Metal Stamping Supplies Sampler: Custom Metal Stamps and a New Texture Stamper Hammer
(Above: Metal stamped cuffs from New Stamped Metal Jewelry by Lisa Niven Kelly)
Metal stamping jewelry fans, today is your day! I have two hot metal stamping supplies to share with you, which will help you take your stamped metal jewelry designs in a whole new direction.
Metal Stamping Supplies: Stamp Texture Hammer
Have you seen ImpressArt’s stamping hammer, the Texture Stamper? This clever tool allows you to use your design stamps like a texturing hammer. You simply insert the design stamp into the hammer, tighten the knob on the end of the handle, and go! You can hammer as if you’re using a, well, hammer, to create an all-over texture (as on my sample, below right), or you can space out your blows for another type of texture: clear repeats of your design stamp (as in ImpressArt’s design, below left). Sure, you could do that with a stamp and regular hammer, but this handy tool makes creating a stamped texture a one-handed technique, just like using a standard texture hammer, so you can use your other hand to hold or turn your metal. It also allows you to use all those design stamps in a new way. I like it!
The Texture Stamper accommodates standard square-shank design stamps (including over 300 design stamps from ImpressArt), but thanks to the adjusting knob on the handle, I’ve been able to use my Danny Wade custom design stamps in it, too.
What’s that? You don’t know about Danny Wade design stamps? Well then . . .
Metal Stamping Supplies: Danny Wade Handmade Metal Stamps
I first learned about Danny Wade and his oh-so-popular metal stamps when our mutual friend Kate Richbourg gave me two of Danny’s stamps to try. After I shared his unique stamps on Jewelry Making Daily and started following him on Facebook, I was amazed to see the passion and talent of so many metal stamping artists.
“I was making a few stamps here and there for myself and started posting them on Facebook,” Danny says. “I had a few jeweler friends who saw them and wanted them. Within a few months, I had 800 followers wanting stamps. I decided to contact some of my Navajo friends who make stamps to help out with demand. Then it just exploded and I found everyday people were asking how to stamp, how to use the tools, what kind of hammer to use, etc. So I started the Facebook group Metal Stamp Addicts. Now it’s just out of control in a good way,” Danny says. “The trend is huge for stamping jewelry.”
I joined that group and soon became one of many folks who tried in vain to buy some of his stamps. One word: wildfire. The demand was like nothing I’d ever seen, so I worked with our Marketing team to offer Danny Wade design stamps to you in our new stamping collection. Metal stamping jewelry has been hot for years, as the best way I know of to make personalized jewelry. But now (or should I say, once again?), the popularity of metal stamping has grown to include texture and design. It’s appealing to a different kind of jewelry artist, so we’ve grown accordingly. Jeff Fulkerson used one of Danny’s Southwestern-style stamps to make this silver cuff project in the current issue of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist.
“I have a lot of experience with art history, specifically jewelry,” Danny says. “I studied everything I could get my hands on, from Celtic and Egyptian art, to Art Deco, Art Nouveau, and Southwestern styles, since I worked hand-in-hand with Native American silversmiths.”
So what’s next for Danny and his team of metal stamp designers? “We are starting to do more modern things as well; I am going to revive a lot of old iconoclast designs that aren’t in the market as far as stamps and tools go.” I think a line has already started forming to get some of those!
If you love metal stamping–or if you’re suddenly inspired to give it a try for the first time–order the New Directions in Metal Stamping Collection. This fun, instructional kit includes metal stamping supplies as well as information: a custom, handmade Danny Wade stamp like the one used in a stamped silver cuff tutorial by Jeff Fulkerson in the current May/June 2016 issue of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist (which you’ll also receive), Jeff’s handy Steady Stamp tool, ImpressArt’s Stamp Straight Tape, two metal stamping jewelry books (the classic stamping tome Stamped Metal Jewelry by Lisa Niven Kelly and Aisha Formanski’s New Directions in Punched Metal Jewelry), and an eBook of 10 metal stamping jewelry tutorials–all at a very special value! It’s the ultimate metal stamping collection!
For even more on metal stamping, check out this book, New Stamped Metal Jewelry by Lisa Niven Kelly and artist Taryn McCabe. In this book, the ladies offer cutting-edge metal stamping techniques as you make your way through 23 projects. Order your copy today to make the cuff shown above — then explore even more, including wirework and metalsmithing.
In these other stamping posts, Kerry Bogert offers 6 Tips for Better Metal Stamping from New Stamped Metal Jewelry and FREE Bracelet Jewelry Making Tutorial: The Grandma Bracelet — be sure to check them out!
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