What is involved in metal printing?
If you have one of these lovely and expensive rolling mills, you are in business;) This press is used to make an imprint of any “die” you may choose to use. The large metal rollers in the middle of the frame is where the magic happens. Your metal piece along with the die, are cranked through these rollers to make the imprint.
First, your metal needs to be annealed, which means softened to a specific temperature by using heat – a torch, (my favourite part). The metal will turn a different colour and become very malleable.
With these copper disc coins, I used dried Thyme herb carefully placed to create an Asian character print imitation. On the other pair, I used a feather to create a soft wispy image.
Later, I placed them in a solution to darken the deeper grooves then polished the top surface to create depth.
A drill press was also used to punch a hole into the solid copper and finally, adding my hand cut jump rings and hand made sterling silver ear wires, we have a cute pair of one of a kind earrings.
Really, they are one of a kind as I do not own a rolling mill. So if you love them, they are in my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/stonewillowjewellery