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Jewelry Making Techniques In Adding More Colors To Metal

By: Susan Phelps

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This is reasonably interesting for someone that hasn't heard of methodologies in adding more colors to their metals and has just been doing beaded jewelry making. Essentially, there are three common materials that can be bonded, fixed, or dripped onto metals to add more colors.

The 1st one is epoxy ; this is a low-tech material that you can use in your work. This is a cheap medium that may produce many results. Resin and hardener are the two parts of the epoxy mix. It's merely a matter of time for it to cure and become a hard, sturdy, super glossy plastic substance that may be drilled, glued and sanded, when they are mixed. This is the same as 50 coats of varnish and dries to a mirror finish. Here's where the color comes in, use acrylic paint, gouache, jelly powder, makeup powder, or anything else that you can think of.

Try playing with epoxy on some of your jewelry designs. You can try layering, drip it into etched or stamped depressions on sterling or copper sheets, and pour it into bezels ; you can try dipping things into it too. Vital reminder, you need to suspend any dipped work while waiting for it to cure. Epoxy is glue ; you don't want to glue it to anything. Epoxy cures fast, epoxies that are available in appliance store typically comes in 5 and ten minute varieties, and others are fast too, so be certain of your working time, only mix up as much as you can use in the five or ten minutes. Don't mix it with anything you ever wish to use again, or simply mix them up on a chunk of scrap paper with a stick. And, don't inhale or touch epoxy with your bare skin before it cures. Epoxy can be hazardous to your health, always consider proper care in working with this kind of chemical. Two-part epoxy is available from the ironmongers in small 2-sided syringes, and you'll also find it in massive 2 bottle kits from craft and hobby suppliers.

The second material you can use to add colors to your metal is polymer clay. Polymer clay comes in a variety of colors. This is made from PVC ( polyvinyl chloride ) and goes under varied brand names, like Fimo, Sculpey, and Friendly Clay. When using metal and polymer clay, to make polymer clay jewelry, cut metal sheet parts to make mosaics, and then fill the pieces of sterling tubes with clay. You can try messing with liquid clays and colored powders that are available on the market. However, polymer clay is made subtley different when it comes to quality from each manufacturer. So when using it, particularly when baking it's critical to first read the instructions. You also need to condition the polymer clay before using it. Exercise conditioning by kneading the clay with your hands, or running it through a dedicated blender just make sure to use dedicated tools.

The 3rd material you may use is the enamel. Enameling isn't like the two materials we've discussed earlier. Enameling uses powdered glass or glass granules, and a torch and kiln. These are all required in making glass beads. Everybody knows that glass beads can be extraordinarily colorful, so you are able to add this to put more colors in your metalwork.

In this process, the glass is melted in thin layers onto a metal form, frequently on copper. The layers of liquified glass are usually vibrant and don't fade or chip under ordinary conditions, but bending metal can cause cracks in enamel. Explore enameling with the utilization of powdered glass from enameling suppliers and a butane torch. Enameling suppliers also sell copper blanks and also try enameling sterling silver etchings and stamping. In working with these materials for these methodologies, always use caution. Read and understand first all of the instructions and cares to avoid accidents.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Being organized is important to the success of your business and if you are looking for help getting more organized then our Bead Manager Pro is guaranteed to help. We have some jewelry business information and a jewelry book that will help you improve your jewelry business.

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