Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Bronzclay Beadcaps- First Try

It's been a coon's age (lol) since I've played w/ Bronzclay and this time I had a hankerin' for beadcaps.
There are so many things that I have to redo since I jumped in feet first w/o thinking ahead - for instance, I didn't dry them on a rounded surface so I had to dap them *eeek* and Bronzclay is know to be very strong and hard to bend..if sintered properly.

My biggest dapping punch wasn't big enough to encompass the biggest bead cap and so they crinkled a little and I tried to fix that. Even the smaller ones did that - if I would've dried them on a convex surface, I also would have been able to sand a bevel on the edge so it would be flush w/ the surface of the bead.

And the bead holes shrunk! I now have holes that need to be enlarged in order to fit my tubing since these were supposed to go on a bunch of hollow cored beads. Just waiting on my bead press. Waiting, waiting...
I'm worried that my drill bits will be stripped and dulled after enlarging the holes..we'll see. The second attempt will have a more organized and well-thought-out approach- hopefully it makes a difference.

2 comments:

Leslie @ Bei Mondi said...

Wonderful color and what an array of different sizes!

Vickie Hallmark said...

Oooh, those will look incredible with the ivory crackle beads!