Marriage of Metals-Lamination inlay

Carol Dekle-Foss

The absolute best part about being a jewelry designer, for me, is creating from the heart. This is something very personal, and everyone does it in a different way. A few things I do to help me get into my creative center is meditate, listen to good music, create a positive space, and make myself a warm cup of tea.

Also, we are all unique in what we have to offer. What matters is finding OUR niche and what speaks to each of us and makes our heart beat a bit faster. What's the fun in emulating another's work and not speaking our own story? Sometimes we just have to play with different mediums and different techniques to figure out our calling.  It may take more time to develop our own style, but in the end the reward is... oh so sweet. 

Here is a technique that makes my heart sing. I hope you find it useful on your creative journey! 

Marriage of Metals-Lamination Inlay

Tutorial

A few months back I did a tutorial on a different type of Marriage of metals that you can find here. This technique is slightly different in that you are soldering a top metal layer and then raising the layer underneath.

Here are the steps:

First, choose your metal. For this pendant, I used sterling silver and copper, both in 24g. Then draw your heart with a template or freehand using a permanent marker. Saw out your heart and file the edges.

 Solder heart to copper.

I love that special moment when the solder flows. 

Next, I used a rolling mill, but if you don't have one you can skip this step and go straight to hammering.

 I sandwiched the the heart between two brass sheets and rolled 3 times through the rolling mill. This is so I had less hammering to do in the next step.

 The metal has already started to laminate.

On the back you can see a heart shape.

I then used the ball-peen side of a chasing hammer and hammered the BACK side, where the outline of the heart was.

 Here is the back showing the hammer marks.

Front side.

I then roll printed a pattern cut from my Silhouette Cameo.

 Cut out a circle pattern.

Slightly domed the disk.

Soldered a copper bail to the back, and finished the pendant and chain in a bath of liver of sulfur.

Now for the lucky winner of THIS pendant.

First of all, thank you all so much for your very kind words. It means a lot to me to be able to share with you what I create and also to be part of such a talented group of ladies.

Congratulations Kathy Cazes!!!! Please contact me here with your mailing information.

Thank you for reading!