A friend of mine recently visited China and humored my request that she bring back some coins for me. When I am fortunate enough to get my hands on worldly coins, I will sometimes incorporate them into jewelry pieces. Some of the Chinese coins that I found waiting for me at my front door yesterday morning (I love surprises like that!) were new and shiny and so not capturing my interest. I decided to try some instant aging and fired up the torch. I started out with a coin like the one on the left. I slowly brought the coin to a bright red glow and let it cool a bit before quenching it in water. I drilled 2 connector holes, removed burs, and domed it slightly in my daping block. I then used a foam sanding block to bring out some of the details and to get a matte finish. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh........so much better on the right!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Instantly Aged Chinese Coin
A friend of mine recently visited China and humored my request that she bring back some coins for me. When I am fortunate enough to get my hands on worldly coins, I will sometimes incorporate them into jewelry pieces. Some of the Chinese coins that I found waiting for me at my front door yesterday morning (I love surprises like that!) were new and shiny and so not capturing my interest. I decided to try some instant aging and fired up the torch. I started out with a coin like the one on the left. I slowly brought the coin to a bright red glow and let it cool a bit before quenching it in water. I drilled 2 connector holes, removed burs, and domed it slightly in my daping block. I then used a foam sanding block to bring out some of the details and to get a matte finish. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh........so much better on the right!
This post brought back a memory for me. When I first started working with metals, I tried hammering copper pennies flat on my garage floor. It takes some whacking, but it works & I used a couple of them for small pendants w/words.
ReplyDeleteAt one point, it struck me that I should anneal them first. I got one really hot and without really thinking, I hit it with a hammer. It almost exploded...because it was so hot. Hot metal flew in all directions. (make big scary eyes here.) I learned several valuable lessons that day. ;)
And yes, the one on the right is much better!