beautiful Bold & The pin is back in style, and not in a small way. Big and

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1 intermediate metal Bold & beautiful by Donna Blow Simple elements combine for a dynamic, lively piece in this three-dimensional pin. Contrasting textures and colors provide harmonious interest, and free-moving roses add to the fun. Photo by William Zuback. Beginner techniques and advanced style team up for maximum impact in this mixed-metal pin. FCT-MW The pin is back in style, and not in a small way. Big and beautiful is the fashion statement of the season. Three-dimensionality gives this piece depth, adding to its proportionate boldness. But even if you don t follow the whims of fashion, this pin s large scale allows more room for your design always a benefit to an artist. The featured pin is 2 inches (5.08cm) tall at this size, textured metals have greater impact, so combine textures with care to create a complementary feel. Ready-to-use materials, such as the cantaloupe-rind textured sterling silver used for the frame, can be purchased from various supply houses. Make the frame out of metal clay if you d like to imprint your own texture, or try your hand at hammering, etching, or rolling sheet silver (see Spice It 2005 Kalmbach Publishing Co. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Up With Texture ). Part of this pin s appeal is the volume of the vase, which is achieved by using a matrix die in a hydraulic press. A relatively new and extremely versatile tool, the hydraulic press allows the user to create beautiful shapes quickly, without the hammer marks (and sore shoulders) that usually result from chasing and repoussé. The matrix die is a piece of cast acrylic with a hollow shape cut out of it. The die is placed over dead-soft metal and pressed to yield a three-dimensional form. Sterling-silver rivets hold the frame and vase to the back piece for a solderless assembly. The rose blooms are likewise attached with cold-joining methods, allowing the free-moving flowers to swivel on their stems. facetjewelry.com

2 spice it up with texture The use of contrasting textures adds an extra fillip of interest to your design. Here are some basic ways to create texture. [1 2] Texture and anneal a piece of copper. Cut a 11/2 23/4-inch ( cm) piece of 26-gauge, dead-soft copper. To create a line texture on the piece, pass the copper sheet through the wire-forming part of a combination rolling mill once using light pressure [1]. Pass it through again at a 45-degree angle, creating diagonal lines across the straight lines [2]. This piece is now work-hardened and must hammering: When texturing by hand, use a hammer with a rounded edge to achieve broad, flat, craterlike areas; use a sharp-edged hammer if you want to create lines. Hammer on top of punches or stamps to create waves of texture. Be sure to use well-annealed metal when hammering or rolling the softer the metal, the better the impression. rolling: A rolling mill is an extremely versatile tool. Use the flat, or reduction, side of the mill to impress patterns onto dead-soft metal. The wire section (usually found on combination mills) can create line patterns of varying widths in well-annealed metal. pressing: A hydraulic press can be used with any number of punches, forms, or dies to achieve a wide variety of shapes and textures. etching: Create three-dimensional patterns on metal using chemicals. Apply a pattern to your metal using the appropriate resist (such as asphaltum, nail polish, photocopier ink, etc.) and place the metal in an acid solution. The acid will eat away the areas not covered by the resist. Once the desired depth has been achieved, remove the resist to reveal the pattern. using burs and wheels: Various metal burs and texturing wheels are available for rotary tools, making quick work of texturing. be annealed. Anneal it by placing it on a tripod solder stand and heating it until it glows cherry red (best seen in a darkened room). Let it cool for just a moment, then quench it in water. Design a vase shape. When designing shapes for the hydraulic press, it is best to have gentle, broad curves without sharp angles. This design sports a raised vase approximately 7/8 inch (2.22cm) at its widest and 13/16 inch (3.02cm) tall, with a flat area of copper around the shape that is contained within the textured silver frame. Draw a design and transfer it using your favorite method to the center of a 3 3-inch ( cm) piece of 1/2-inch (1.27cm) cast acrylic. (The manufacturer of the press specifies using only cast acrylic, as other types may shatter.) Prepare your acrylic mold. Using a center punch, mark a spot 1/16 inch (1.6mm) inside the design line. Drill a starter hole in the mold (see Three Tips on Drilling Acrylic ). Thread a saw blade through the hole and clamp it in a saw frame. Using smooth, even strokes, saw out the vase shape. When finished, remove the blade. Smooth the interior edges of the shape with a half-round file. Do not round the exterior edges of the mold. Smooth any rough patches on the mold with a small piece of sandpaper or an abrasive pad. Round the mold s top and bottom edges just enough to eliminate sharp edges that may cut your metal, but not so much that you lose the design s crisp edges. Test the mold in the press with a scrap piece of 26-gauge, dead-soft copper. Smooth any edges that cut the metal. Mark the top and front of the mold with a marker, if desired, to keep your orientation. [3 5] Shape the copper vase. Place two 1/8-inch-thick (3.2mm) red urethane pads (95 durometer) on a 2-inch-thick (5.08cm) acrylic spacer plate. Place a textured, fully annealed piece of copper in the center of this stack. On top of that, place the vase mold, front side up [3]. Insert this stack into the hydraulic press and press once to 5800 psi (2631kg). Release the press. Remove the copper and anneal it, making sure to quench it while it s still hot.

