How to Transfer your Fingerprint to Jewelry

Have you ever wanted to protect your identity? What if you happen to forget who you are and need a little help? Need another form of ID? Well have I got an idea for you…… Fingerprint Jewelry!!!! OK, that is a little stretch, but if you have ever wanted to make a fingerprint image in metal, well, here is how I go about it.

What you will need is a good image of the fingerprint you want to create. Either a high definition image from a camera or a high definition image from a scanner/copier. I had a customer send me a good image of their fingerprint and I could have just printed out the picture and used it, but since I use a CAD (computer design) program and the customer wanted a computer rendering, so I imported the picture into the program and made a line drawing of the image. Again, you can just print out the picture in the size you want and use it that way.

I printed out the image in the size I wanted, a few copies actually, and cut out one of the image and used transparent tape to hold it to the silver piece I wanted to use. In this case I used a piece of sheet silver approximately 1mm thick. First I use an old bur, sharpened to a very sharp point, and make small dimple marks through the paper, along the outer border of the piece. I remove the paper and trim, file, and finish the outer edge of the piece.

Next, when I get the piece in the “shape” I want, I taped the image to the silver piece with transparent tape again and repeat the “Dimpling” process, making small marks along the lines. You might want to work in segments to make sure you are getting the look you want. After I have a few lines marked out, I use a 0.5mm Ball Bur to grind along the outline marked out. Make sure to use a high speed with your Foredom Machine and plenty of Bur Lubricant, this will keep the bur from getting out of control and making marks where you do not want them. Grind about 1/3 of the way into the silver, deep enough that when you polish, you will not polish away the marks.

Once the engraving is all finished, you can either solder a bail on the top, or drill a hole in the piece and hang the pendant from a loop.

There you go, now you will never be lost again, but I make no promises.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope this ignites your creativity, if it does and you decide to make something similar, make sure you stop by the JewelryMonk Facebook site and post pictures.

Now, go make your imprint on the world.

Doug