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Fusing Powdered Metals to Steel
There’s baby powder, powdered sugar and powdery snow. But did you know we also have powdered metals? It’s true, many metals are available in powder form—brass, bronzes, and copper, for example. Some precious metals can be converted into a fine powder by grinding or filing. When these powdered metals are fused to steel, that’s when the magic happens. In this demo-focused virtual workshop, you’ll learn all about fusing metal powders to steel to create high-impact mixed metals steel jewelry.
Steel has some big advantages for jewelry including its strength, malleability, and light weight. In addition, steel has an extremely high melting temperature (2600ºF for mild steel) which means that other metals – brass, bronze, silver, copper and gold – can be fused to it without melting the base metal.
Powdered metals take the fusing technique to a finer level by providing more control of the process and flexibility in the effects. In this techniques-focused workshop, we will explore the exciting world of fusing powdered gold and other metals to steel.
The workshop will be packed full of information, hands-on skill building, and fun! You’ll learn to:
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Work with mild steel sheet and wire. The basics of cutting, forming, texturing, soldering and polishing steel.
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Create metal filings/dust in preparation for fusing to steel. Create your own powdered gold using a flex shaft and grinding wheel.
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Fuse gold and other powdered metals to steel. Fuse gold as well as commercially available powdered metals to steel, including bronze, copper, brass and silver.
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Fuse powdered metals to perforated steel sheet and steel wire. Techniques involved to fuse powdered metals to alternative forms of steel and explore design considerations.
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Patinate steel mixed metals jewelry. Learn how different patinas affect the metals and how to use those to create dramatic effects.
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Seal your steel jewelry. Learn various methods to seal your steel jewelry to preserve and protect its beauty.
There will be an Open Studio Hour at 6:00PM Eastern Time each class day, 6/13/22 - 6/16/22, for advice, extra discussion, and troubleshooting.
Meet the instructor
Bette Barnett has devoted her work since 2013 to exploring and experimenting with steel and gold. Bette began her jewelry career in 2010 and subsequently studied with the late Chris Nelson through his advanced workshops in fusing gold to steel. Since then Bette has perfected additional techniques and processes for steel, including Keum Boo on steel, fusing gold to iron wire, creating a variety of alloys for fusing to steel such as shibuichi and shakudo, etching steel and fusing gold to non-traditional steel forms, such as screens and wires. In recognition of her work to further steel and fused gold, the Santa Fe Symposium has selected Bette to create a research paper on steel jewelry and present it during the 2022 Symposium Conference. She has also published articles on steel and gold jewelry in Lapidary Journal: Jewelry Artist.
Bette honed her instructor skills during her former career as a corporate communication consultant by providing extensive training services for some of the largest companies in the world. She continually uses feedback from student surveys and hosting studios to refine her workshop offerings.
Bette teaches private lessons (both virtually and live) in her San Diego studio and offers group lessons throughout the U.S.
Materials & Tools
A comprehensive list of supplies that will be used for course demonstrations and objectives can be found by clicking HERE.
A $70 supply kit will be shipped out by the instructor to the default address listed on your Metalwerx account approximately one week prior to class (registrants after June 2nd will not receive kits by the start date). Please inform us if you reside outside of the US, as your shipping cost will differ and may need to be expedited.
Unless you already own most of the items on the list, the kit is highly recommended, as you cannot order the prepped items reflected below through other vendors. Kit includes the following items:
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Two mild steel sheets 5” x 8” sheets, 20g
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Two perforated steel sheet 5”x 8” sheets
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Powdered metals (small containers of copper, brass, and white bronze)
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Dedeco heatless silicon carbide wheel
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Black annealed steel wire—1’ 10g, 2’ 16g
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Samples of flux and Metal Wax sealers
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Small jars for gold and silver dust
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Brass scratch brush
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3M mesh scrub pad
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Cheese cloth
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Handouts (Patterns for two class projects, course presentation handouts, and source sheets for purchasing materials and supplies.