In this week’s Rolling Mill Mini Series post, we are talking TEXTURES 🎉 💃🏼 First let’s discuss organic items. Always make sure they are completely dry, a fresh leaf or flower will just get crushed and make a mess. I didn’t do anything special with my leaf I just allowed it to dry (skeleton leaves work awesome too!) I suggest taping your material onto your “sandwich” (see my post “Using Your Rolling Mill” for more on that) this prevents things from shifting on you. I did this for the feather as well. Keep in mind anything you texture with will get destroyed in the process! So I would avoid any sentimental materials. You can do a wide variety of textures by creating your own cut outs in metal, since I was just experimenting I drilled some holes. When you roll sheet with cut outs whatever your negative spaces are on your cut out become a raised surface on your sheet. Keep in mind paper and cardstock can have acid and formaldyhide, a lot of people sandwich metal with cardstock, just remember those acids can transfer to your rollers and you should thoroughly wipe your rollers down with 3-In-1 Oil at the end of the day as ultimately these acids can cause staining or pitting. Sandpaper to texture needs to be done with extreme caution, if the sandpaper were to slip and touch your rollers it could cause damage, so if you do experiment with that be sure to secure it well. Other suggestions for materials you can texture with: wire mesh (I did that in a previous post, again be careful as the steel mesh will damage your rollers if it comes in direct contact) corn husk, fabric, laser cut cardstock, etched metal, commercially available texture plates. I would recommend to practice on base metal, and its always better to roll through with too little roller tension than too much (which can really disform your metal) remember to anneal every 2-4 pass throughs and tighten in small increments! I’m still looking for your rolling mill tips, please email me 🙏🏻
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@pepetools_usa mill with code METALSMITH (will bring the price of the combo 130 to $525 and the flat 130 to $495) 😁
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