This project idea was submitted by Jani, Long Beach, New York
"Working with metal was a completely new endeavor for me. With a few basic materials, an idea on paper, and GREAT advice from Cathy at Basic Copper I was on my way to creating a fireplace surround that came out better than I imagined. Below are the materials and simple directions:"
Materials
- Stencils - flowers and butterflies
- Black ultra thin sharpie marker
- Two sheets of 16 mil (26 gauge) copper sheeting
- One sheet of Brass (I believe 24 gauge)
- A spool of 10 gauge aluminum wire
- A wire cutter
- A pair of metal shears
- A ball peen hammer
- Gorilla Glue Epoxy (I did NOT solder)
- Thin 20 gauge black jewelry wire
- Yellow seed beads (small)
- Green Seed beads (large)
- Wood and Dark Brown Paint for the background
Project Steps:
- Trace the flowers onto the copper with the marker- the ones along the top were 1 piece, the ones along the sides were 3 triangles layered going down
- Trace the leaves onto the brass
- Cut out all the shapes
- Use the ball peen hammer to hammer texture into the copper
- Bend the copper leaves in half lengthwise using the edge of a table
- Cut the aluminum wire to size- it is easily shaped by hand- and shape into curly vines
- Assemble the stem and petals with epoxy
- Lay the flowers out on the wood till you achieve the desired design and epoxy them to the wood
- Epoxy the leaves to the wood- not the wire stems
- Wire yellow seed beads on 20 gauge wire to desired length and then coil to make centers of top flowers and glue down the epoxy
- Cut the thin wire and fold into a V shape. Stick a bead of your choice on the tops and glue them behind the vertical flowers on the sides.
- Twist the thin wire around the thick wire about 15 times to make a tight coil then slide the thick wire out...stretch the wire out and string the larger green seed beads on the bottom curves and epoxy to the veins down the center of the brass leaves.
For the corners I made butterfly wings out of copper using the same process as above and bodies out of beads. If you need further instructions feel free to contact me at JButterfly@optonline.net
Here are additional pictures:
