Tuesday, June 19, 2012

YOJ Week 25 - The Embossed Cuff

Last week I borrowed a Cuttlebug embosser, aka the poor man's rolling mill from my friend Jenny and did a little experimenting. If you are unfamiliar with an embosser, it sort of works like a pasta machine, but instead of pasta, you imprint paper or thin ga. metals with it.

Although the impressions are not as sharp as with a rolling mill, at a fraction of the cost, it might be an economic alternative for texturizing metals. The limitations are the size and thickness of metals. I like to create cuffs and by adding a backing blank, embossing thinner ga. metal was not really an issue. I also found that the size of the embossing plates was long enough to almost cover a 6" bracelet blank.

For this cuff I used a scrap piece of leather, installed a snap with a snap-setter and embossed a 1/2"x4" piece of 30 ga. copper. After applying Vintag Verdigris metal patina, I cold connected it with nail rivets. Easy. Fast. Fun!


For my next experiment, I used a 22 ga copper cuff blank for the base, which I patina'd with LOS. Then I cut a 1"x6" sheet of 30 ga. copper, embossed it and applied a mixture of Vintag Cinnebar and Amethyst metal patina. Final step? Punching holes with a Vintag 1.5 mm metal punch and cold connecting it with 1.3 mm nail head rivets. What do you think?

15 comments:

  1. Eva,

    I love your experiments!! Super cool and beautiful end results! I experimented a while back with embossing, it is a lot of fun and I am love the new vintaj/ranger products!! Great post! Kris

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kris! I'm enjoying the experimenting... :-)

      Delete
  2. Im guessing the Cuddlebug is like the BigKick? What embossing folders are you using? I have all the Vintaj ones but am always looking for new designs as the Vintaj ones are very limited. :)

    I LOVE your ideas and the Cuffs are awesome!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nicole, I saw a demo with the BigKick at Bead and Button and it seemed like the embossing plates were not long enough for cuffs. I could be wrong, but that was my impression. I think the plates are sized by the manufacturer to fit only their machine, so I don't think you can use cuttlebug folders with the vintag machine....again, I could be wrong. I guess I need to do some more research.... :-)

      Delete
  3. We played around with a c bug at our group meetup and it was fun. Did you use regular patina?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Karen, I used the new vintag metal patina's...just bought the whole line... :-)

      Delete
  4. Oooh, love that Amethyst patina! How sweet what we can do with inexpensive materials --- who says artful creations need to be pricey to make? ☺

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your blog was very helpful. Thanks for these posts. Keep it up.
    AC company Virginia Gardens

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, I LOVE that bracelet! I have a big kick and I just today used a cuttle bug and some other brand embossing folders in it over my copper and brass blanks with no problems. It gives me so many more options!

    ReplyDelete

Your comment will be published upon moderation.