Tutorial: Maple Leaf Hair Pick
- Difficulty: Medium
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Materials: maple leaf, cabochon
I haven't said anything in a while. A lot of things to do.
Recently I have accidentally come across the idea of creating jewellery of natural leaves.
And then I had some free time, so I decided to try and see if I could do something with it.
Having enough experience in electroplating behind my back, I decided to get down to business. In general, it was not so simple. But let`s follow the plan.
This is more a report on "That's how I do" and story than tutorial. Again, this is my first work in this genre, and I did everything based only on my experience and skills.
For my first (and possibly last) work, I have chosen a hair pick.
I made a sketch of the future hair pick and started searching for materials.
I was hard to find a leaf in winter in my latitude. I found some dry leaves on the balcony cornice. I brewed them with boiling water and dried with an iron. They were easy to crumble. I assume, there are usually used green leaves (I have only three cacti, and a conifer tree outside... doesn`t work well).
It was no problem to find three copper core of the wire. Flatten the ends of the rods to attach them easily to a leaf.
I've been thinking how to fix the rods to the leaf. Decided to form the frame using the glue gun. Firstly, there is a need to connect all three rods with each other, they should become a single monolithic structure and not hanging out from the leaf. Secondly, good adhesion and ease of operation (there is no need to wait for solidification and similar difficulties). I can assume the use of polymer clay for this purpose... but I don't have it, and it's holding up well.
Yes! I have almost forgotten to embellish the leaf relief of grains (I stole that from my wife, they are somehow glued to nails, I do not know...).
As a result, I have a blank covered with an electrically conductive graphite spray.
Next is the electroplating process, which I will not comment on. I have tutorials in which I described it in detail.
During the night, the leaf got completely covered with a sufficiently thick and plastic layer of copper. I need to age this beautiful reddish leaf.
I use sulfur liver for aging.
After drying and polishing with a drill, we get a ready hair pick.
Well, to be honest, it is not for everyone. I prefer traditional jewellery. However, it was interesting. From the category of "amuse yourself".