Micro-engraved Copper Abalone Bolo Ties

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Bob in SF

Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2016
Messages
1,762
Location
San Francisco
I had some nice 24ga. copper sheets on hand, and my friends in New Zealand sent me a few more abalone shells - tiny light bulb flickered in my cortical catacombs - yup - copper and abalone - match made in heaven - bolomania continues.

Steps:
Punch the copper into 30mm circles with a disc cutter.
Fenestrate the discs with smaller punches; clean with acetone.
Paint the windowed discs with alcohol based inks.
Hand engrave abstract patterns under a microscope at 40-50x magnification; engraving points hand-ground according to master engraver (friend and mentor) Steve Lindsay's universal graver point geometry.
Cut abalone shells into 30mm circles and polish them.
Glue windowed copper circles to abalone circles with E6000 glue.
Adhere the glass cabochon domes to the copper-abalone circles with UV resin; 365nm wavelength exposure x 10 minutes, followed by 4 hours of (natural UV) sun light.
Lathe turn Pernambuco (violin bow wood from northern Brazil) on the lathe; sand and finish the frames with walnut oil on the lathe.
Inlay the glass-copper-abalone into the frames.
Form and apply copper sliders to the backs of the framed components.
Dye the natural braided leather with a mixture of Fiebing's navy blue and black leather dye; thread cord through the slider.
Apply the cast copper tips.

The light of night and day plays well over these wearable micro-terrains.

MicroEngravedCopperAbaloneBoloTies,Markison,2024,1000px.jpg


Warm regards to all makers, and Happy 20th to this great forum.

Fondly - Bob
 
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Many thanks Mark, Scott, Charlie, David, Cody, and those who have looked and liked!

One of my daughters is a dress maker and another is a knitter - both want buttons of this type - more fun ahead.

Warm regards to all, and gratefully - Bob
 
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