Last month I made a custom piece for my friend Tiffany. It is a memorial to her dearly departed canine pal, Bodhi. It is Etched Copper and Sterling Silver. I love how it turned out! And so did Candice, who ordered a similar style with a tooled anvil as the centerpiece.
The inspiration necklace "Bodhisattva".
Drawing and materials.
Saw out and sand.I tape sandpaper to a piece of glass for maximum flatness.
Tool texture the copper and cut the silver backing.
Sweat solder copper to silver to get a good seam all the way around.
Emboss anvil shape onto paper background gauge.Cut out with Xacto knife
Glue to silver backing and saw out shape.
Drill holes, file, and sand.
Put components together and solder all jumprings.
Pickle. Neutralize. Patina with Liver of Sulfur.
Patinated (blackened) necklace.(check out my NEW bench pin! it is flat, hooray!)
Respirators aren't just a fashion statement.Breathing the dust from this step is toxic. Safety first.
I use 80 grit yellow 3m bristle disks to bring up the highlights.
Tumble with mixed stainless steel shot for a few hours.Burnishes and work hardens the metal.
Sometimes it makes the piece too shiny in my opinion.
So I use 15 and 30 micron polishing papers and 200 grit red bristle
disks to achieve a nice Satin finish.
Ta-Dah!
Wow! What a long process! I like it! Is she a metalsmith, too? Why the anvil?
ReplyDeleteI love it! You rock my world Sarah just can't wait to have it in person and hand delivered by the artiest, I'm so special ;) And to answer you Teddy I'm a sculpture and particulary love metalsmithing but HATE doing small stuff like jewelry, hence Sarah making this for me.
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