Welcome to our second Art Jewelry Boot Camp challenge of 2013.....Textured Metal!
For the next few weeks, we will be sharing innovative, inexpensive ways to texture metal by hand. There are plenty of wonderful options in a fully equipped metals studio for texturing metal and plenty of neat products out on the jewelry craft market these days for achieving wonderful textures and patterns, but we want to see what you can do with what you have!
Today, I'm sharing a video about different textures I've achieved with simple household materials...and some tips for getting you started on your texture journey!
HIGHLIGHTS/TIPS from the video:
*If you have "nice" hammers, keep them separate, so in your creativity, you don't use your good hammer for hammering, let's say a piece of wire or a steel screw!
*Keep your eye out in thrift stores and discount stores for items that will make interesting textures! Old hammers, screwdrivers, and other steel bits like steel window screen will fuel your creativity!!!! By that same token, don't use household tools that you would like to use again for their intended purpose! You (or your significant other!) will be really sore that you messed up a screwdriver to make texture next time you need it for a household task....
*Anneal your metal with a torch so it's nice and soft to receive the texture.
* Use an old bench block or anvil when texturing or hammering. After lots of texturing, your block or anvil will become dented and rendered a bit more useless if you need it for finer applications. I FLIP mine! One side is nice and smooth and shiny and the other is a bit pitted and dented from repeated texturing.
Our next Art Jewelry Boot Camp hop will be on April 8th! LET'S GET TO WORK, RECRUITS!!!! Remember to upload your lovelies to our Flickr group and remember to check out the rules if you haven't done so.
Remember, this challenge is about texturing by HAND. For the purposes of this challenge, we DO NOT want work textured by the following:
*Etching
*Sandblasting
*Rolling Mill
*Alphabet/symbol Stamping (unless you are using it in an innovative way to make fabulous texture)
* Textures from craft embossing machines
All these have their place and may be in a FUTURE challenge, they're just not for THIS challenge. :) Thanks!
Very informative video! thanks for launching Boot Camp!
ReplyDeleteAwesome video, Miss Barbara! I am working on a yearly project right now that will have me hammering up a lot of copper so this is perfect timing. I have never annealed the metal before. Would just a creme brulee torch work? What about using a heat tool in a pinch? My studio is a bit too flammable right now to get out anything to flame-y. I have heard that this will also make the embossing of metal work better (although I know that is not in your challenge this time) Also, I love that you have all these estate sale hammers. I will have to keep an eye out for that! I have a metal meat tenderizer that I might have to put to use. Thanks for sharing this challenge! Enjoy the day. Erin
ReplyDeleteOkay... first of all, what does it mean to anneal the metal? Do you need special tools to do it?
ReplyDeleteAlso, where do you get the metal inexpensively?
Annealing the metal means heating it up on an annealing (fire resistant) surface and then quenching it when it is heated up to desired temp. I think you can use a sharpie on a piece of metal by making a mark on it, and when the mark disappears when you heat it, you can then take some copper tongs and quench it in a bowl of water to quickly cool it. When the mark is gone, it has gotten hot enough to rearrange the molecules of the metal so that it is now very soft.
ReplyDeleteA good place to get metal is Rio Grande, Contenti, Thunderbird Supply or any other jewelry supply outfit. I don't use metal from the dump because I can't be sure about what it is...I do use copper and brass that you can buy from a hardware store as long as it is properly marked. Craft Metal has a good line of hardware store metal that I do use in my jewelry.
If you get on Youtube...search for a video on annealing metal, and you should be able to figure out how to do it. I use a Blazer torch that I bought from Amazon for 5o bucks..and it will do the job. I also use a rotating annealing pan so I can keep the flame still and just rotate the metal. That is just good torch safety.
Love your video...and I'm up for this challenge...sounds like fun...xox
ReplyDeleteAnother cool Boot Camp idea! Thanks for the great post today to get us all thinking and digging around in the garage. I'm really excited to try out the steel wire technique!
ReplyDeleteLove this one! Have a few questions since i have not worked with metal blanks before..
ReplyDeletewhere can I buy the metal sheets??
is annealing necessary? Am afraid of fire (striking a match is also an act of bravery for me), so definitely do not want to go there...
I did learn some cool metal techniques at Heather Powers' retreat last year...will put up pics of that :)
Kashmira, annealing is not needed for thinner guages of sheet. You can get already cut blanks at most craft and bead shops if you just want to try it out. I buy my metal from either Rio Grande or Thunderbird Supply and cut my own blanks. Head on facebook and see if anyone is selling blanks they cut, like Shannon LeVart or Melinda Orr. I think they both sell blanks on etsy.
ReplyDelete