More fun with the disc cutter today! After writing my blog last night, it occurred to me that the sheet metal I was using was actually a lot thicker than I realized (18 gauge). This may look nice and provide a very stable base that doesn't get pulled out of shape if someone comes along and touches it too hard, but it also makes it REALLY hard to punch through and work with. So I went on a shopping trip and found only one place in town that sold sheet metal in a thinner gauge (there may be more, but I only tried the first 5 places that I could think of that were nearby). This metal is used for model building and is probably closer to what I need to be using anyway, if I want much flexibility design-wise.
I took my new metal sheets out to the garage and sighed with relief when the first disc popped out almost immediately. In half an hour, I had twice as many circles as I did yesterday. Yay! I also figured out a more logical way to make rings. You just have to punch out the SMALLER piece first, then cut the bigger one around the negative space. Otherwise, it's almost impossible to gauge where the center is. I'm still eyeballing it, so they may not be perfect, but all the copper ones in the picture line up pretty darn well when you stack them. The aluminum ones are my first efforts - I kinda like the wonky rings. I might use them as pendants after some embellishing.
Speaking of pendants, I made one out of one of yesterday's thicker copper circles. I still have a lot to learn about liver of sulfur (which darkens the metal), so it's a little too dark in my opinion, but nothing that a few hours in the rock tumbler can't fix! Anyway, I smacked it lots of times with a patterned hammer, drilled a hole through the top, added a jump ring, put liver of sulfur on it, then tumbled for about an hour. Pretty straightforward and fun to make - I love it!
*You turn away for a mere moment to grab something. When you look back, all the little circles are gone. You think 'Am I crazy? They were there just a minute ago'. A moment later, the realization sets in that you've been hit by the dreaded Megan monster, and your pretties have been unjustly stolen to add to her hoard of shiny things. 'Damn', you think, 'Should have known...'
ReplyDeleteGood thing you live a bazillion miles away! And now that you've warned me, I will make sure they're all safely locked away in a cabinet when you visit. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Foiled again!
ReplyDeleteI would like to remind my friend Michelle that I have free flight, and will not announce my arrival until *after* the discs are safely in my possession....and don't start nit-picking about the fact that I don't have a key, let alone the code to your alarm; I have mad ninja skills, and those details matter not to me :)
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