Thursday Tip

Welcome to the latest in a series of articles to do with enamelling and making jewellery. I hope you find them useful. I am writing about issues and problems I have experienced (and hopefully overcome), and tips and shortcuts concerning enamelling and making jewellery that I have come across in the course of the past twenty years or so. As I always tell my students, I have made most of the mistakes possible over the years. I am trying to share what I have learnt so that you don’t have to! Today my tip relates to if you are cutting out lots of repetitive shapes. I have found it much easier to make a template to scribe around instead of transferring each individual shape.

Making a Cutting Template

I use acetate that comes on packaging. It needs to be reasonably thick. I trace my design and stick it onto the acetate with double sided tape. I then use decoupage scissors to carefully cut around the shape. You could use a scalpel and cutting mat but I find my scissors to be easier and very effective. Once done, remove the tape and with a fine permanent marker label the template. You need to do this so you can find it every time you put it down! Then you can either use a scribe or the fine permanent marker to draw inside the cutting template you have made. I find it more accurate to use the negative shape rather than the positive shape. If you use the pen, you can always rub out lines if you find you have not been as economical with the metal as possible. That’s it. My Thursday Tip for making a cutting template for piercing out repetitive shapes. Let me know if you try it. I would love to know if you find it works for you,