Originally I was just going to do plain old end caps. If you look through the images you can see a copper plate end cap I had made. I trimmed it closer to the edge of the board instead of up and over the lip. I could have done that because I could have glued it on. I could not do that with the decorative end cap that I ended up using because the glue would only be attached to some poster board and not to the metal so I used the lip as part of the way the piece is bound to the board.

The design I would appreciate if no one used since it is an original design just for my daughter. As mentioned originally I was just going to do plain copper. Somehow while visiting my sister for Thanksgiving I got it in my head that I wanted to do some engraving or something decorative. Unfortunately I had no experience in this and just started to wing it with some scrap pieces from other parts of the project. Once I started to feel like I could do something interesting with metal work (again completely lacking the tools at the time the first pieces I made using a pen and the gun smiths hammer really...) I realized getting real stylus's was gonna be necessary to do a good design and picked up a set. Also useful is a sandbag and a foam mat of some sort that firm but has give (daughters lalaloopsi house that was strewn about the house fit the bill). Once I knew I could do something and not make a complete mess of it I started sketching some designs. Since the project is based on water lily's and thus water and personally liking Norse and Celtic design as well as being a Tolkien fan (my nickname nearly 30 years ago was Frodo so...) anyway I decided to make this thing Elven and like Tolkien to borrow a bit from Norse mythology. The design is based on Jörmungandr, the "World Serpent" who is usually depicted biting his own tail. I didn't want to be so graphic on my daughters keyboard so I did a single "knot" to symbolize the continuity and made it a bit more deco or elf like (at least in my opinion). I like the way it came out personally.

Once I decided to go Elven and did the serpent I decided to name the keyboard like any good Elven made item it should have a name. I don't speak elvish and have never been that deep in the lore so I took some time to read up in dictionaries etc to give it the name "Touch of the lily" as best as I could make out that should be in elvish written in common speak "Appa Uin Indil" so that is the hand engraving I did. If I flubbed that up I guess let me know in the comments. I have not yet glued the plate on so I could rectify the situation I guess. I did a lot of versions of the plate embossing and even trying layered embossing with both aluminum and copper some with better results that others. In the end I felt that the simple hand etched version looked the best for the amount of space I had and the clean look I wanted for it.

Ok enough rambling about the how and why and on to how I did it.

Tools

Same as the previous list Stylus Soft but firm item for smoothing. I used a couple of things though you probably should get a teflon tip stylus or a paper smudge pen. I used a wood fingernail pick and the plastic side of the eyeglass screwdriver with good success. Sand bag Foam mat (swiped mine from the kiddo on a toy she made a mess with and didn't play with) Stove or hotpad Old soup can or the like that can be put on the stove. Needle nose bent pliers Butter knife Clay sculpting tool shown above (not absolutely required but certainly helpful)

Materials

Thin gauge copper sheet Thin gauge aluminum sheet Poster board Wax (I used paraffin and it worked but beeswax is the preferred I believe though it costs like 3x's more so...)

For the end caps the first thing I did was to trace the keyboard end in a notebook a few times so I had the dimensions to create my design.

Next I took a piece of poster board place the end of the keyboard on it upright so you can trace the outline. Now add some borders to that as you will want this piece to start out larger than you need and you will need some extra material all the way around for two reasons. First on the front, top and back you will be making bends with which to attach the copper and for the bottom you will fold it over the bottom of the uppers section of the keyboard to fasten it. Now cut that piece of aluminum out. The pics aren't in any great order but I hope you can understand the aluminum pics which show this. Next put that piece on the keyboard and using your fingers only rub the outline of the keyboard into the aluminum. You don't want to be folding it so much now just making sure to get the impression of the end of the keyboards outline on there. The reason for this is so when you are embossing your design you know the borders, have the bends that are going to be there anyway already in place so you don't end up with some odd crease or the like. The keyboard I have in many places including the ends curves both horizontally and vertically. It's not super noticeable but when you do the veneer you will really notice it. Metal is a bit more forgiving of this but it's good to get the shape on the metal before you start.

