So Many Hammers... So Little time! Hammers are an essential piece of my design experience. Each year I purchase more and more hammers. To date I own 31 hammers. Each hammer is designed for a specific task. Texturing hammers (and I have several) are used to create texture and design in the metal. I have ones that create patterns such as tiny squares or circles, a … [Read more...]
What a difference some texture makes!
Lately I have been playing around with adding more texture to my designs. While texture is always a strong part of my collection I felt the need to step up my game a little. Why not look good coming AND going? Texturing the back of the earring design you see here opens up a whole new world for me. Normally the texture is on the front surrounding the gem, while the back … [Read more...]
The Secret Life of a Metal & Hammer Hoarder
If someone had told me 15 years ago that I would be salivating over sheets of metal and hammers I would have [tweet_dis_img][/tweet_dis_img]laughed out loud! Yet here I am ... getting excited over my collection of hammers. This is one of my favorite ones. The surface creates a soft almost satiny texture on my Copper, Silver or Brass metal. But the fun only starts with this … [Read more...]
Peek into my Design Process: Texturing
Texturing Metal is one of my favorite ways to create designs. I love the way texture adds to the basic metal. It gives it dimension and makes the designs more interesting. There are LOTS of ways to texture metal. Here's a peek into two of the ways I use most frequently. Corrugation. This means literally, to shape into folds or parallel and alternating ridges and … [Read more...]
How do I create Pure Metal Earrings?
I love working with metal. Can you tell? Creating my collection of Copper and Sterling Silver PURE METAL earrings requires lots of elbow grease. First I texture the raw metal. This is usually done by hammering but can be done with a rolling mill as well. The metal must be softened (heated) before starting the texturing. Since the metal becomes distorted from the … [Read more...]
