[Jewelry making - Article 00066] - Re: [Orchid] Making copper grapes

[Donna Blow]

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    You need a hydraulic press for this.  I recently designed a "bunch
    of grapes" as a holiday ornament for a client.  I used Delrin to
    carve out a realistic looking grouping of grapes, in reverse,
    complete with stem.  This delrin slab became the mold for my
    ornament.  I then used a form box and my hydraulic press, placed a
    26ga. sheet of copper cut to size in the box, pressed to 6500 lbs.
    and voila, a bunch of grapes.  For this project, I only pressed
    once.  For your project, you will probably want to press a few times
    to get the depth of the grapes right, annealing between pressings. 
    If you want realistic 3-d grapes with two sides, you will need to
    create a reverse mold, press the back, and then solder. 

    As for color, I found that cleaning with Simple green, lightly
    sanding with scotchbrite green, and placement in a standard oven at
    around 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes gives a wonderful, hearty
    patination.  Variations on the temperature give wonderful results. 

regards, Donna Blow, dzines by donna

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