Penny Earrings

These earrings started life as pre-1982 pennies. Pennies made before 1982 are 95% copper and 5% zinc, basically a high-copper brass, and solid all the way through. 1982 and later pennies are zinc with copper plating. I hate plating, it feels like lying to me. Electroplating is often only a few ATOMS thick, just enough to change the color. That said, I think the coating on pennies is thicker than that, but still...

This means that older pennies are actually worth about two and a half cents, just from the weight of the copper :-) But more importantly for me, it means that they can be hammered into interesting shapes!

 -Mark

Slug

I made this quite a while ago. While I was still in my apartment near Lake Merritt, and before I went to jewelry school.

Its a pun... Get it? I'm going to say, for those without the terminology at the tip of their tongues. Its a slug... made of slugs! Groan! It really looks a lot like a slug, if you ask me. The picture doesn't have any scale to go by, but its the same size as a real slug too.

Let me see if I can remember. The head is 9mm Parabellum, the two main body sections are .40 S&W, the next section is 9mm Makarov and the tail is 7.62 x 39. The antennae aren't made from slugs, just copper wire.

I mentioned above that I made this a while ago, I made the body a while ago, I added the antennae later, after I learned more about soldering. I couldn't figure out how to attach the antennae using the skills I had available to me at the time. After jewelry school, it was easy. I learned something!

Anyway, I think I'll show some of the things I've made over the years on this blog. Why? Because I can.

-Mark

My Dimmer Switch

When I moved into my room, the light switch was missing the dimmer switch knob. Somebody had wrapped tape around the part of the switch the knob is supposed to attach to. I hate this kind of "fix" half-assed and ugly to boot.

Now, most normal people would go to the hardware store and guy a new dimmer switch and put it on and forget about it. Or, complain to the landlord and get HIM to buy a dimmer switch knob, and put it on.

Me? No, that would be too easy for me. So I went downstairs and made my own dimmer switch knob. I used copper sheet, brass wire I bought from the hardware store years ago, and a piece of scrap hardwood flooring that I picked up while I was in college, in case I could find a use for it later (I did).

Here's the result:

I gave the copper a nifty hammered texture. The hardwood (oak?) I finished with linseed oil I had leftover from finishing the stock on my M1A. I really like the finish linseed oil gives, it gives the wood a lovely glow and doesn't darken the wood much. You apply it by rubbing it in with your hand, which is very satisfying. It doesn't just coat the wood, it saturates the wood, so even scratches don't affect the waterproofing the oil provides. Not that this is likely to get wet, I actually really hope it doesn't , considering what it is... The brass is formed into rivets that hold the copper plate to the wood backing. Notice how the copper has begun to darken where I've touched it. I also like things that change/improve with age and that are maintainable.

Now, when I turn my light on, I can take pleasure in the light switch I have to push. Next? Well I still have some of that wood, and I need some coasters...