Here is a tutorial with photos and a video showing you how to create a Square Jingle Bell. Hats off to Sandra Sirles for the jingle bell shape pancake die designs. You can order a jingle bell pancake die on sandrasirles.com that matches our square jingle bell pressings.
Here is a link to the pancake die:
For the Small Jingle Bell pressing order Sandra's XMAS17C SM JINGLE BELL 2 pancake die.
For the Medium and Large Jingle Bell pressing order Sandra's XMAS17B MED. JINGLE BELL 2 and XMAS17A LG. JINGLE BELL 2 pancake dies.
Prepping the Jingle Bell
Begin with one of Metal Maven's Square Jingle Bell Pressings.
Use Sandra Sirles' square jingle bell pancake dies to cut out the bells, or use a guillotine shear and jeweler's saw to cut out the bells.
We used a Profiform 200 Guillotine Shear to cut the outside edges of the bell.
Next, drill a hole in the center of the top of the bell. Each bell has a snowflake design centered on the top of the bell with dot in the middle of the snowflake to show where the hole should be drilled.
Jingle Bell sawed out or cut out with the pancake die. The edges need to be filed.
I filed the bell's edges smooth using a half-round, half-flat #5 file. I also rounded the corners using the same file. You can see that the bottom left-hand corner below the deer image has not been rounded yet.
Forming the Jingle Bell
At this point, you are ready to begin forming the bell.
Watch the video to see how I formed it.
Making the Clapper
The piece inside of the bell that rings it is called a clapper. To make the clapper you are going to need two pieces of wire and a metal bead. This example is for the large bell. You will need to tweak the length of the wire and the size of the metal bead when making the medium and small bells.
I cut two pieces of 18-gauge wire. One piece is 1.5" and the other is 1".
Next, I used my round-nose pliers to make a loop on one end of each wire.
On the 1.5" piece of wire, add the metal bead and then form a loop at the end of the wire with a pair of round-nose pliers. Connect the two looped ends of the wire together.
The metal beads were ordered from Amazon.com. The large and medium bells use a 6 mm bead and the smaller bells use a 4 mm bead.
Adding the Clapper
Finish with adding the clapper to the bell. This video will show you how.
Finishing Touches
After assembling the bells, you can add patina, and then they can be polished by tumbling in a rotary tumbler with stainless steel shot, some water, and drop of Dawn dish-washing liquid.
Tools and supplies you will need for this project:
Square Jingle Bell pattern pressing from Metal Maven
Wire for adding clapper
Metal clapper bead
Jeweler's saw and saw blades or Sandra Sirles' Square Jingle Bell Pancake Dies
#5 Half-Round Hand File
Round Nose Pliers for forming loops in wire
Round needle file to remove burrs from center hole (optional)
Drill press or some device to make a hole
Rotary tumbler with stainless steel shot
Dawn Dish-washing liquid
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