3 Beginning with your acrylic spacer plate again, place a 1/2-inch (1.27cm) yellow urethane pad (80 durometer) on top. Fit your textured copper piece back into the vase mold, taking care to line up the edges of the copper with the mold [4]. Using masking or blue painter s tape, secure the copper to the back of the mold. Place the piece mold side up, copper side down on top of the yellow urethane pad. Place this stack into the press and press to 3200 psi (1452kg). Remove the mold and copper from the press [5]. [6] Make an opening for the flower stems. Using a fine-tip permanent marker or scribe, mark a 3/16-inch (4.8mm) half-oval opening just above the top of the vase. The bottom of this opening will be the top lip of the vase. Drill a starter hole inside the drawn line and cut out the half-oval. Cut slightly into the formed vase so that you have an opening for the stems to come through. File the sawed edges lightly with a needle file and smooth them with sandpaper or an abrasive pad. Trim the copper piece to 15/16 2 inches ( cm), centered around the vase. Polish the front and back with a doublecrimped brass brush in a rotary tool. Do not sand or file the edges yet. Prepare the backing. Rough-cut a 26-gauge sterling-silver backing to 15/16 2 inches ( cm). Scuff both sides of the backing lightly with sandpaper. Place the vase piece on top of the backing and outline the vase s opening with a fine-tip permanent marker or scribe. Remove the vase piece. Texture the oval area on the backing with a hard 4 5 steel brush in a rotary tool, allowing the brush to dig into the silver in places to create a pleasing texture. (Editor s Note: This step may be omitted, as the flowers largely obscure the opening and very little of the silver backing is seen.) Place a mark 3/8 inch (0.95cm) up from the bottom, along the vertical centerline of the front of the backing. This is where you will solder the flower stems. [7] Add the flower stems. Cut three 2-inch (5.08cm) pieces of 18-gauge copper wire. Round the cut ends. Place the backing on a soldering tripod and flux the area to be soldered. Heat the flux with a torch until it turns glassy. Apply easy or extra-easy solder snippets to the area and melt the solder. Lay the stem pieces on top of the solder. Flux the stems and heat the assembly until the solder flows onto the stems. Soak the piece in a pickle solution or solution of one part concentrated all-purpose cleaner and one part water. Rinse with plain water and dry with a soft cloth. Attach the findings. Return the backing to the soldering tripod. If desired, coat the soldered stem area with yellow ochre or anti-flux and let dry. Flip the piece over and flux a 1-inch (2.54cm) horizontal strip approximately 5/8 inch (1.59cm) from the top of the piece. Lay your solder snippets along the line and melt them, then flux again. Open the nickel pin back and place it on top of the melted solder flat side down, clasp on the left. Reheat and melt the solder, pressing the pin back down with a soldering pick to ensure a tight bond. Cool, rinse, and place in pickle or 3acrylic tips on drilling 1 When drilling acrylic or other hard plastics, don t stop the drill bit inside the hole. The heat will cause the material to melt and stick to the bit, making it difficult to remove. Position the bit lightly on the 2 acrylic. Slowly give the drill power to let the point begin to grip, increase the power, and push. Remove the bit in one smooth, swift motion while it s still moving. Wear eye protection; plastic 3 flecks are more painful than wood dust. tips on 4riveting 1 It s a good idea to anneal your riveting material before cutting individual pieces, whether you re using tubing or wire. When using two or more 2 rivets to hold pieces of metal together, the most cautious (and therefore the wisest) course is to complete one rivet before drilling holes for the other rivets. Hammering a rivet can cause the pieces being bound together to shift. If you ve drilled multiple holes, you may find that the holes don t line up! Drill all the holes required for 3 one rivet. Then install the rivet and hammer it to set it before going on to the next rivet. If you have several rivets planned for a piece, install and finish the second rivet so that no more shifting will occur. Then you can drill all the remaining holes and set the rest of the rivets at once. It s important that the rivets 4 fit very snugly in the holes, so match your drill bit carefully to the width of your riveting material. An inexpensive drill gauge from the hardware store can be a great help it has a graduated series of holes marked with drill bit numbers. Find the hole that best fits your riveting material and use the drill bit marked on it. If no hole fits your riveting material perfectly, use the next smaller hole and corresponding drill bit, then ream it out slightly from both sides with a reamer or square needle file before installing the rivet.

