Riveting Filigree to Metal Blanks
Metal mania is running rampant, and I’m not talking about Mötley Crüe or Megadeth. The bead and jewelry industry can’t seem to get enough with all kinds of metal in all shapes, finishes and even condition. Is it ‘tarnished’? Not a problem! We love that. Is it dented? We’ll just take a hammer to it to re-texture it. No bits and parts shall be overlooked or not considered. And when you utilize an amazing tool like the Riveting and Piercing Tool by Crafted Findings, then nearly anything is possible. 
 
Flexing your filigree
One of the best metals out there is filigree. You can find it formed into beads, flat pieces, pendants and more. You can bend it around chunky cabochons, bend it in half to create a bale and roll it into a bead. How about building off a piece of filigree to create a sculptural piece? Or simply hanging it from an ear wire because its simple beauty didn’t need to be changed in any way. We all use one or more of these ideas eventually since working with filigree is so tempting and hard to resist. I wanted to find a way to incorporate some ideas with filigree using the Riveting and Piercing Tool… and here’s what I found. 
 
Break out the blanks!
A blank is simply a pre-formed piece of metal in a specific shape. There are tons of shapes to choose from, including rounds, tears and diamonds in many kinds of metals… and if you don’t like what you see then you can use some tin snips to create your own shapes from sheet metal. Then you can attach filigree to it to make some stunning designs.
 
Going simple
Bead Haven Beads created this fantastic simple design using a pre-made blank, and then riveted a filigree on top of it using one, two or four rivets to hold each one on. This made me have a flashback to my college days when I was creating intaglio relief with metal using hammers and sheets of copper. Metal relief is so beautiful, and the contrast of the filigree against the flat blank creates a lot of shadows and holes for light to pass through. These pieces are especially nice with the two tones of metal and the coloring on the filigree to create even more contrast. 
 
Filigree in the round
Bead inspirations created this little stack of flower, leaf and textured filigree to resemble a flower!  Love it! The depth and dimension make the most fantastic shadows and can you believe how cool the rivet looks as the center of the flower? This is a brilliant little design. Makes me want to stack stuff!
 
Simple layers are the way to go
Mixing and matching your way to great design is fun and so satisfying! Look at this pendant from The Silver Boutique, with its contrasting sharp edged pendant sandwiched between the organic forms of flowers and rounds. Industry meets nature, and marries. You can get away with that using metal.
 
Take a gander!
Our filigree selection is always changing. You’ll find sterling silver and 24k gold plated filigree along with some funky retro plastic filigree. Want to find it fast? Do a quick search for filigree using our Search our store option on the home page. You’ll have a ball sorting through angel wings, fruit, flowers, chandeliers, hoops and more. Warning: You’ll suddenly have an impulse to get a bunch to play with. What can we say? These are the toys of beaders!
 
 
 
 
Resources worth checking out!
http://www.beadhavenbeads.com/Rivet.jpg
http://www.beadinspirations.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1906
http://www.etsy.com/people/TheSilverBoutique?ref=ls_profile