It is time to have a February giveaway. I have made two rune necklaces for the giveaway. You can read about how one of them was made below.
The necklace has a pendant with beads and a runic text made out of a copper sheet.
1. Making the blank out of copper sheet
First I made a free-hand drawing of the shape on the copper sheet with a permanent marker. You can also buy different shape copper blanks ready-made.
I cut the shape out of the sheet with goldsmith scissors. You can also saw the shape. It is slower but you would save time in filing phase. When you cut there will be more sharp edges left to file.
The next phase was to file the sharp ends. I find this kind of tool (I don’t know what it is in English) very handy in filing small parts if you don’t want to file your nails and fingers as well. I hesitated for long before purchasing it because I doubted it would keep the piece in place, but it has proven itself very useful.
After filing I sanded the surface. It isn’t quite crucial in this case but now the piece is nice and smooth.
After marking the hole places with a permanent marker I punched the holes in every corner. This tool is another utility I long hesitated to order. It also has been very handy and time-saving. I used to drill all the holes before but with this hole puncher making the holes is a lot faster and hitting the right spot is easier.
This time I made the holes bigger with the drill. The sharp edges of the holes can be smoothed with a small file.
2. Making the runes
Now the blank is ready for punching the runes. First I wrote the text with a pencil on the blank.
Then I stamped the runes line by line by using a chisel, tip of the screwdriver, nail and a hammer.
I also decorated the edges with a decorative punch and hammered the surface. It would be better to do the hammering before adding the text.
I made the bails of the pendant out of copper wire.
Finally, I shaped the pendant a little bit convex and coloured it. After a few colouring attempts, I lacquered the pendant and added some beads.
