Tip...

It never fails.  As soon as I say I don't have many Tips, Tricks or Techniques to share I find something else that I want to share.

Check out my new signature stamp!  WeeeeHaw!  I've been wanting a prettier way to mark my work for ages now.  In the past I've just used my alphabet stamp set to mark "an".  It worked, but sometimes they wouldn't line up quite right, and it always bugged me.

As luck would have it, I caught a thread on one of the metalsmithing groups I belong to, and found out a gentleman was hand making logo stamps out of odds and ends of various tools.

I contacted him immediately!  My absolute favorite sort of custom order, is to be allowed full and complete artistic license to make something the way I would make it.  So I told him I wanted a stamp, with my initials.  I didn't care if it was "AN" or "an", I just wanted the letters together on the same stamp.  I told him I liked swirly and scrolly, but not so swirly or scrolly that you couldn't tell what the letters said.  And I asked him to make it pretty.  I decided whatever he came up with would be my official marking and I would just have to get used to it if I didn't like it right away.  The fact that I've been over thinking this for years is one of the factors in why I haven't gotten a stamp before.  That, and the only place I knew to go was a Infinity Stamps, which come with a hefty price tag.

I truly could not be more pleased.  I'm going to have to look into getting myself registered now so I can be all legal eagle.  :-)

Please consider Damon at Oiseau Metal Arts if you are interested in purchasing a logo stamp.  He was quick, reasonably priced, shipped right away.  And the stamp is fabulous!!! And it's handmade!!!! What more could you possibly ask for? 

A Blatant Rip off...

My team  <- (click on team to go to the team blog, I don't know why blogger isn't highlighting my links!)  does a weekly blog post called, "Tip, Trick or Technique"  where the writer highlights different tips and tricks from our various members.  The title is catchy don't you think?  I don't have enough Tips, Tricks or Techniques to share to make this a weekly feature, but I figure once in awhile it will be fun to share a tidbit.

So....Tip, Trick or Technique:  The Silver Bullet

The ring above is made with the addition of two decorative silver balls which I have given the name "Silver Bullet" to.  All of the rings from this series were made using different silver bullets, all different and all pretty.  I love the decorative touch it adds to my work.  

Some of you may be interested to know how these silver bullets are made!  First off, you start off with the molds:

I came across these purely by chance while internet shopping one night, and had to have them!  I got 2 plates with 8 impressions each.  They are all different designs, or different sizes of the same design.  Along the center you will see some of my practice pieces.

You start with a bit of scrap silver, ball it with a torch, and then hammer it into the impression.  The fun part is trying to get them out (not!).  The tool I use to get them out leaves a hole in the back.  You can see it in the bullet on the top here:

The more I use it, the more I am able to accurately judge the size of silver ball I use to minimize the extra silver.  Check out the bullet on the bottom.  If you look closely, you can see all the extra silver around the impression that needs to be filed off.

And those silver bullets are small!  Hard to hold onto while filing.  I was surprised how time consuming the process is once I actually got into it.  When I bought the molds I had visions of encircling entire large cabochons in them, but considering the amount of time I spent making my first ones each design only got 2 to 4 each!  I'm getting the hang of it now, so bullet encrusted cabochon pieces may just be around the corner.

I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about this technique!