was making each blow of the hammer a little less effective. On the other hand, I hadn't done any heavy hammering in a couple months, so it was hard to judge. I did like how my back benefited from not bending over. I decided to do the second stage of raising at the stump, with the extension added to the stake angler shank. It had movement too, because the stump is not fastened down, and it does this annoying thing, rotating counter-clockwise, so I have to keep moving it back where it belongs. Nothing to do with the tooling, it's the stump. I think I'll go back to the vise again. The tools are doing great so far.

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South Whitley, IN
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