Dimple making pliers - a tutorial

You know when you are scrolling through the Internet and you see a cool tool/thing that you would love to have a play with so you add it to your amazon wish list and then you add a million other things that you don't want to forget about and then Christmas rolls up (and in the same week it's your birthday too) and surprise, you get some very random gifts!!?? No, just me then?

Well this year I got a wonderful collection of eclectic items that left my family some what perplexed as to what they were for. One of the items I got.... Dimple making pliers!

Dimple making pliers

I had seen them used in beautiful designs like this stunning "Fire and Ice" ring that the talented Jenny Davies-Reazor made in an Art Bliss class taught by the amazing R. Salley and thought they look cool, I would like a pair of those!

Jenny's beautiful ring

The first thing I did when I opened these was to head straight to YouTube to see how to use them/what to do with them, and here is what I found....

Looks simple, so now to turn this into a cool design!

Dimpled Earring Components

What you will need....

• Copper sheet (I used different thicknesses from 0.8mm - 0.4mm all worked well but the thiner was easier to add the dimples to but some what flimsy)
• Some form of cutting the sheet metal Disc cutter/saw/sharp scissors (I used all of these)
• Silver jump rings (you can make your own or use pre made)
• Soldering equipment (although you could just use a hole punch in the top of the shape if you don't want to solder them)
• 400 Sand paper and a nail buffer
• Vintaj metal paints
• Sponge
• Metal spray sealer

Cutting your shapes

• First cut out your desired shape, here I have made discs but I also made tear shapes, bars and holly leaves (hearts would look super cute, but I ran out of metal).
• If you are making your own jump rings do that now, I make mine on bail making pliers and just saw them off as I need them.
• Sand the edges of your metal shape so there are no sharp edges and so that the metal is all clean for soldering
• Using solder paste (and all your health and safety equipment) carefully solder the jump rings into place. If you are not using jump rings make a hole in the top of the shape with a hole punch or drill bit.

Sanding 

• Using your 400 grit sand paper key up/clean the surface of the metal ready for painting
• Use your dimple making pliers to add texture to your shapes (I rather like the half off the edge ones)

Painting

• Cut up a sponge into inch sized pieces
• Apply the paint to the sponge (here I use two different colours on one sponge for a nice blended look) 
• Dab the sponges onto the metal making sure you get a good coverage and wait for it to dry throughly before painting the back of the piece

Removing the paint

• Set the paint with a heat tool and once compleatly dry remove the paint from the high spots using some of the sand paper and then buff with the nail file for a beautiful shine
• Seal front and back of the piece with several layers of metal sealer and once fully dry make into earrings....

Earrings

There are so many different shapes, colours and designs that you could make with these, you could also leave out the paint and set small colourful stones on them.

Bits By Niky

Niky Sayers Artisan Jewellery