4 Process photos by Donna Blow Q A & What s a durometer? The word durometer refers to a measure of hardness as in durable. Here, it is used to describe the squishability of the urethane pads under the pressure of the hydraulic press. A 95-durometer pad is harder and stiffer than an 80-durometer pad. Why do I have to put my copper piece in the press twice? On the first pressing, the 95-durometer pad generates a crisp, clear edge, but not much height. The second, 80-durometer pressing produces the height of the shape. It is essential to anneal thoroughly between pressings to give the metal the softness it needs to allow it to stretch without tearing. What s a hydraulic press? The hydraulic press is a powerful tool to have in your studio. In essence, the press is a mechanical hammer with different hammer heads, depending on the setup you re using. The most commonly used models are designed to accept a wide variety of tooling, from bending brakes, punches, dies, and stakes, to form-boxes and deep-draw sets. The press exerts enormous, targeted pressure. Many press operations involve the use of dies and urethane pads to lift and form metal. When put under extreme pressure, urethane acts like a liquid, forming the metal upward into the dies. Once the pressure is released, the urethane returns to its normal, solid appearance. What can I do if I don t have a hydraulic press? You can attempt to duplicate the hydraulic-press process using a bench vise. When using a matrix die (an empty shape to be formed into, usually sawed out of a sheet of cast acrylic), save the shape you cut out from the acrylic sheet. Lay the die face up and place the metal sheet on top of it. Apply rubber in place of the urethane pads (erasers are good substitutes), and add the cutout acrylic design piece on the other side of the rubber. This piece operates as a pusher in this setup. Tape the entire stack together and insert it into the vise and tighten. cleaning solution for 5 minutes. Remove and clean with a soft toothbrush. Set the backing aside. [8] Prepare the textured frame. Rough-cut a textured piece of silver to 15/16 2 inches ( cm). Work from the back of the textured silver, as this will make drilling easier. Using a fine-tip permanent marker, draw a line approximately 3/16 inch (4.8mm) from each edge of the piece to form an inner rectangle. Use a center punch or sharpened nail to mark approximately 1/32 inch (0.8mm) inside the rectangle, then drill a starter hole and insert a jeweler s saw blade. Cut out the rectangle. (You will use only the frame in this project; save the center for a future piece.) Smooth and round the interior edges of the frame with a #6 file or finishing paper, as desired. Use a brass brush to finish the frame to a shine. Don t worry about the exterior edges yet. [9] Rivet the pieces together. From the back, mark the center of each of the four corners of the frame. Indent each mark with a center punch or nail and drill a small starter hole at each mark. Enlarge the starter holes with a 3/32-inch (2.4mm) bit. Test the holes with a piece of 3/32-inch (2.4mm) sterling-silver tubing to ensure that the tubing fits snugly. Flip the frame so the textured side is up and place the vase and backing behind it; adjust the alignment. Tape the pieces together using painter s tape or masking tape, making sure not to tape over the four corner marks. Rivet one corner at a time (see Four Tips on Riveting ). Select which corner you will start at. Using the hole in

