I just got myself a new (used) rolling mill! For those of you who don’t know, a rolling mill is a really simple metal forming machine. It has 2 round metal rollers and a handle, and I use it by rolling sheet metal through the rollers. It has a few different uses.
Thin the gauge of sheet metal. This is useful if I want to recycle my own gold or silver scrap, and want to melt it and roll it out into new sheet metal.
Work harden sheet metal. Sometimes sheet metal is too soft and pliable, and rolling it between steel rollers will harden it
Smoothing out sheet metal. Sometimes sheet metal is a bit warped or uneven. Annealing (heating it up) it, and letting it cool, and then rolling it through a rolling mill will even it out
Imprinting patterns. This is my favorite thing to do with it. I have a bunch of pattern plates, that I can run through the rolling mill with softened jewelry metal, and imprint various patterns on the metal. I can also run textured paper, lacy fabric, or organic material like leaves through with metal.
These are a collection of earrings I made by imprinting patterns on powder-coated recycled aluminum samples. I just bolted down my rolling mill and wanted to test it out, so I made a bunch of circles, rolled them with pattern plates, and turned them into earrings.
I also did that with these earrings. The bases are sterling silver and I rolled them with a floral pattern plate. I left some of the edges around the bezels exposed, and oxidized them, so you can see a subtle floral texture, around and under the stones.
