Look at What You Can Do with Bonny Doon Hydraulic Metal Forming!

What do you get when you take one of these…

…and some of these…

…and lots of creativity?

You get a big, bold and glorious domed copper pendant featuring a shadow-box style pendant with intricate cut-outs that’s fit for royalty!

Rio’s own Ashli Brooke Taylor designed and created this pendant using copper sheet and a Bonny Doon hydraulic press. She cut her own Baroque-inspired design into a silhouette die blank before shaping it in a form box in the press. And with the strong arm of machinery, she created this graceful, glorious piece of jewelry art.  Have a press already and want to create a similar pendant? Here are the steps!

Using a Bonny Doon hydraulic press and Bonny Doon tooling allows you to direct all hydraulic energy on the design rather than expending your own physical energy on forming the metal with a hammer. "The Bonny Doon is a great piece of equipment to have," Ashli says. "I am intrigued by using pressure to manipulate metal to get results that I cannot physically obtain with my hands." And with this remarkable piece of equipment, you can create anything from a small piece of jewelry to a large vessel (heck, you should see this machine turn a metal vessel inside out!).

Watch silhouette die forming in action!

How long did it take Ashli to form the domed face of the pendant? Seconds. In fact, the entire piece (pendant, cabochon-set chain and all) took a mere three hours for her to complete.

"The press allows you to create shapes in the metal in seconds—and virtually flawlessly—that, by hand and hammer, would take hours," Ashli says.

We’d love to see what you’re creating with a hydraulic press! Please share in the comments.

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The creative possibilities are endless! Watch for a bunch of new designs on our website in April!

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