5 the frame as a guide to the layers below, drill a 3/32-inch (2.4mm) hole through the vase and backing pieces. When you drill, do not press down on the pin back or you will distort it. Instead, position the piece so the pin back hangs off the edge of your drilling surface, with as much of the assemblage supported from beneath as possible. Cut four 5mm pieces of 3/32-inch-diameter (2.4mm) sterling-silver tubing. Smooth the cut ends. Place the tubing into a pin vise or other holding mechanism and saw a 1/32-inch (0.8mm) cross into each end of the tubing using a 2/0 saw blade. Place one corner of the assembled piece on a steel block. Allow the remainder of the piece to hang off the block to avoid crushing the vase or the pin back when you hammer. Insert one piece of tubing through the hole and tap firmly a few times with the sharp end of a riveting hammer. Flatten and curl over the upper edge of the tubing so it forms a rivet and holds the frame in place. Flip the piece over and repeat on the back side. Keep flipping the piece back and forth while working on the rivet. After two flips, switch to the blunt end of the riveting hammer and continue until the rivet is solidly set. If the edges are too sharp, tap lightly with the blunt end as needed. Repeat for the remaining three rivets. Remove the tape. When the rivets are complete, shine them with a brass brush. Finish the edges. Trim and file as required to make all the edges flush and even, then smooth and finish the edges by rubbing them flat against progressively finer grits of sandpaper [10] Make the flowers. Put three sterling-silver disks between two pieces of steel window screen and place them on top of a 2-inch (5.08cm) cast-acrylic spacer plate in the hydraulic press. Press to 3000 psi (1361kg). Mark the disks into five sections, or petals (like a wild rose blossom), leaving a 3mm blank circle in the middle. Using a jeweler s saw or metal shears, slice into each disk along the five drawn lines. Do not cut across the blank center of the disk. Round the corners of the petals; trim and smooth as needed. Place a mark in the center of each flower with a center punch and drill with a 0.04-inch (1.0mm) drill bit. De-bur and polish the flowers with a brass brush to your desired shine. Thread each flower onto a stem. Trim the stems to the desired length, allowing enough length to coil the wire to hold the flowers on. Use roundnose pliers to curl the wire ends toward the flowers approximately two to three turns (think of the coiled wires as the stamens of the flowers). Grasp the area of the stem behind the flower firmly with chainnose pliers. With your other hand, grab one of the petals and push it up into place, curling and fluting it to mimic the curve of rose petals. Repeat for the remaining petals. materials Copper sheet: 26-gauge, dead-soft, 11/2 23/4 inches ( cm) Scrap copper sheet: 26-gauge, dead-soft, at least 11/2 23/4 inches ( cm) Sterling-silver sheet: 26-gauge, half-hard, 11/2 2 inches ( cm) Copper wire: 18-gauge, round, half-hard, 6 inches (15.24cm) Nickel bar-style pin back, 1 inch (2.54cm) Textured or cast sterling-silver piece: 15/16 2 inches ( cm) Sterling-silver thick-walled tubing: 3/32-inch-diameter (2.4mm), approximately 20mm long 3 sterling-silver disks: 26-gauge, 5/8 inch (1.59mm) tools & supplies Combination rolling mill Soldering tripod and torch Cast acrylic, 3 3 1/2 inch ( cm) Center punch or sharpened nail Drill,.04-inch (1mm) bit and 3/32-inch (2.4mm) bit Safety goggles Jeweler s saw frame, 4-inch (10.16cm) or larger, and 2/0 blades Half-round needle files, #2 and #6 Sandpaper or finishing papers, assorted grits, or abrasive pad Fine-tip permanent marker or scribe Hydraulic press 2 red urethane pads, 1/8 inch (3.2mm) thick, 95 durometer Yellow urethane pad, 1/2 inch (1.27cm) thick, 80 durometer Acrylic spacer plate, 2 inches (5.08cm) thick Masking or blue painter s tape Rotary tool Double-crimped brass brush Easy or extra-easy solder and flux Fine tweezers Pickle solution or all-purpose cleaner Soft cloth Yellow ochre or anti-flux (optional) Soldering pick Soft toothbrush Drill gauge (optional) Reamer or square needle file (optional) Pin vise Steel block Riveting hammer Steel window screen Metal shears Pliers: chainnose, roundnose