Help, please: NSW girl seeking teacher with experience in jewellery or script engraving.

[Dani Girl]

Hi.

I am 21, living in Orange NSW. I have been learning chisel engraving for about a year and would like to advance my skills so that I can do high end jewellery work and better all-round engraving for the customers and jewellers I engrave for. I have been studying under Jeff Freeman who has got me started on brightcut and deep relief but he has never done much script engraving. If there is anyone out there keen at all to teach I would like to learn. I have a lindsay palm control and a micro block which I practice with regularly.
Thankyou very much for any help you can provide.

 

[tundratrekers@mtaonline.n]

Get hold of Christian DeCamillus
He can give you LIVE classes on line.



http://www.engraversstudio.com/

God Bless,
michael

 

[James Roettger]

I found copying fonts from books very helpful when I was getting started. In fact owning a good book or two on fonts is a good idea. By copying classic fonts my lettering took an immediate improvement from the early days of improvising them.

 

[monk]

get a copy of the bergling book. there's a treasure trove of ideas in that book for jewelry engravers. i got a downloadable version of the book. if you want jayismonk450@gmail.com i'll see if i can send it to you.

 

[Donny]

I will second monks thoughts on Berglings books. They are all very good. There are a few good videos on youtube doing lettering. Lettering well takes time and practice. But it will come to you.

Donny

 

[monk]

nswgirl email me at jayismonk450@gmail.com i'll send you an e-book of the bergling book. it's well worth a minute or 2 to get this.chockl full of wonderful stuff !

 

[billrice@charter.net]

Hi Dani

I took a letter engraving class from Mike Dubber over the internet through the Engraving Studio. My lettering skills really improved through mikes direction However I do allot of practice. Being able to draw and cut your letters on the fly has many advantages. First advantage is the Jewelers I work with complement me on how fast I can turn around some of the work they have brought me. The 2 most common Fonts I have worked on is Script and Block. I also use Illustrator on my computer and Tom whites solution to do some of the really fancy fonts. Sam Alfano has allot of great videos on doing layout I understand he is working on a lettering video. Sams latest video on scroll design and cutting is fantastic.
Hope this helps Have fun and as Mike Dubber says Practice Practice Practice and then practice some more
One last comment you can buy a casting of Script lettering from Mike Dubber so you can examine up close what he is doing to get the proper movements of your graver

Bill Rice

 

[Dani Girl]

Hi Bill.

You mentioned in your post that you use illustrator and tom white solution. What is that, where is it helpful to use it?

Thanks for your comments. I have seen one video of mike dubber and he's creative and quick, very impressive. That online course sounds intersting.

Regards, danae.

 

[Roger B]

Dani,

I might cut in here and reply for Bill if he doesn't mind.

Using a computer programme like Illustrator or Corel Draw as examples (I believe that there are a few free programmes which are also available) which have fonts available and which can be printed in a mirror image can help with practice or jobs to be done. The letters can be scaled to the size that you want, transfered using Tom White's transfer solution or Damar varnish onto the metal and cut through the transfer. I prefer to use a method as first told by Rod Stannard (another Crow-eater) using the silicon baking paper you can find at Coles, print with a cheap laser printer and transfer with Damar varnish solution - you will find all the instructions you need with a simple search.

One thought though - when printing out a heavy or thick font print the outline of the letter only with a hair-line. This can be done using a "no fill" option, otherwise the thick strokes of the transfer will flake off the metal before you have a chance to cut them. If you are finding this hard to follow I am sure there are others who can describe the idea better.

Roger

 

[billrice@charter.net]

