About On-Track Jewelry
This practice for me started, in no great surprise, as a hobby. Five years ago, I had noticed a train-pressed penny lying by the tracks by my house, thinking that it would be cool to punch a hole through it to make a necklace from it. Later that day, I discovered some fancy tools in the way of the drill I was going to use as a hole punch. Among these was an engraving tool, the other was a dremel tool with several dozen bits, ranging from grinders and cutters to brushes and polishers.
The first piece I ever did was simple: an unadorned bronze one-cent piece with a chinese character engraved in it with an inscription on the back. Being very pleased with the work, I began wondering what a five-cent piece would look like after a press like this. As I began experimenting with different coins and different engraving strategies, the designs became more complex, utilizing the grinders to give a brilliant shine to the coins I was making, unveiling interesting colors below the surface of the coins, shading my designs, etcetera. I began giving them to friends and family members, who liked the way they looked, and enjoyed learning about the process by which they were made.
Continuing along the evolution of these pieces, using cutting and grinding tools allowed me to gain unique shapes and patterns in the coin, allowing for a level of creativity that exceeded my somewhat limited hand-drawn range. Beyond this step, varying the size and shape of the coins allowed me to experiment with epoxy and mounting coins together, varying color and depth of each piece. Adding other materials into the mix such as tokens of different colors and ultra thin steel bands, coating the final pieces with clear nail polish to prevent corrosion and discoloration, the use of tape and inked hand-drawn designs to perfect engraving, and we have where we are today: On Track Jewelry, unique styles across every piece.