Hand-Drawn and Etched Copper and Sterling Silver Car Grills and Tails, with Semi-Precious Gemstone Accents
A bit of showing process. Not everything, but the highlights... these took a total of about 16 hours over 2 days to complete. Now they will be suspended from custom made sterling necklaces.
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First, I used a special pen from Germany that has an ink that acts as a resist to the type of acid used to etch copper (it is non-toxic - made with salts). I used line drawings of classic automobiles as guides, and freehanded the drawings. Then I taped them off and placed them in the acid bath until the design was etched deeply into the metal. |
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After removing them from the acid and scrubbing off the resist, I hand-cut them out roughly with a jeweler's saw. Then I cut them a bit closer, before hand-filing off the edges. |
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I rolled out some sterling silver sheet in a tire tracks steel pattern plate I had on hand, with my rolling mill. Then I added a little cut-out of our logo, and soldered it on. |
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I then soldered the sterling backing with the pattern side out to each of the etched copper cut out car grilles and tails. |
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I then cut down the shape of the silver as a backing with a border, after all were soldered together. I added little circles of twisted sterling on each - I will later drill holes in the center to make bails for attaching to a necklace. I also started adding copper bezel cups - the correct size - for many of the tail lights and headlights. |
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Soldering the bezel cups to the pendants for later use with gemstones that I've already sized to the lights on each vehicle. |
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After cleaning up from soldering and then sanding the rough edges, I used a watercolor pen with a special chemical used to blacken silver and copper. |
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The process of setting the stones in the cleaned bezels, then using a special hardwood tool to push the bezels up around each stone without causing any harm or scratches. They were a perfect fit. |
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After a final scrubbing with steel wool to highlight the etching after blackening, I coat them with Renaissance wax, to protect the finish. They are now ready to be pendants! |
Who'd like a custom, one of a kind necklace?