Skip to main content

Rolling Mill Textures On Metal and Copper Jellyfish


I've been quite busy recently with the usual orders {bangles and findings} plus I had a custom request to make a pendant in silver using the buyers rather lovely chequer cut labradorite cabochon. I've just posted that off so will wait to hear from the buyer before I post a photo.

I've got several things on the go at the moment, mainly some more copper shapes to finish so I can do a bit more enamelling with decal decoration. I also have ideas for some studs using the bronze and silver pebbles I made a few weeks ago. But in the meantime I have had a bit of time to make some embossed bronze and sterling silver studs. After deciding I don't have a lot of success using texture cards with sterling silver in the rolling mill - the results vary from a very faint pattern to ok-ish but not as deep as I'd like. However, using etched copper or brass to add pattern to silver with the rolling mill is much more successful. 
I discovered I had some brass sheet that I'd etched a while ago using nail art plates...


The size is quite small {they're designed for nails after all!} but they do work really well for etching using nail varnish as the resist and you can buy lots of different styles and designs depending on your taste. If you want to learn more I wrote a blog post about using nail art plates to etch sterling silver in 2013.

I used the etched brass sheet to texture bronze and silver sheet and the designs came out well. You obviously get the negative of the original design but it still looked ok.

I used the embossed metal to make these simple stud earrings...

handmade bronze stud earrings © Cinnamon Jewellery 2015


sterling silver embossed stud earrings © Cinnamon Jewellery 2015



I also wielded my jeweller's saw and produced what I like to call stylized jellyfish earrings in copper with a stabilized turquoise cabochon and silver balls. Or if you turn them the other way up they could be stylized flames :D Anyway I like the shape!




For someone who struggled with sawing metal when I started and preferred to use shears if at all possible I now love using my saw and find it really therapeutic to cut intricate{ish} shapes out of metal. I have an idea for a pierced design probably in etched copper layered on top of coloured leather and riveted to a base of copper. I can see it in my mind but I'm not sure how long it will stay there before I get round to doing it.....☺



Copyright © 2015 Cinnamon Jewellery. All rights reserved.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Divya NFriday, April 17, 2015

    The stylised jelly fish looks really cool and is very fluid. May I ask,on what gauge sheet have you done the etching with nail paint?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cinnamon JewelleryFriday, April 17, 2015

      Hi Divya,
      It was a while ago but I think I used 18g and 20g (1.0mm and 0.8mm}.

      Delete
  2. Miss Val's CreationsFriday, April 17, 2015

    Beautiful work. I love the embossed studs. The jellyfish earrings are really unique. Great thought that you could flip them around to show flames instead!

    ReplyDelete
  3. JulieFriday, April 17, 2015

    These are lovely I love all the texture. Thanks for your comment on my work on the Spiral Fountain Jewellery Blog

    ReplyDelete
  4. MonicaSaturday, April 18, 2015

    Che meraviglia!!! Sei bravissima!!! E io invidio molto il tuo rolling mill...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Meiko LucasSaturday, April 18, 2015

    Loved the stud ear rings, they made me remember those classy old coins unearthed from those old civilization sites. Jellyfish earrings looked very stylish and perfect for a high profile social occasion.

    ReplyDelete
  6. KasiaFriday, April 24, 2015

    Beautiful work! And after reading the last paragraph, I can only hope that I will get to like sawing as well ;)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Your comments and questions are very welcome!
If you would prefer to contact me directly please use the contact form on my "get in touch" page.
Any comments containing links will be deleted so please don't waste your time.....

Popular posts from this blog

My Jewellery Shed Gets A Lick Of Paint

At the end of last summer, after an incredibly busy few months jewellery-wise, I decided to take a break and repaint my shed. I'd painted it a pale green colour when I first got it and it was starting to look a bit faded and sad. So I did what I expect most people do and started looking online at what wonderful colour I could repaint it. There are lots of great colours out there by Cuprinol and Ronseal and the DIY stores own brands. I took a long time deciding on a colour then got in the car to go and buy the paint. That's when I discovered that B&Q and Homebase only carry a limited selection of shed paint colours {8 if you're lucky} and if you then find something in stock you do like they quite often don't have it in the size pot you need! So the colour I bought was a bit of "Oh buggar it, that'll have to do". Luckily it turned out to be similar to what I'd originally wanted by the time I'd finished the third coat - yes it took three coat...
5 comments
Read more

Etching Copper With Ferric Chloride

 I decided recently that etching is one of my favourite things to do with metal. I read about it online quite a while ago and immediately thought it looked cool but the thought of using an "acid" and having to find somewhere to store it (a perennial problem when you don't have a workroom) put me off. So instead I admired etched copper from afar. Until I got a bee in my bonnet about it again and bought Lexi Erikson's copper etching dvd. Lexi Erikson is very good at explaining jewellery techniques and making them seem much more straightforward than they first appear. I already knew that ferric chloride was a salt and not an acid so wouldn't eat my flesh through to the bone if I accidently spilled some on my hand. The dvd made me feel much more comfortable about having a go so I ordered some ferric chloride from ebay and bought some stamps and StazOn ink from a local craft shop. My first attempt went ok but for some reason I left the copper to etch for an hou...
11 comments
Read more

Amazing Enamel Effects

Buying a kiln recently has given me the chance to experiment with enamelling on larger pieces of copper and to produce some really cool effects. These effects happen when you combine different types of enamel. I usually use smaller flat pieces of copper for making enamelled earrings and have had some of these effects happen when firing with a torch but they are much more obvious when you use larger pieces. I made a few practice pieces which you can see in the photos below. This was flux {a transparent enamel not to be confused with soldering flux!} applied straight onto copper and fired until the copper was a bright golden colour. Then I added a layer of liquid enamel in green and red over the flux and fired again.  The lines and spots form when the enamel becomes hot enough to start moving and in this case the transparent pushes through the liquid enamel layer forming these cool lines and spots. The effect is better in the green liquid enamel than the red.  N...
31 comments
Read more