Another Peek into My Studio

I thought today I would give you a peek as to how I create my stampings.  Since my introduction of Stamped Inspirations, my hubby suggested I make some that said "I love Alpacas" on them, with fiber cording, for one of our upcoming Fiber Festivals.  Shortly after he posted our new joint creations on Facebook, our friends and fans who own sheep, rabbits and llamas as fiber animals chimed in and requested some

Pendants with their favorite fiber animal

 ...and so I made some.  Hubby photographed these over top of their appropriate fibers.  Pretty huh?

Okay so I said I would share my process...

Here we go then...as you know I enjoy making all my findings by hand, jumprings, headpins and such.  Well the same approach was used in creating my Stamped Inspirations :)
 

First off the blanks needed to be punched out...for this I use a device called a die cutter.  This to me is the hardest part as it takes some muscles to punch them out.

 
After that it's off to the bartex machine...my blue monster, where I buff off all the sharp edges around each piece.  I use a set of pliers for this cos' the metal does get hot, the pliers makes it easier to  handle ;) 

Then the fun begins...

I start the stamping, where I get to create the phrases that are going to be displayed on the blanks.  I had fun picking out the fonts I wanted to use on my stampings...so much so, that I chose two different styles one for Caps and one for Lowercases.

From there I give each piece a concave backing finish...using a Dapping block.  Then I finish the edges with my Chasing Hammer,

giving it that cool etched edge ;)

Then I punch out a hole in the blanks and give the letters a Patina finish, a chemical process that tarnishes the blanks.  Then the second hardest process begins, I buff off the extra Patina and make each piece shinny again, leaving the Patina only in the grooves of the letters.

I'm not as close to the computer as it looks :)

I then make the jumprings, fuse them and they are ready for their cords...






Once the cords are on they get one last polish and wala...beautiful stampings!