One of my copper Door necklaces is up at the Con or Bust auction here: http://community.livejournal.com/con_or_
Go forth and do bidding!
This is for all my Cloven-Hooved Lovelies in Purgatory, and not--in any way--intended to be a how-to for anyone who happens by at the same moment they decide to learn how to acid etch. It isn't serendipity. Move along.
*Also, if I figure out how to post them, any images and designs are the property of The Copper Camel, for personal use by members of the Purgatory writer's group only--please respect the time and effort that went into creating them.*
As I told Sunna, I hadn't (which turns out to be sadly false) written a poem since sixth grade, but poetry is good for cards, and I can rhyme okay. I wanted it to be funny bad, but not bad bad. So of course, of all the themes I could possibly have chosen, I go with our much belov-ed Plot Ninja. (You people looking askance at the poem, try faking a Texas twang--see? It rhymes.) Not as tricky to draw as the more pestilential Plot Bunny.
So, I started thinking. I could make worry dolls, but that's a lot of black thread. Jewelry, but it's presumptuous to think someone will wear it just because you made it." Um...oh...I... You shouldn't have. Really, really should. Not. Have." So, I decide on a coin out of sheer whuthehell, and then am indecently pleased with myself when I realize it can be worth 2 cents. Because I am a huge procrastinator, I do not realize until January is halfway over that I can order precut rounds of copper in a suitable gage online, and besides, that would be too easy.
So I send the head minion out to get 20 gage copper sheet in 6x6 squares, for I have done Calculations! And I've also just ordered saw blades for 24 and 20g copper, and want to try my new saw out. Of course he comes back with 16g, which is much thicker, because he thinks it will be a much better weight for a lucky token. *headdesk*desk*desk*desk* But, since I do things like this to myself all the time, I forge ahead with my inadequate tools and unexpectedly robust copper. But not so much with the forging; No fire, electricity, or anything else I can blow myself up with is allowed. There are reasons.
THE DESIGN
Instead of pointing out that I could probably do this on the computer if I would only relinquish my deathgrip on Paintshop Pro 6, I will instead call my process Traditional. Stretching back into antiquity along a line of artists bearing sharp rocks and muddy fingers. Copper Couture. It starts with a sketch. I do rough thumbnails about the size the finished piece will be, to see what will fit in the space. When I have an arrangement I like, I scan the thumbnail into the computer and blow it up. I did about a dozen ninjas in various poses, then picked the one that worked the best. Then I print it out, and use tracing paper to get the basic outline in place inside the shape the finished piece will be. The rim of my teacup was the perfect-sized circle. Then more tracing paper to get the tree limb, moon, and clouds the right proportion, and in the right places. When I finally have the best, clearest, simplest line-drawing I can make, I go over it with black pen, erase all the graphite smudges, then scan it in again. The process of scanning makes it pretty ugly, and it has to be black and white only, with no shades of grey--which is why a design inspired by a papercut works so well. So, all the tricks I know (which aren't many) and then pixel-by-pixel to get it clean. This is why the "front" is my favorite part of the coin.
The back I was originally just going to mark with the year and the word "purgatory," but when I decided to make them worth 2 cents, it made the coin need an obverse. Lots easier, since I've already scanned the best of the ninjas into PainShop. Yeah, I know. Honestly, the back was kind of a lark gone well. While looking through pictures of ninjas, I'd first thought I'd have a few shuriken zinging through the design on the front. Too small, won't work. So on the back, I think a shuriken will be cool. Which shape? What kind of shuriken would a--pen nibs! A Plot Ninja would have a shuriken with pen-nib points! I put it all together, and there is a LOT of blank space between the points. Doesn't look right, so I try the leftover ninjas three ways, and get the Fabulous Eveningstar on the line to tell me which works best.
After doing more Calculations! I figure out what percentage the print should be to get four coins to a side on the 6x6 piece of copper. (This whole dealie of doing front and back is a total experiment) and then carefully grid out both sides so they match, then print on a specialty paper intended for another use entirely. The toner on the print-out is what I'm after, so with the first side carefully aligned with the squarest corner of the sheet, I iron it on. Iron. Like, with a Proctor Silex 10$ iron that rattles when I pick it up. After about fifteen minutes, I flip it over to the other side and position the obverse sides. I should have let the extremely hot hunk of metal cool, but I'm thinking "It's so hot! I bet it sticks real good like!" Instead, the air between the emulsion layers in the paper gets superheated, and the whole sheet of paper puffs up like a marshmallow in the microwave. @#$^&%! So, I rip that off--when it cools--and sandpaper off the fucked-up toner. So on and so forth.
Then it has to be soaked in water to get the paper to soften so can peel it off. Not all the designs are perfect when only the toner is left. I have to decide if I want to try all of this all over again, and maybe get an even less perfect batch. Screw it! It goes into the etchant. I flip it over every three hours or so for 24, trying to make sure both sides are the same depth. When it comes out, and all the toner, dead copper, and etching ick are scrubbed off, they're not as deep as I was hoping, but pretty good. Now the sheet goes down to the garage, where I try out my new jeweler's saw (like a tiny hacksaw.) I break four blades right off, but seriously, it cuts like buddah. And I have a stack of rough squares. Because I don't have enough control for circles yet, that's why. Now, I use tinsnips--sharp rocks and muddy fingers here, people--to cut out as close to the edge of the front design as I can. Then I file. And fileandfileandfile, until I get what may not be a circle, but won't cut any of my friends, either. This is where lintroller pr0n was born, Red ;o)
It briefly occurs to me to make them even more special by painting them (and that way I can fix some of the etching issues that were bugging me) but they're so nice the way they are, it just seems like too much.
I'm just really glad everyone has seemed to like them so far. Purgatory has been very good to me, and any luck anyone might assign to the coin itself is just the universe acknowledging all the kindness, and the sense of belonging, that Purgatory gives me. If you get a misaligned one, or one with pieces missing out of the design, pet it a lot, and tell it it's beautiful, okay?
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