Don't worry - calligraphy etched on silver, steel and copper jewelry

I recently came across this quote: “Worry is essentially a misuse of imagination” by Alex Osborn.

This is completely in alignment with what I believe to be true, but totally on collision course with how I act. I know there’s no use in worrying about most things in life, but still I do.

This was the major reason for me to choose to put the words “Don’t worry” in calligraphy on some of my etched pendants and bracelets. Sometimes it’s accompanied by “Be happy” as in Bobby McFerrin’s old hit single.

I originally planned this to be a personal piece of jewelry (and I wear a silver pendant all the time) but I figured there’s probably more people like me… who worry too much. Worry about work, about the environment, about the economy, about what people will think of you… and it’s mostly useless.

So if you are like me – please, don’t worry so much. I know that it’s easier said than done, but it’s truly only a waste of time an energy.  And should you need something to remind you about it, you know where to find it! :)

For me and the etching method I use it’s an absolute necessary. I use it to tape down the lettering mask onto the metal to keep it exactly in place it when I heat transfer it. Electrical tape is great for this, as it takes heat well and the glue doesn’t melt and spread. Plus, it’s easy to remove afterwards. Originally I experimented with differend kinds of masking tape, but they never took the heat well and spread into a gooey mess that was impossible to clean up. :(

When the mask is transferred, I use electrical tape even more to mask off the edges and back of the metal so that it doesn’t etch away (see photo below). For this, electrical tape is perfect, as it is slightly pliable and can be wrapped around any shape of metal. It does a great job of keeping the areas free from etching marks. Also, its width is perfect for the etched jewelry I make – it covers the back with just enough overlap to keep the liquid out. :)

Masked lettering

And again, it’s easy to remove after it has done its job and it doesn’t leave any marks.

The only drawback of this wonderful stuff is that it sticks to my scissors a bit too well… but I can live with that! :)

/Marie

I’m glad for the many people who approached me, all the questions and comments and nice compliments about the jewelry and calligraphy that I do. It was a big boost for my sometimes very petite ego!

The surroundings at Stampen’s Mill are truly idyllic. A hidden gem I’ve never known of before, and I live just 15 minutes away! The murmur of the water and the trees and the smell of spring and the old bridges – it was a perfect setting for us. And the weather couldn’t have been better – beaming sun, a slight breeze, not too cold and not too hot. Perfect.

The mill house was interesting as well. I don’t know how old it is, but much of the original interior was intact. Massive building lumber in walls and floor, solid and genuine.

After a lot of ifs and buts and planning, I had my little tent/booth/piece of lawn set up when visitors began to arrive on Saturday morning. I had packed pain killers as I easily get headaches, but no – didn’t need them. Maybe I’m supposed to do craft fairs instead of working in the office! :)

Here’s Ninja, the neighbor’s long haired Jack Russell and our company for two days. Small but fast, and a big fan of twigs!

The sign I made for us served its purpose, I hope.

My plan was to demonstrate calligraphy by lettering the names of people passing by, and to my surprise almost everybody said “no” when I first asked. But after a little persuasion – and a promise that it was free of charge – all but a handful said “yes”. I did the lettering rather big, using an Automatic pen and walnut ink – my all time favorite ink.

The biggest reward for me was the reaction when I handed over the lettered names. The look in people’s eyes was priceless! I was surprised that such a relatively small effort on my side could evoke such a warm reaction. I think I lettered about 120 names over the two days. And all of them had my website and e-mail address printed on them. :)

The interest for my jewelry with etched calligraphy was greater than I had expected, although the sales didn’t match the interest. But I believe people mostly look when they go from place to place like this – I know that’s what I do! But hopefully I made a few contacts that will result in something later on.

All and all, this was a very rewarding experience for me. And I haven’t done this for the last time either – I’m already looking forward to next year!

You’ll find the blog and the interview here: makersandshakers.blogspot.com.

Thanks, Poppie!

So yesterday I gave it a go. Tried a new cleaning method that seemed to work very well without scratching the surface too much. Transferred the etching mask and it stuck perfectly. Connected the wires and immersed it in the etching liquid and let the electro etching do its magic… and all of a sudden I held one of the technically best etchings I’ve ever made in my hand!

It began in 1997 with a course in Roman majuscules. My tutor then – my very first tutor actually – was Gemma Black from Australia. She taught me about pen angles and the importance of correct letter widths and spaces and what makes a letter balanced and beautiful. I learned to love these majestic letters not in spite of the challenge of making them, but because of it.

