An exercise in patience

I just made this today since I had my Dremel out. The easy thing was cutting out the heart shape, smoothing the edges with my Dremel, and then drilling the holes. The exercise in patience was with the size zero screws and nuts. Oy!

I had some scraps of patina-ed metal. I don't remember how I did this piece. There are several ways to age metal depending upon the metal. I do have some great stuff from Volcano Arts that works really well on most every metal I have. Make sure you have a large batch of stuff to do so you don't waste the solution. http://volcanoarts.biz/cart/metalsmithing/index.htm

It is called Oxidizing Solution.

I used a template and traced a heart shape on both pieces of metal. I cut it out with a very sharp pair of scissors that says it cuts through thin metal. Well, it was telling me the truth. I then rounded the corners. I pulled out the Dremel and used the sanding attachment to smooth out the rough parts. I then used my bench block and rubber mallet to smooth out the metal before working on it any more. I went back periodically to smooth out the metal so that when I attached the two pieces, some of it would not come out wrinkled or puffy. You can get the bench block and rubber mallet from Volcano Arts. Mallet can also be gotten at any hardware store. I recommend the thick mat they sell to muffle some of the noise when you hammer.

I used a little double sided tape to keep the netting in place on the backside of one of the pieces. I put in the smallest drill bit in my drill bit kit and put that on my Dremel. I used a center punch to mark where I wanted to put the small screws. Since I purposely made the two pieces a little off center from each other, I wanted to make sure it stayed that way after the screws were put on.

What I did was just drill one hole at a time, put on the screw and nut, drill another hole, screw and nut, and so on. It is easier to do it that way because your 4 holes will not match up evenly if you do them all at once. The screw and nut will change the alignment slightly. The exercise in patience was putting the little washer on and then the nut. Do yourself a favor and do that part over an open surface so that you will see where the screw and/or nut goes when it falls. I don't have nails, so it was harder for me. You can get these mini screws and nuts at Volcano Arts, McMaster Carr, and some hobby stores.

When that was done, I took a pair of metal pliers and cut off the ends of the screws that extended past the nut. I retightened the screws and then put a drop of super glue over each one so that it would not come loose. I used a larger drill bit and drilled the hole for the jump ring. Put together a chain and voila! Done.

Comments welcome. Sorry, not selling this one. I love old, faded, patina-ed, found object type stuff.