Dani

http://www.twdesignshone.com/

This is the web site to get some of Tom's solution. I highly recommend you also get some of his transfer film. Tom also recommends a HP 1000 printer. I have tried allot of printers to do transfers and this one works great and is cheap. Dani I am not one of the old highly experienced engravers like you will find on this forum but over the past 14 years I have studied with or been greatly influenced by Chris DeCamillis, Bertil Aasland, Manny Gonzales, Mike Dubber,Lee Griffiths and especially Sam Alfano I have followed Sam's advice and his videos since Sams first video using Corel Draw. I have spent allot of money over the years on things that kind of work and things that I have settled with finally because I have found over the long run these very experienced engravers that I have mentioned have guided me with what has helped them become great Hand engravers. I made a decision along time ago that I wanted to be a professional engraver for hire and I have finally got to that point in my life however I still feel like a intermediate engraver, still learning advanced techniques.
There are many great engravers on this and other forums who are willing to share their knowledge. This is one of the aspects about this Art you will always find good advice on how to do things and over the years if you stick with Hand Engraving you will finally come to the same conclusion that I have come up with. Hand engraving comes from the heart and those who stick with it just get better and they continue to listen to the Master Engravers. One day I highly recommend you find a skilled engraver in your area and get some one on one lessons from them. buy instructional dvds Start showing your work on the Engraving Forums and never take offense to the critiques you will get back.
One last thought as to Letter Engraving. Mike Dubber advised me one time that to be a Letter engraver you have to be able to draw the letters. I carry with me a small book with blank pages to draw on and I get it out every spare moment I have and I practice drawing. I have pages and pages of different fonts and alphabets, I also use Sam and Lee's art books on scroll drawing. So there is never any excuse that you cannot practice this Art of Engraving.

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[monk]

danae- check the tips section. there are many ways to achieve good transfers.

 

[Dani Girl]

I am grateful for all the great feedback i've been getting. I have been studying calligraphy as a hobby for about ten years, engraving script with rotary tools for about two years, and using corel draw at work for a year and a half, so I am following most of what's being said fairly well.

How impressed are those who have used it with the printed, transferred meathod? Does the transfer medium flake off as you engrave taking off chunks of your design? Does the transfer medium decrease the light reflection which makes it so hard to see and engrave your work.

I had to engrave a pair of polished silver wine goblets today on the bases which was really shiny and i had trouble following my design and when i finished i looked at it and thought, man, i could have done a better job of that... reflection makes engraving near impossible.

Using watercolour paint is the best thing i've used so far, cotman colour is cool because you can draw straight onto it ok and it takes transferring really well by rubbing pencil on the back of a picture then tracing over the drawing indirectly drawing the pencil onto the paint.

Thanks everyone for posting. I'm still hoping some local people will make themselves known. I'll post my work when i get the time, everything's pretty busy lately. Regards, Danae.

 

[Dave London]

Use Sam's transfer wax, just rub you finger over the wax and dab on the object, glare be gone

 

[Dani Girl]

I am having trouble mirroring the image with sam's transfer wax.

regards, Danae.

 

[Dani Girl]

i just uploaded an albumb to my profile. How do i show people?

Regards, Danae.

 

[Marrinan]

Your album works fine. The steadiness of your hand with the rotary tool is most impressive. On the whole and in all your mediums you do very nice work.

Using transfer wax, whether Sam's or the original bee's wax and tallow just takes practice to get a good transfer from the second piece of tape. - Fred

 

[Dani Girl]

Thanks Fred.

In that case i'll keep going with the patience and endurance thing... until i get it right. Thanks for the compliaments about the rotary tool work... it's the same, it's just a lot of practice. Thanks for the comments.

regards, Danae.

 

[phil]

Hi Dani. I am a hand push jewellery engraver in the uk and the best advice I can give you for lettering is to learn to draw letters rather than relying on computer fonts. Probably 90% of projects will have profiles that do not allow for easy transfering of computer printed designs.It is so important to be able to draw them by hand. Imagine trying to do inside a court (rounded) wedding band with a transfer. Although possible you will find it much faster to invest the time now in learning the letter shapes so you can draw directly to the metal. If you want to learn the fonts to draw then using microsoft word have a look at the fonts. The three main fonts for 99% of inscription work can be found in microsoft word. Times new roman is a main inscription font. The roman lettering. Print off all letters upper and lower case and learn to draw the shapes. Block lettering is a main font for inscriptions. Take a look at Aerial rounded mt block in word. That will cover your block lettering needs. The hardest lettering to learn is script.Again the Edwardian script font in word is the perfect form for engraving. Learn to draw these letters and you will be set up for the vast majority of work. I have tried to put a picture in of hand push lettering but couldn't figure it out so have put a link to my website where you can see a large silver plated plate that has a monster inscription on.Also I would like to say that many jewellery articles are so thin that heavy brightcutting is not advisable as it is easy to deform or push through thin surfaces such as stamped lockets. It would be a good idea to look up thread or ribbon cutting in a book called engraving on precious metals by NAG press.This will teach you how to build letters from a series of small thin cuts (which is essential to do when hand pushing).

 

[phil]

Sorry about the messy reply above. Still trying to figure this out!

 

[Dani Girl]

Your hand push engraving is magnificent... great control... great design.

Thanks for the advice.

Regards, danae