Brass Stampings vs. Castings

For the most part, we carry American-made STAMPINGS at http://www.bsueboutiques.com.

A stamping is made from a die that strikes sheet brass.   Think of it this way, if you take a big hammer and hit a piece of metal, now the metal has an impression.  It's not the same on both sides, however.

A casting is made from a mold.    A mold is cut or impressed, then filled with molten metal and processed.   Many cast pieces have two sides, or a flat back, and are heavier.

Stampings can also be made from very heavy sheet and have flatbacks, depending on the process.   Usually this sort of stamping is made from what we call 'guilding' metal, or brass.   Many of the guilding-weight brass stampings are perfect for colorization or epoxy enamels like Colores.

You can get the 'Colores' look by simple acrylic paint (paint your piece as you wish) and topping with Envirotex Resin, which we carry on the website at http://www.bsueboutiques.com

I do carry a little bit of cast product from time to time, but I shy away from cast product not made the US as many times it has too high a lead content.   As much as possible, I like to bring in American made brass stampings.   They are not appreciated nearly enough for their flexibility in jewelry making.   

Brass stampings can be manipulated, caged (basicly embroidered with beads and wire) soldered, glued, colorized---so many ways to go.   Also the detail on a stamping is very fine, much more so than something cast that is popped out of a mold and tends to lose detail the more the mold is used.

ALSO:  brass stampings can be USED as a mold, many times, for polymer clay----even candy and soap making!

It bears mentioning however:   the brass stampings we sell are free to be used in work that is bought and sold, basicly all your designs.  You can really use them however you like.

While it's fine to use them as molds to make candy and soap,  it is not  permissable for you to purchase the pieces to rubber mold them and make castings from them, so you can reproduce them and re-sell the pieces that way.

Brass stampings are also great used in altered art and scrapbooking projects.  Cast pieces are too heavy to use in journals and items based on paper, but stampings, while sturdy, are still lightweight enough to apply to hand-made cards, journals and invitations.

Comments

[Mary]

Brenda
I just wanted to ask.
With a Stamping if it does not have a perfect partner to glue together Is ther a way to fill the back of the stamping so that it ends up flat at the back?