Yamaha 3 Tuning Forks Bicycle Head Badge

I was contacted by a client in Australia to make this badge.  I am pleased with the way it came out.  The outer softness contrasts the hard lines of the inside.  The way the points intrude into the outer circle, and the over all design.  It also feels really nice when you pick it up, which is always a good sign.  I can’t wait to see it on the bicycle!

 

 

 

Yamaha 3 Tuning Forks Bicycle Head Badge

I was contacted by a client in Australia to make this badge.  I am pleased with the way it came out.  The outer softness contrasts the hard lines of the inside.  The way the points intrude into the outer circle, and the over all design.  It also feels really nice when you pick it up, which is always a good sign.  I can’t wait to see it on the bicycle!

 

 

 

Ginkgo Leaf Etched Brass Earrings

I have always been fascinated with Ginkgo’s. The last of a family of trees, the Ginkgo is unique both historically, genetically, and has its own unique beauty.

This Christmas I made a bunch of them for friends and family. The leaves are etched to give a lovely sparkle when they hit the light, and they dangle on a silver chain from a simple silver post, that is capped with a brass circle.

 

If you like them you can buy them here.

 

Home Made DIY “W” Cookie Press For Short Bread Cookies

This job had to be a bit of a rush job, but I think its going to work great. Its a short bread cookie press, you roll out the cookie dough, press this into it then bake.

Get the “W” into a vector file.

Print it out.

 

Cut it out of a nice thick 16g piece of brass.

Soldier on a small copper tube

epoxy the whole thing into a stout dowel.

 

 

Shorty handle for good force manipulation, as well as easy storage.

When I get some cookie pictures I will post an update.

Thing A Week 4: Borax Red Jewlery

I have occasionally in my goofing around with torch and flux turned a piece of copper bright red. I had no idea how I had accomplished it, and chocked it up to a fluke of chemistry.  The color however was gorgeous, and I was sad I couldn’t recreate it….that was until I stumbled upon the hidden knowledge of the Borax Red Patina.

It’s super simple, you just take some water, dissolve as much Borax (20 mule team Borax from the store works just fine), heat your copper up till its bright red, and dunk it in the water.  The finish is very rugged and wont wear off, but it is heat sensitive, so make sure you only do cold forming after the treatment, if you need to solder anything on its going to be a little tricky.

 

I played around with the technique for a while and found it rather fun to just make the copper red, you can lightly polish it after to bring out the redness and make it more interesting.

I ended up making an earring and pendant set.  Its all pretty rough, as I was just sort of playing around, but I am glad I figured out the technique and will use it again in the future.









 

 

DIY Branding Iron

A friend in the bakery business wanted to be able to brand her bread to give it a little more flair.  So I whipped up this quick and dirty bread brand.

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Cut out the T from 16 gauge brass, it was the thickest I had, if I could have found thicker I would, but turned out ok.

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Solder on some hollow copper pipe, again what I had on hand, with a nice strong joint using high temp solder.

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Looking good so far, now for a handle.


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Drilled a hole in a hard wood dowel and used a mix of friction fit and CA glue to hold it in place.

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Getting ready to try it.

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Get yourself a nice slice of home made sour dough bread.

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Heat that bad boy up for 30-50 seconds till the end of the pipe near the handle is too hot to touch.  Make sure you keep the flame moving around the whole time.

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You will know its hot enough if the bread smokes when you touch it to the bread.

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Gets pretty gross, but doesn’t affect how it works, just burn off all the gross and go again!

No bread is safe!