Metal Stamps - Tips and Techniques
by Rena Klingenberg
(Making Jewelry Now)
Metal stamps created the lettering on this washer pendant.
Metal stamps are fun, creative jewelry making tools.
These tips and techniques show you how to get great results, from the very first time you try metal stamping jewelry.
It takes a bit of practice to get nice, even results when metal stamping jewelry. I recommend practicing on pieces of scrap metal while you get familiar with using the stamps.
Metal Stamping Tools
In addition to your metal stamps, you'll need just a couple of basic metal stamping tools:
- A jeweler's steel anvil block or other very smooth, hard surface that can take some banging.
- A metal hammer with a flat face; I use a regular hardware-store hammer. (Don't use your rawhide or nylon jewelry hammers on jewelry stamps - they'll get torn up quickly.)
Other helpful items to have handy:
- A small piece of non-skid, rubberized shelf liner.
- Masking tape, blue painter's tape, or post-it notes.
- Fine-tip Sharpie markers, in black and / or any other colors you wish.
Tip for Using
Number and Letter Stamps
I recommend using a Sharpie marker to write the stamp's number or letter on it:
Now it's much easier to find the right stamp while you're working on your project.
Also, if you've written your number or letter on the side of the stamp that will be facing you when you do your stamping, you'll always know which way to hold it.
That helps you avoid accidentally stamping a letter or number upside down or sideways - which is a terribly easy mistake to make!
Getting Beautiful Results with Your
Metal Stamps
Part of stamping's handmade charm is the imperfect alignment and spacing of letters and numbers.
If you embrace that lovely, rustic quality of metal jewelry stamping, you'll get a lot of pleasure from this art form.
Here are a few techniques that can help you get beautiful results:
Put a small piece of rubberized, non-skid shelf liner under your steel block to hold your working surface completely still while you hammer:
Before you start, line up all the metal stamps you'll use for your project and put them in the order in which you'll need them:
This can help you avoid making "typos" in your project!
It also makes it easier for you to stay in your rhythm of hitting each stamp uniformly with the same amount of force.
Important:
Hit each stamp only once with your hammer. If you hit it more than once, you'll get blurred or double images.
To keep your stamped message in more of a straight line as you work, you can use one of these methods before you start:
- Use a ruler and fine-point Sharpie marker to draw a "baseline" on your metal, so you'll know where to set each stamp.
- Or instead of drawing a Sharpie line, place a strip of masking tape, blue painter's tape, or the sticky end of a post-it note on your piece of metal to mark the baseline for your text.
Make Your Metal Jewelry Stamping
More Visible
It can be hard to read a stamped message on metal, unless you bring out the letters or numbers with color:
On sterling silver and copper, you can darken your stampwork beautifully by oxidizing the piece, then cleaning most of the oxidization off of everything but the letters or numbers.
On other types of metal, you can use fine-tip Sharpie markers to color your stamping:
And depending on your project, you may want to use colors other than black.
Here Santa enjoys a jolly bit of red, while Frosty sports a chilly shade of blue:
After coloring your stamping with Sharpies, you can easily wipe off the excess ink using a small piece of paper towel soaked in rubbing alcohol:
I hope you enjoy the wonderful design possibilities of metal stamps.
It's a beautiful form of texting on jewelry! :o)
See more about metal stamping jewelry.
Please share your tips for
metal stamping jewelry!
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