EMBOSSED COPPER NAPKIN RINGS

I've made several sets of napkin rings over the years, and this week sold my last pair through Etsy. Usually I have saved notes for various projects, but had none for these. What gauge copper to use? Do I anneal the metal first? Fortunately, I have a file drawer full of scrap copper gathered through the years from our local supplier, Industrial Metals. Bins of small sheets of various gauges that you can buy by the pound.

I have this very old Vintaj Big Kick machine to use for this project.

The metal piece is placed into an embossing folder and fed through the rollers on the platforms provided with the machine. It's a craftsy-type rolling mill that is usually used for paper and scrapbooking projects. But works well with thinner gauges of metal.

Here's the embossed metal piece. Looks great!!

After rolling out four pieces, I trimmed the corners, sanded the edges, and shaped them around a mandrel using a rawhide hammer. This work hardened the metal.

I'll make a few more sets with different patterns and then decide whether to patina them with liver of sulfur or leave them this beautiful copper finish. I'll then treat them with a gloss or satin spray to protect the surface.

MANDALA EARRINGS

I recently took an online class with Leslie Kail Villarreal. She is a very good instructor and provides supply lists and videos of each project from start to finish. Her website also has a lot of free videos on various jewelry projects.

This class was "Mandala Earrings". The earrings were fabricated from sterling silver sheet. She provided a template of the earrings. It was glued to the silver sheet and a jeweler's saw was used to cut out the pattern. Sounds so simple, doesn't it? It was easier than my last post on Lotus Flower Earrings, because the areas to saw were much larger. I've made three pairs so far and am happy to announce I sold one!!!!

The first pair I made is the one on the left, below. It measures 2-1/2". The smaller pair is 2-1/8". In the class, Leslie soldered a silver ball on each earring tip. The pair I sold was finished that way. I like the earrings either way, probably better without the balls.