Little Bird Bridesmaid Necklaces

Yesterday I completed 4 Little Bird Necklaces for a bridal order, ready to be shipped today. I just just then remembered to take a picture of it, so here it is: 

4 Little Bird Bridesmaid Necklace Gifts 

under $20 each

Hand Stamped Metal - How I make my personalised jewelry...

Here, I will try to list the steps I take to hand stamp a metal charm for your personalized jewellery.

First the tools!

Tools

1- 6mm Letter Stamping Set

2- Hammer

3- Steel Bench Block

4- Sharpie Pen (Permanent Marker) 

5- Rubber Block

6- Jewellers Polishing Cloth

7- 8mm Sterling Silver Metal Disc or Metal Charm Disc

8 - Stamping Straight Tape ( optional, not in the picture)

In this case I use an 8mm Sterling Silver Metal Disc with a jump hole that I had already punched earlier, I will show you how to do this in another post soon. 

Most of these tools you can find online at various websites, but I found most of mine, through etsy and the links provided above.

Place the sterling silver disc on the Steel Block, you could use tape to secure it, this is to ensure that you have the letter exactly where wish to position it. I don't use the tape any longer and forgot about the tape when I took the pictures. 

Choose your letter stamp, in this case I used the letter 'A'.

Take your letter stamp and visually check that the bottom of the letter faces you and position it where you would like to the stamp to be. 

Or if you using the sticking tape method, tape a bottom line along where you would line up your the letter(s), take your stamp and move it downwards until you feel the tape. 

Hold your metal stamp straight up and by using your hammer, knock the top of the letter stamp, quite hard, once or twice to make the letter stamping impression.

This is how the stamped letter my stamped letter looked, an impression of an 'A' left into the disc. 

Now for the oxidising or making the letter black. 

Go over the letter with the Black Sharpie, it will look like picture above.

Then using the polishing cloth and rub all over the disc to make it shine, which also removes the excess black.

The metal disc charm should look like this now, ready for the jewellery!!!

Here is a plain Pearl Bracelet and Studs Flowergirl Set in white to which I will attach the disc to the bracelet..

I used my round nose pliers to place a jump ring on the bracelet, then I add another jump ring to the disc, which I attach to the jump ring on the bracelet.

I found my 4mm jump rings from Beadaholique 

Here's the 2 Flowergirl Pearl Stud and Initial Bracelet Gift Sets all packaged and ready to be shipped the next business day and sometimes the same day!

Have fun trying out your stamping, warning, it takes alot of practice!!!!

:) 

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Happy New Year from RBJohnson Designs

Happy New Year !!!!

** 2014 ** 

Wishing everyone a great, prosperous and healthy 2014!

Let's celebrate the dawn of a sparkling New Year. May it bring many gifts of joy, awesome health and lots of wonderful happy surprises. 

My 2013 had it's ups and downs.. 
Ups: I had a baby boy; my daughter started big school; I have been on maternity leave all year, while my hobby turned 'business' (RBJohnson Designs) supported me during the extended maternity leave ( maternity is usually 4-6 months in Australia)!
Downs: My mum had an emergency triple by-pass operation to her heart, she only had weeks to live before this op! I had to opportunity to be by her. She is over 60, recovery is a lengthy process, however she making progress daily ;)

Best wishes to everyone and Happy New Year!!! 

Rishka