Signing Electroformed Beads

A few weeks ago, the Austin metal clay group that I founded made a fun field trip to San Antonio to visit Sherry and John Fotopoulos of PMC123. Beyond the fun of making molds, shopping, and getting to know two great people, Sherry did me the incredible favor of acting as a mentor for a short discussion of my work.

One of the most important things I took away was her injunction to sign my work. I know I would never dream of putting a quilt into the world without a signature, but I've certainly sent a lot beads into the world without one.

I've worked on signature cane, because that's a preferred way to mark beads in the lampwork world. But electroformed beads get covered, so signing the copper makes more sense.

I've tried carving my logo into the copper, but its structure makes it difficult. So finally I put a diamond bit into the flexshaft and practiced signing my name on some scrap copper sheet.

Then I bit the bullet and signed and dated all the beads heading out to PISMO gallery. Some were better than others, but overall, I'd say that those years of signing quilts with an electric needle were pretty good practice for signing in copper.