Cameo carving of jewelry has been around since the Bronze Age, or even earlier. Today, the jewelry carving technique is still very popular and can even be found in places including Greece and India. Although relief carving is difficult to practise, the value of the jewelry may increase in steps if the process is really used perfectly. If you want to know more about jewelry cameo craft in detail, then read this article with me.
What is jewelry embossing?
If you don't know much about jewelry cameo crafting, you may be wondering what exactly it is. So let's start with the exact meaning of cameo jewelry. In fact, the word cameo was originally derived from the French word "chasser", which originally meant "to chase". This word originally meant "chasing", because cameo is a technique where the metal is pushed forward to make the design stand out.
Tools for Jewelry Embossing
Before you begin to describe the jewelry cameo process, it is necessary for you to know about the tools that you may need to use for the jewelry cameo technique.
- Metals used in jewelry making: most of the metals used are gold, silver and other more precious metals
- Asphalt Container or Asphalt Bowl: This is a specialized container for asphalt.
- Small marker or pencil: it is necessary to mark the metal before engraving to minimize the possibility of subsequent engraving errors
- Smooth round steel punches and chisel-shaped punches
- Cameo hammers: jewelry cameo process requires the use of a special cameo hammer
- Handheld torch: The handheld torch is used to heat the asphalt and other materials mentioned above.
What are the detailed steps of the jewelry embossing technique?
Now you have an idea of exactly what the jewelry cameo process means and what tools you need to use in the specific engraving. Now we can move on to the next step of the explanation, that is, what are the detailed steps of the jewelry cameo process. Here are the exact steps:
- First of all, you need to heat the asphalt material, and you can choose to heat the asphalt with a hot air gun or a handheld torch. After the asphalt is completely heated, you can then pour the molten state of the asphalt into a container that is designed to hold it. If you don't have a specialized container, you can take out a leather mat and spread sand on it instead of the above mentioned asphalt container.
- Finish the design on the metal: take out the small marker or pencil prepared above and draw the part of the metal that needs to be raised (that is, the part that will subsequently need to be highlighted with the embossing hammer). Then place the metal block into the asphalt.
- Punching holes in the metal to draw out the pattern: the next thing you need to do is to mark out the pattern on the metal with a chisel. You may need to use a specialized chisel hammer as an aid, after all, the texture of some metals is relatively hard. Carving out a pattern directly with a chisel may be a bit difficult. But while you are holding the chisel to carve, you must make sure that you are holding the chisel in the right way. This is because the right way of holding the chisel will not only help you to carve the design efficiently, but it will also ensure that you are not accidentally hurting yourself by working with the chisel. When you are holding the chisel, it is best to place your thumb on one side and the rest of your fingers on the other side of the chisel, and then place the chisel at a slight angle. Your palm can rest against the metal or asphalt to add some support. One caveat here is that when you use the hammer, it's best to strike the chisel with the flat end of the hammer and not with too much force so you're able to leave a smoother line on the metal.
- To emboss the metal: take out the embossing hammer mentioned above, and the punch. Use the hammer to slowly strike the area you just marked. If you feel that the metal is too hard to carve, you can anneal your metal design one more time, and then wait for the metal to cool down for a while before proceeding. It may be easier at this time.
- More detailed engraving of the metal. While the above step was just a preliminary step for the embossed part of the metal, the next step is to work on the metal in more detail. You may need to use a marker or other pencil to draw on the surface of the metal the pattern you want to engrave. A professional hand engraving tool, or a jewelry engraving machine, will then be used to create a more detailed pattern on the metal. This step can take a long time. If you are using a purely handmade engraving tool, then you can use a punch with the engraving tool to push down along the lines you have drawn until you are finished engraving. At this time, you can use a variety of different carving bits, such as V-shaped, flat head, oval-shaped carving knife are more common carving knife. And this time, you can also engrave on the back of the metal if you want.
- Annealing: After you have finished your work, you will need to anneal and harden the metal parts again after removing them from the asphalt. Next, place the largely dried and finished metal part on a flat surface and flatten the sides with a round punch. Finally, use a jeweler's saw to remove the edges, and the relief carving process is complete.
