Famous Jewelry Collections: THE BEADING GEM'S JOURNAL

Monday, January 21, 2013

THE BEADING GEM'S JOURNAL

Posted: 21 Jan 2013 05:00 AM PST

ImpressArt is a line of high quality metal stamps that are specifically designed for jewelry and mixed media designers. When I first featured them in a giveaway quite a while back, they only had a limited range. Since then, what they now offer in terms of letter and design stamps is fabulous!

They sent me the above set to review and are offering one lucky winner a set of letter stamps of their choice! No prizes for guessing I received the letter set and 3 design stamps (gift box, christmas tree and a snowman) before Christmas! Finally got my temporary workshop set up and I had fun with these wonderful stamps.

First of all, an easy stamped ring (tutorial later this week) featuring flowers comprised of the letters "o" and "v"!

This snowman key chain tag has a copper oval riveted to the brass oval below.

Zipper pulls are fun too. They can either substitute a missing one or function as a decorative and personalized pull as shown with this riveted design for a friend. I'm not entirely sure the nail rivet was appropriate as the "star" of the Christmas tree but it was worth a try!

I used to wonder what wine glass charms are for. Ever since it dawned on me that they are used to identify guest glasses at parties, I've always wanted to make some for when we entertain. The Christmas set is sure useful for that time of year.

I used ring size memory wire and leftover beads for this project. If you vary the color beads and the decorative tags, the different permutations will be more than enough for most home parties. Now if your guest can't remember if he or she had the glass with the blue snowman charm, then maybe you should cut back on the alcohol?

Ornamentea had some great ideas for fun wine glass charms using letter charms. So I tried out "wino" and "lush" ideas with the letter stamps. It was difficult to stamp around small round discs so oval or rectangular or even larger round blanks would be easier.

It takes practice to get good at stamping. It's not for the timid either. A firm grip and a strong whack with the hammer are preferable to 2-3 strikes as you might get multiple impressions. The easiest least expensive metals to use are copper, brass and aluminum as they are relatively soft metals. Save stainless steel or precious metals when you are good at it!

Other non-jewelry items include book marks, pet tags and guitar picks. The list is endless! Check out the ImpressArt project page as well as the links below for more jewelry stamping tutorials.

Giveaway
One lucky winner of this giveaway will receive a letter set. There are several wonderful fonts to choose from. So check out their site as well as the ImpressArt Metal Stamps Viewer to help you visualize how each font looks like on different discs.

To enter, please make a comment below. Make sure you leave contact info if you do not have an online shop or blog.

Subscribers need to click on the post title to come to my actual blog. Scroll down and enter your comment. Pick Name/URL. If you don't have a store or blog, leave the URL blank. Please leave an email at the very least so I can contact you easily if you win.

This giveaway is international.

Extra entries if you become or are a blog subscriber or follower etc. If you also do shout outs about this giveaway, those will count as additional entries too! Please say so in the comments.

It ends in a week's time at 6 pm EST Monday, January 28, 2013. I will pick the winner randomly and announce the results as soon as possible after. So be sure to leave a contact email if you don't have an online link or make sure you come back and check! Otherwise I will redraw in a week. Good luck!

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