Browsing Tag

how to texture metal

Copper Washers: A beautiful addition to your Jewelry Designs

October 31, 2011

Earrings made with copper washers and copper wire

Copper washers may seem overly industrial for jewelry, but with a little manipulation, they work great. Ever since we started carrying them a couple of weeks ago, I have been experimenting and the results have been fabulous! And I have only scratched the surfaced. These washers would be great linked as bracelets, soldered together for fabulous bib necklaces or dapped into pretty dome shapes!

Everything you need to create hammered copper links: Washers, steel block, and hammers. Oh and some copper wire can add a nice touch!

I chose to distress the washers using a steel block and multiple hammers. Then I used a little liver of sulfur to blacken the washers and some steel wool to buff them up. The result is the antiqued hammered links that can be used anywhere you would use any other link.

Cool lines created by a texturizing hammer!

Hammered look created using a ball pein or chasing hammer

Look at all the pretty washers! The assortment pack is great because there are several sizes.

In the center are the earrings seen above before being antiqued!

A little liver of sulfur will easily blacken your washers since they are solid copper. These are all the same washers as above!

Earrings made with copper washers and cubic zirconia briolettes! I love the new cubic zirconia briolettes that we are carrying!

Hammered copper washers with a little chain 🙂

Two sizes of hammered washers, slightly sanded to show off the deep hammering

Well I hope you have enjoyed my washer blog! Please feel free to ask me any questions about the washers, tools or beads that I used. :0

~~Tiffany

Suggested supplies for the designs in this blog:

Solid copper jump rings are nice, because it’s great to say that nothing in your design is plated. But they are only available in a few sizes, so I love to have the assorted copper jump ring mix on hand too, because then I always have the right size.

How to transfer texture to metal with a hammer!

August 19, 2011

As promised, here are some photos and instructions on how to use brass texture plates to transfer beautiful patterns – pebbles, waves, flowers and more – onto other metal. With just a hammer, you can easily (but not quietly!) transfer the patterns from the brass sheets onto copper, aluminum, silver or even … brass. Transferring from brass to brass sounds silly – why not just cut up the texture sheet and use that? – but to texture pre-cut shapes, like these
brass fairy door and window cutouts, it makes total sense.

I love hammering metal because it is cheap, fast and fun. The results are similar to what you can achieve with a rolling mill (not cheap!) and etching (not fast!). Those techniques are fun though – we will post a tutorial on etching soon. But today, we hammer:

Tape your piece face-down onto the texture plate. Cover the entire piece with tape to avoid transferring a tape-seam along with your pattern.

Place the piece on a steel block and hammer away! Make sure to hit every little bit of your piece.

Pull back the tape part way to check the transfer. If there are any missing or faint spots, keep hammering.

The piece will likely get a bit misshapen as you whale away on it. Not to worry.

Once you are satisfied with the texture, remove the tape and use a rubber or rawhide mallet to flatten your piece again. You might also need to file the edges a bit.

Tada! Before and after hammer time.

When using a long strip of metal, like these pre-cut copper and brass bracelet strips, I just tape down one edge, texture up to the tape line and then turn the piece around to texture the other side. The strip will curl upwards as you work, but it is easy to flatten out.

The hammered texture on the back of the piece is a nice bonus, like on my copper bracelet.

To really bring out the high and low points in the texture, apply a patina such as liver of sulfur or Win-Ox and buff the high points with steel wool (note: these patinas do not work on aluminum).

Annealing (heating) your metal piece beforehand will make it easier to transfer the pattern, but as you can see, it isn’t necessary. Have fun hammering!