Techniques

The purpose of this page is to share with you some of the techniques I use to make all of the wedding crowns seen on this website. And while there are many similar steps that I take for all crowns, there are many additional steps that I take for the metal crowns.

 

Rivets:

Rivets on most of my crowns. I like rivets for many reasons:

1) They can be a beautiful addition to crowns. Seen below are Sterling Silver tube rivets and copper "blind rivets" (meaning that they are flush with the crown surface).

When a crown does not have a tall enough profile for the SS tube rivets, I often use aluminum rivets. They are also hollow and provide a similar look. These rivets are made using a hand tool.

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2) Functionality and strength. There's something to be said for a method that never fails. Simply, rivets are strong and provide fool-proof fastening. I really have to hammer away on some of these metal crowns to get them into a nice circular or oval shape. I used to try and solder every metal crown, but after hammering the crown into shape, the seam would fail. Some of the metals I use for the more elaborate crowns are so thick, that I simply don't have the equipment to do a really heavy duty soldered seam. Wherase rivets hold fast and strong every single time. And they are a very nice clean look.

Aluminum rivets are used on all aluminum framed crowns. This includes many of the traditional crowns and all of the textile crowns. with these crowns, the rivets are always covered by the crown materials or ribbon. They can be left visible (i.e. if you want the ribbon theaded through the holes), if you would like....you just have to ask!

Soldering

When appropriate, I do like to solder some joints. In fact, the thin silver crowns lend themselves perfectly to clean soldered joints. The gague of silver that I often use for the crowns has a bit of a spring to it...so these crown do lend themselves well to being hammered into shape, while retaining a very strong soldered joint.

<picture coming soon!>

 

Oxidizing

Info and pix coming soon!

 

Polishing

Info and pix coming soon!