ArtFire

Handmade Silver and Brass Birds and Trees Necklace:

* Brass and sterling silver
* Handmade clasp
* 19" long necklace
* 1.25" wide and just over 1" high

I've been playing around with etching and came up with this necklace the other day. I first created the pattern using a vector graphics program and printed it at home and had ti photocopied on to a transparency (pnp (print-n-peel) transfer paper can also be used but transparencies are easier to come by in my area so I just use those). I then ironed that on to a brass sheet to transfer it and then put it in an etching solution. Once the etching was deep enough, I sawed out a piece of it, soldered it on to sterling silver silver sheet and added some silver embellishments. After a bit of fussing, I finally, I gave it a patina to bring out all the details. The end result is a bit like a picture frame featuring little birds in trees with gold tones over silver. To find out more about etching images on to metals like brass or copper, just look up how to make printed circuit boards, it's basically the same process.

brass, sterling silver