Jonathan Z over on Instructables has a marvelous red faceted copper ring tutorial which starts off from sheet metal. The instructions shows you a number of metal work techniques. 3 strips of copper are first sawed and then stacked, sweat soldered together. This thickness allows for the lovely faceting detail which is accomplished with filing.
The instructor also covers polishing, shaping and resizing the ring. The red heat patina created is protected with Renaissance wax.
What I liked about this tutorial is all the additional tips like supply alternatives. No jeweler's rouge?Use automotive polish. He even shares the formula to determine the length of metal strips needed for a particular ring size!
Before You Go:
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips
The instructor also covers polishing, shaping and resizing the ring. The red heat patina created is protected with Renaissance wax.
What I liked about this tutorial is all the additional tips like supply alternatives. No jeweler's rouge?Use automotive polish. He even shares the formula to determine the length of metal strips needed for a particular ring size!
Before You Go:
- How to Chain Stitch with Wire
- How a Ring is Resized
- Book Review - Heat, Set, Color and Fire and Free Tutorials
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips
Wow - so many different ideas - so many things that need looking in to.
ReplyDeleteFirst off - sweat soldering. It's fun! I'm not sure why he applies the solder then pickles it before sweatsoldering the pieces together. That one step confused me.
Preserving heat patina. THIS is a huge problem and always a big question for everyone.
I've done quite a bit of colouring my copper with torches and found you lose the colour when you apply a preservative like lacquer and even with Renaissance Wax. However - I believe that applying the flux to the copper before the torch will give you that permanent red copper. I think anyway. So adding the Renaissance Wax is more for shine etc.
I've come across 2 products that do preserve colour on metal - mostly.
The first is XIM 900 Clear Coat and can be found in paint stores in the US. It can NOT be purchased in Canada or California. I've used this and it works very well.
The second is called ColorLoc and it's a sealer for color patinas on metal. It can be purchased from Sculpt Nouveau. I haven't tried this one yet but am looking forward to seeing what it does.
Thank you so much for the product suggestions! It would be a shame not to be able to preserve heat patinas!
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