Now that I had a good idea of how I was going to set about creating the neck piece from making the model, I set about working in metal.
I cut out the discs using snips, annealed and folded them in half.
I placed each folded disc in the vice and hammered the top to form a table fold.
I paced them back in the vice sideways and used a hammer to push the edges over.
I annealed again and opened up the forms, and them hammered them 'true'
I used a doming block and punch to dome the pieces, which I had previously drilled for the connections.
I then gave the forms a coat of black liquid enamel, making sure to pierce the holes for the connections.
I then gave them a coat of white enamel, and one form a coat of red.
I cut some lengths of silver wire for the connectors, and balled up one end with the torch.
I connected each form and then carefully balled up the other end, taking care not to damage the enamel.
After having a few conversations with my peers and tutors it was agreed that this piece needs work. I really like the concept and I think with a few tweaks this could be a nice piece. Perhaps working it in silver without the enamel, and perhaps just having one component enamelled in red, the connections could be made with a more substantial wire as well.
In the end I decided to leave this piece for now and move on to other things. I will re-visit this in the future perhaps when there is more time for experimentation.