First, I grabbed some copper and silver sheet metal and a bit of silver tubing (All of it was in the scrap bin! Gotta love that!). I cut circles from the silver sheet and dapped them to get the domes. Then I cut out some circles in the copper sheet where I wanted to solder the domes down.
After I had everything soldered together I cut out the overall shape settling on a trapezoid instead of echoing the circles. (Sorry, I thought I took more in progress shots, but I guess not. You'll just have to imagine a couple of steps). After that I fiddled around with ideas for the pin and decided to echo the top circle on the back:
Everything was going just fine until I started work hardening the pin and bent it too far a few too many times... notice the crack in the pin where the overlap happens in the circle. I may have overheated it a bit when I was attaching it as well. At any rate, I am pretty happy with the aesthetic, but the pin wont last long.
Finally, I set the White Topaz... a benchmate is now on the very top of my tool wish list!
Here it is all patinaed and waxed:
If you are enjoying is project check out the Flickr group to see what everyone else is up to. I'll also be blogging about my favorites so far sometime later this week. These people have some serious talent!
Thanks for reading!
What do you use to cut out the circle shapes in the copper? I want to learn stamping and would like to cut out my own disks. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI used a disc cutter to cut the circles. They are available at several different price points. I've found that those on the lower end do require a good amount of clean up as they often leave a flange. A higher end cutter is an investment, but one that will pay off quickly if you cut a lot of circles.
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