For the course in foundational hand my tutor was Karen Ter Haar, also from Australia. Via a number of e-mails and snail mail I learned about the underlying geometric letterforms, serifs, spacing and all the little details that make a good letter. Karen was incredibly encouraging and she was the one who most of all boosted my self-esteem during this period of my life. She was also the one who began calling me ”Little One”, which later became the name of my company – Little One Design.

The uncial and gothic hands I learned from Viva Lloyd in Great Britain. We ‘connected’ very well and she understood my desire to really, really learn every hand from the inside out. Uncials became one of my favorite hands to use – it’s so versatile and easy to adjust to fit almost any occasion. I think it’s hard to find good use for gothic in a modern context though. But nevertheless, it’s good to know the unique rhythm and texture of a gothic hand.

During many, many years I had great difficulties to get along with the italic hand. Maura Cooper from Charlotte, USA was the first one to help me tackle the problem. Despite Maura’s incredible enthusiasm I didn’t really get a grip on italics. It was frustrating, to say the least. But Maura pushed me over the first obstacles and thresholds, and for that I’m grateful.

The next course I took was the pointed brush course. I was too much of a perfectionist to be able to make much out of it at the time, and I just didn’t get it. So, I quit in advance. It still annoys me that I didn’t finish this course. I’ve never considered myself being a quitter. :(

Some years later I took a couple of courses with Gaynor Goffe in Great Britain. It started with fine tuning my Roman capitals and continued with cursive italic. And finally I grasped what it was all about! Occasionally I’ve been ready to dig a deep hole in the garden and bury my nibs for all time to come because of my complete lack of understanding for italic, but I really started to like this hand during Gaynor’s course. It is now my all time favorite and I’m incredibly grateful to Gaynor for that. She also offered a great deal of encouragement and made me believe in myself.

A couple of years ago I decided to try to learn pointed gothic on my own using the samples in Sheila Waters’ book “Foundations of Calligraphy”, and I was grateful to get help from Sheila herself with pointing out and correcting the details I didn’t get quite right. Details are everything in calligraphy. Sheila is one of the most supportive and encouraging and honest people I’ve ever ‘met’ online and I have the greatest respect for her. 

There you have it. These are the six lovely ladies that are the foundation for my calligraphy. Gemma, Karen, Maura, Viva, Gaynor and Sheila. Although I have not met any of them in real life, I owe them everything I know. I hope that I can return their kindness in some small way by passing on some of what I’ve learned.

So thank you, ladies. From the bottom of my heart.

/Marie

Ferric chloride and ferric nitrate that is commonly used are by all means rather ‘mild’ acids, but still acids. On the other hand, nitric acid - sometimes used for etching silver – is really nasty stuff. Also, acids need to be replaced as they loose their strength over time, hence there is a deposit problem. I didn’t like this scenario one bit.

However, electro etching on copper and steel can be done using a solution of water and ordinary table salt (!) with the addition of electricity. It’s non toxic, works like magic, it’s fast and the solution does not weaken so there’s no need to replace it. I still use the same solution as I did one year ago – and I’ve etched A LOT of pieces with it. Pretty amazing.

My etching setup looks like this:

A power source, cables and a container of table salt solution. Not very pretty, but it’s effective!

Of course I will some day have to deposit the ‘slush’ at the bottom of the container that I assume is the metal that has been etched away from my calligraphy designs over time, but I don’t think that will happen any time soon. Until then, it stays safe in the bottle. Still, it will be only one batch, and a much lesser disposal problem than had I used the acid methods. 

Some probably think I’m over reacting with respect to the ferric chloride and -nitrate, but I try to always use methods that are environmentally less harmful if I have a choice, so there’s not much to argue about here really. And that goes not only for etching – it’s a way of life. It makes me sleep better at night!

Leather bracelet with etched calligraphy on oxidized copper

The very first bracelet I ever did was this one – etched calligraphy on an oxidized copper plate, riveted to a black leather strap, closing with snaps. I remember etching four plates at the same time since I didn’t really know how to assemble them, and I thought I’d better make some spare ones. And I’m glad I did, since the first was bent in all possible directions after my first feeble attempts at riveting. :)

The quote for this bracelet came from reading an interview with Etsy seller Redrubyrose last spring. I think there are a couple of versions of this text going around, but I liked this one and decided to make “something” out of it.  The essence of this sentence – to take the step and trust what will happen – is something I need to live by a lot more in my life, that’s for sure. “Jump, and the universe will catch you.” Trust is not always easy, though.

