Today I Crafted
Aug. 5th, 2015 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenAfter my visitors had left (a good time was had by all), I started playing around with some of my recent purchases. First I watched a long video on youtube about metal stamping, then I attempted to stamp some metal. It did not work very well at all. I think I need to get a two-pound hammer. Or to give up on stamping and get a texture hammer - texture hammering seems to be easier, partly because it is required to be random.
So then I took my ballpein hammer and hammered some of the copper tags (the Anodized Aluminium attempt I simply threw out) so as to cover up the failed stampings and get some nice texture in. Which I did. Then I tried a few different methods of colouring and finishing. One I did blue permanent pen, then steel wool to take off the top layer, and that looked rather nice. Then I did something similar with a copper tag which had previously been given a brown patina (that one didn't stand out so much). Then I made a mistake: I was over-generous in my application of my newly-purchased Vintaj Glaze... and instead of drying, it started oxidizing the copper in one case, and dissolving the ink in the other case. So I had to give up on those two and scrub them back to bare metal. (sigh)
What I then tried - which did actually work, mostly, though it had its own problems (there is glittery stuff all over my clothing) was embossing ink + embossing powder + heat gun. Six pendants came out of that effort. (See below)
Various pendants, decorated with embossing powder. The round ones are black Anodized Aluminium; the square one is hammered copper.
I like the top two, but I don't much like the other four. (sigh)
The copper one was first textured, then had embossing ink pen draw jagged hatchings over it, then silver embossing powder, then embossing ink over the whole of it, then clear embossing powder. That makes a much better seal than the Vintaj glaze, all nice and smooth.
The round tags were done with either pens or rubber stamps, but the rubber stamps were a bit blurry. Then I went over them again with more embossing ink and more embossing powder and more rounds of the heat gun. Some of them built up quite nicely, others were a bit of a mess, which I then tried to fix up.
I'm pondering whether I should throw out the bottom four pendants, since I don't like them.
So then I took my ballpein hammer and hammered some of the copper tags (the Anodized Aluminium attempt I simply threw out) so as to cover up the failed stampings and get some nice texture in. Which I did. Then I tried a few different methods of colouring and finishing. One I did blue permanent pen, then steel wool to take off the top layer, and that looked rather nice. Then I did something similar with a copper tag which had previously been given a brown patina (that one didn't stand out so much). Then I made a mistake: I was over-generous in my application of my newly-purchased Vintaj Glaze... and instead of drying, it started oxidizing the copper in one case, and dissolving the ink in the other case. So I had to give up on those two and scrub them back to bare metal. (sigh)
What I then tried - which did actually work, mostly, though it had its own problems (there is glittery stuff all over my clothing) was embossing ink + embossing powder + heat gun. Six pendants came out of that effort. (See below)
Various pendants, decorated with embossing powder. The round ones are black Anodized Aluminium; the square one is hammered copper.
I like the top two, but I don't much like the other four. (sigh)
The copper one was first textured, then had embossing ink pen draw jagged hatchings over it, then silver embossing powder, then embossing ink over the whole of it, then clear embossing powder. That makes a much better seal than the Vintaj glaze, all nice and smooth.
The round tags were done with either pens or rubber stamps, but the rubber stamps were a bit blurry. Then I went over them again with more embossing ink and more embossing powder and more rounds of the heat gun. Some of them built up quite nicely, others were a bit of a mess, which I then tried to fix up.
I'm pondering whether I should throw out the bottom four pendants, since I don't like them.
