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I Have Been Busy, Really. Patterned Bronze Sheet.



It's been a bit quiet on the blog front for the past few weeks. I put my Etsy shop and website on holiday just before Christmas so I could have a break, relax and also get cracking with making new jewellery.

I did quite a lot of relaxing {and scoffing chocolates, yum!} over Christmas and the New Year and enjoyed catching up with the end of the second season of The Affair, started watching the second season of Fargo {which to me seems so much better than the first} and other stuff I'd stockpiled with Sky+ .
I did give my shed a proper clean too - even wiping down shelves which were covered with black dust {nice} and I even washed the windows :D

I also got round to making some new jewellery. I felt the need to make some bronze earrings and decided to add some patterns to the sheet bronze with my rolling mill.


I used a mix of textured card, leaf skeletons and brass texture sheet that I'd bought and some brass sheet that I'd etched with a stamped designs.

I started off by cutting the bronze sheet to size then annealed it.


This is me attempting to anneal some bronze sheet and take a photo at the same time.
DO NOT ADJUST YOUR EYES - THE PHOTO IS BLURRY!

I normally buy my textured card from Rolling Mill Resources on Etsy and generally get good results. This blog post from January 2014 shows the results on sterling silver and copper sheet using textured card bought from Rolling Mill Resources.

This time I used some textured card from another shop and have been pretty disappointed with the results to be honest. Below is a piece of bronze textured with one of their cards. The pattern is there but it's pretty faint.



The patterns on these two pieces of bronze turned out pretty faintly too.


Below: this strip was textured using a piece of textured card from Rolling Mill Resources...


Admittedly having a long thin shape makes it easier to impress the pattern onto the metal and I did maybe roll it a little bit too tight which is why the metal has curved but the results are much deeper and clearer.

Compare the card textures to using metal to impress the design...

rolling mill textures using etched brass and machine patterned brass

The bronze on the left was rolled with a piece of etched brass and the other piece with a brass texture plate I bought ages ago. Lovely clear patterns!

rolling mill textures on bronze sheet © Cinnamon Jewellery 2016

I flipped over the largest piece {shown above} that had the faint card texture and used a piece of brass I'd etched with a stamped design. Much better!

I also used a leaf skeleton. You can't go wrong with them, they work so well on all the metals I've tried them with. The fibrous nature of the veins is obviously pretty sturdy.

leaf vein texture on bronze © cinnamon jewellery 2016

The photo collage at the top of this post shows what I did with some of the patterned bronze but more about that in my next post!

Tracy © Cinnamon Jewellery



Copyright © 2016 Cinnamon Jewellery. All rights reserved.
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Comments

  1. Miss Val's CreationsSunday, January 24, 2016

    It must be so fun texturizing the metal like this. I love the results! We would probably like The Affair and Fargo. They are on my long list to watch. We just started binge watching on the American version of Shameless which is hysterical.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cinnamon JewelleryMonday, January 25, 2016

      I never really watched Shameless in the UK but I think I should have :D
      Thanks for your comment Val!

      Delete
  2. LucyThursday, January 28, 2016

    You really did enjoy your holiday! The earrings on your collage are all pretty. No wonder how much dedication and effort you put on each of them but one thing for sure, you really enjoyed what you're doing, aren't you? Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownThursday, January 28, 2016

    I love the textures from the etched brass sheets! I need to get me a rolling mill...

    ReplyDelete
  4. BrandiTuesday, August 30, 2016

    It sounds like you enjoyed your break. The holidays are always an extremely busy time of the year. It’s good that you took a break; work can be draining mentally and physically. I love the bronze earrings! I love how you textured the metal. My favorite ones are the leaf earrings. Good luck with your business!

    ReplyDelete
  5. MarsalaSunday, March 26, 2017

    I'm studying your blog with great interest. What happens if you use, not a skeleton, but a dry leaf? A green one would probably smash, but a dry one have a lot of structure, even if it isnt a skeleton. Skeletons are hard to find....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cinnamon JewelleryMonday, March 27, 2017

      Hi, thanks for your comment. You could use a dry leaf. I have some but haven't got round to trying them in the rolling mill yet but I have seen other people using them. You can get skeleton leaves from craft shops and ebay also sell them :D

      Delete

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