The calligraphy hand I used for the words is a clear versal Roman hand, and the small letters are really, really tiny – the height of the plate is just 1″ (25 mm)! Out of the four plates I did with this design, one was deformed and discarded, three became bracelets and one of them is still left for sale at the time of writing. Of course it’s available in my Etsy shop.

I’m constantly on the hunt for good, meningful, unique  and expressive words and short sentences to put on new etchings… If you have a favourite word or meaningful saying, I’d love to hear about it and maybe get some ideas for new designs. Don’t hesitate to let me know!

/Marie

The beautiful Stampen's mill

I live on the beautiful hill Kinnekulle in Sweden, and there are quite a lot of crafters and artists living here. Every year on the first weekend of May, they open their studios and invite the public to see how they work and what they have for sale. This is called “Vårrundan” or The Spring Tour, and it’s usually a very popular event and not just locally  – some people come from quite a distance for this. 

And this year I’m participating. I don’t really have a studio I can invite people to, but fortunately I was offered a space with Agneta and Christer at Stampen’s mill not far from where I live. The nature of Kinnekulle is as beautiful as it gets in May, so the lovely verdure alone makes the trip worth the time it takes for the visitors I think.

The main focus for me will of course be to show and sell my etched copper and sterling silver pendants and the stainless steel and leather bracelets, but I’m also thinking about demonstrating calligraphy, selling some calligraphy supplies and generally educating the public about calligraphy! :)

I have a lot of ideas right now about how to present my stuff, what to bring, what to do to draw attention etc… not all of them feasible perhaps, but I hope I can make something good out of this. If nothing else, it will be a good experience!

I have learned so very, very much along the way. Those of you who read this and knew me on Facebook back then have seen this journey from the first, feeble attempts at etching using “The Axe God” as my first motif. He is a petroglyph just 10 minutes by foot from where I live. It’s dated to the bronze age which makes it about 3000 years old. Imagine that! (See photo.) I didn’t share all the countless trials using different transparencies for transferring the design onto metal or the equally countless swearing when they smeared, or only transferred partially, or just slided off. But I did share the joys of when it did work as it should, and the excitement of painting tremendously beautiful patinas with the fire of a torch and the first calligraphy etching. Again, this was a new learning curve. What kind of calligraphy lines etched well, how thin could I make them, what could the transfer film handle etc.

When after about 7 months I finally felt that I really knew how the etching procedure worked on copper, I went through the same experimenting stages with stainless steel. I hated that metal to start with – with all my heart. It was so hard, so difficult to saw and shape and polish that I almost gave up immediately. Then hubby stepped in and helped with the cutting until I learned how to do it myself without angry tears from fighting with the metal.  The idea to mount the steel on a softer, organic material – leather in this case – made all the difference in the world and I really started to like the bracelets that I ended up making. Had to learn drilling and riveting here too.

It took quite a while longer before I dared to try etching on sterling silver, it being a ‘precious’ metal and all. But I eventually overcame that (mental) hurdle and tried that too. Copper and stainless steel works more or less the same, but silver is a bit different and takes longer to etch. Again a new learning curve, but with a material that was a lot more expensive. Every mistake and discarded etching hurt more :) Also learning to saw with a jewellers saw was new, and not as easy as I had thought. Straight lines, how hard could that be? Well, not as easy as it seemed, oviously. I still only saw straight lines, and it’s more luck than skill if they end up non-wiggly and reasonably straight.

Parallel to all this, I’ve also learned a lot about photographing. My Facebook friends have received more than their fair share of me whining and complaining over lousy photos, with reflections, reflections – always reflections!! It is hard to take pictures of shiny metal, that’s for sure. I still struggle almost as much as in the beginning, although the new Canon camera I bought recently seems promising. It’s a good thing photos are digital nowadays. One can just toss them and start again… and I’ve tossed thousands so far. I kid you not!  

I’m very glad for the support and appreciation I received from both Facebook and real life friends during the learning period – without it I don’t think I would have opened my Etsy shop as I did in March 2010. The shop hasn’t been a very big success so far with nine sales in total from March to January, but I’m hoping that someday – someday! – I’ll make it big. Yeah right :) This coming year, maybe? No harm in dreaming and hoping, right? :)

Anyway - thanks to one and all for supporting me during this year. I love you all and you haven’t seen the last of me yet! 

/Marie