Fridge magnets

[Scratch]

Since I brought up the magnets in a recent thread, I thought I?d let you all know another quick thing I use those little magnets for. These are quick to make and sell pretty good too. Fridge magnets. I make these little things out of 14G steel, ( the leaves I make out of 16G) then I paint or patina them, hot glue a 9 cent rare earth magnet to them, and sell them for $5.00 each.

I also made a magnet board (that I?ll take a picture of when I get it back from the latest show) to stick them to. They sell pretty well, I think I?ve sold over 100 so far this spring.

I bend the wings up on the butterflies and dragonflies, I also bend the petals up on the flowers, and bend the little spiral thingy out for some depth. The leaves I beat with a ball peen hammer on a block of wood to get lots of natural looking dimension on them.

Enjoy, hopefully they?ll be as popular sellers for you as they are for me. If you come up with any other ideas for them, let me know!

variety.dxf

[bigj121]

Thank you!!

[AIRFLOWKID]

Scratch,
Thanks for the file.It's a great way to use up your entire sheet of metal.Thanks for sharing.
Airflowkid

[TammyVB]

Sooo cute! Thanks for sharing!

[TammyVB]

Scratch,

What kind of patina did you use on the flower? And, what kind of paint did you use on the leaves?

[Scratch]

The flower has Japanese Brown on it, clear coated with matte spray clear. The leaves are painted with glossy white spray paint, then I used Dye Oxide Red, orange and yellow applied hot, and cleared with matte spray clear.

[TammyVB]

Thanks, Scratch. I guess it's time for me to order some of the Japanese Brown. I love the way it looks. I was just trying some other ways to get a similar look, but I don't like any of them as much as the Japanese Brown.

[patc]

Hey Scratch, thanks for the cool files. Any advice on where I could buy the paint? I just ordered some of the magnets.

Pat

[Scratch]

For the paint, I use Rustoleum, you can get it at Menards and Home Depot. The Japanese Brown patina I get from http://www.sculptnouveau.com

[AIRFLOWKID]

Scratch,
Where do you get your magnets from?

Thanks,
Tim

[TammyVB]

That's a good question. I was also wondering where to get some good quality magnets in large quantities from...

Thanks,
Tammy

[DumOleBob]

This outfit has some truly amazing magnets. All sizes and shapes.
The Neodymium are so strong that if you get a bit of skin between two of them...well, say goodbye to your flesh! I am NOT kiddin'!

Example, if you get two of the 2"ers stuck together - forget it - you now have one!

Anyway, the smaller sizes are great for fridge art.

http://www.magnetsrc.com/

[Scratch]

Oops... I guess I missed the whole "where'd I get my magnets from"....

I got them from Applied Magnets. https://www.magnet4less.com/ Those small 3/8" by 1/16" rare earths were .09 each I think.

[patc]

Hi Scatch, Your magnets are drawing so much attention, that I really think it would be a good idea for a seperate forum to be set up which would take questions and answers about them. Would I need to ask the administrator about getting the new forum? It could be placed right above the file sharing forum.Or maybe each of the magnets could have it's own forum. I would check the forum that features the leafs at least twice a day. I now have in my possession 100 of those little 9 cent magnets. I have also ordered 8 ounces of the orange dye oxide, the glossy white, and the matte clear. Now I need to find out how I will aplly the dye oxide hot, when the gloss white is alreay on the metal. I figure maybe I will turn the leaf over, and warm it with a propane torch, but I think this might mess up the gloss white. And I also need to find out if the backs of those leafs are painted. I guess they are but they're black. Hopefully someone named Scratch will see this and answer all these questions for me. Pat

[Scratch]

This is somebody named Scratch so I suppose I could answer some of those questions.

First off, I painted both sides of those leaves white.

I used an Oxy-acetylene torch to heat the front sides, then I brushed on the patinas. They got hot enough so that the color sizzled as it went on. It cooled down real quick, understandably... since I was basically brushing water on them. Heat them up again and apply more color. It never even discolored the white.

I didn't put any color on the backs, just left them white.

[patc]

Thanks Scratch, I'm going to give this a try as soon as I receive, the Dye Oxide patina. I ordered only 8 oz just to see how it goes. Hopefully I will be able to heat the metal up hot enough with map gas. I don't have acetylene. Pat

[AIRFLOWKID]

Scratch,
Thanks for the info. on the magnets.

Tim