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

Combining Soldering And Enamel

The need to make cute, brightly coloured enamel studs propelled me into the world of combining soldering with enamel a couple of years ago. I knew from reading up on it that it was possible to enamel and solder on the same piece but wasn't too confident I was able to do it back then. It was a slightly embarrassing occurance that made me just get on with - I'd made some enamel studs with glued on stud posts. I'd used 2 part epoxy resin which was a job in itself as it set hard after 5 minutes so I had to keep mixing more up. The finished studs looked ok but that little voice in my head kept asking "are you sure you want to use glue?" I wasn't but didn't think I had any other way to do it so I used glue. I sold my first pair and merrily sent them on their way to Canada. A couple of week later the buyer got in touch to say the stud post had come off one of the earrings and the other was hanging off. I was mortified, apologized profusely and refunded her m...
32 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

Embossing Metal With My Sizzix Bigshot

I must admit up until a few weeks ago I was vaguely familiar with the name Sizzix but as to what you actually did with a "Sizzix" I was completely in the dark! That was until I stumbled across a video from Vintaj showing how you could use their embossing folders with a Bigshot to create designs on metal ("metal" - my favourite word after chocolate!) I was really impressed and itching to have a go, I just needed a Bigshot........ I waited a few weeks then when the urge to possess one overcame me I went out debit card at the ready..............and the shop had sold out! So I trundled off to The Range on the off chance and came home clutching my own surprisingly heavy pink and black wonder machine. It sat on the dining room table for a couple of days while I waited for the embossing folders I'd ordered online to arrive then the time came to start playing! I started with some pre-cut 24g copper hearts and the Wildflower Vines and the Butterfly Swirls Deco ...
26 comments
Read more