Now you should have a fairly flat piece in a piece a bit larger than the actual end with a raised outline of the keyboards end. Now draw your pattern in there with a felt tip marker or wax pen on the side that would be touching the keyboard. It can be permanent as this side will never be seen. Now take your piece and place it on the foam mat, take a stylus that matches the size you want to use and begin tracing your pattern. Don't force it and try to get it all to the depth you want at once. Go over it firmly but gently to start with at least to get your pattern down. Turn your piece over occasionally and use your smoothing tool on a hard flat surface like your jewelers block or even just a flat hard desktop. Take the tool and gently at first push down the metal that should be flat up to the raised areas to make the lines more crisp. Keep this up until you get the image embossed to the depth you want. Using the sand bag will let you emboss deeper but will distort the piece more and you will need to smooth it more and more often. I suggest practicing this some on smaller scrap pieces until you get the hang of it if you have never done this before.

Next you want to make your bends. This may involve trimming your piece. You also need to make some cuts for your corners and the front curve. The corner on the rear of the piece will need a 90 degree cut (45 degrees on either side of the center of the corner). The front will need multiple cuts to all the bend to go around the curve. I didn't do this perfect but only had 2 chances to get it right. Both came out ok but I found that more cuts at small degrees work better than a few cuts at wider angles. This one I can only say do what works. Look at the photos to get the idea if my explanation isn't clicking. Once you have your cuts in place you now need to make a bend of 180 degrees along the back, around to the top, and along the front curve. At this point though just make it about 90 degrees. Also make the bottom part about 90 degrees as well.

Now we are going to heat up the wax and pour it into the pattern we made. Why???? you may ask. Well the embossed image is very weak and just bumping it you could ruin your art. By putting the wax in (or some other firm but flexible material) you are making the piece solid and avoiding damage to your work. So. If you have something that's soft and can manually be pushed into the design by hand go for that. If you use paraffin like I did take an aluminum can, using pliers make a small lip (learned something making lead sinkers with my dad as a kid). Place wax in the can and place the can on the stove. Use low heat you want to heat it without flaming it up and it's not just gonna melt all at once. We don't want it boiling. Follow safety precautions on the label and use common sense when working with hot liquids and a stove.

With the wax melted take a pair of bent face pliers as a grip and pour the wax slowly into the design (the back side) and let it settle. Don't pour to much you just want to fill in the grooves you made. Once it cools you want to remove excess wax especially along the bends. A butter knife works good for the edges. I found using a sculpting tool like the one in the pics above works well to carve the wax to a uniform and even surface along the rest of the piece. Once all of this is done I cut a piece of poster board out and place it over the wax. I make it a nice tight fit to keep the wax from any other surfaces.

Next you will want to make a template for your copper using some poster board. Be as precise doing this as you can. First turn the edges of your aluminum further in but still not completely down to 180 degrees. I cut a strip one inch wide for my copper you need to decide how wide your piece will be and accommodate the 2 180 degree bends you will be adding to bind the copper to the aluminum. I start at the back, and fold my paper as I go using a pair of scissors to cut where the corners are. Take a look at the pictures to get an idea what the template looks like and what the end product looks like. You will unfold the paper template and use that to cut out your copper piece so take your time and be patient and precise here.

Now use your flat nosed pliers to bend your copper into shape. I do this and keep dry fitting it to my aluminum as I go to make sure I am matched up and on track.

Now it's time to join up the pieces. Bend you aluminum back, top and front to as close to 180 degrees as you can and still fit your copper in there. Now put your copper in (also with those bends as tight as you can get while still fitting in with the aluminum). Now pinch as much closed as you can with your fingers. Be careful here if you haven't filed burrs off you can cut or prick your fingers so file those burrs or wear gloves or suffer the consequences. Once you have the two pieces joined up firmly you will still have a pretty loose and weak joint. To fix this I use a stylus as a once over firm but not to hard. Next I take a chisel and place the piece on the foam or even the sand bag. I line the chisel up all the way to the edge of the seam from the back and give it a whack with the gunsmith hammer. We are trying to pinch the two metals together as tightly as we can without damaging the embossed piece. To much wax will make this hard so hopefully you took heed when I said scrape it and get your corners clear. After the chisel has been used all the way along at the top of the join go back and do it at an angle next to seal it the rest of the way down. You can get a bit more done with a hammer once the piece is on the board.

Ok now that's pretty much done until until you get your veneer on and are finishing it. At that point you may want to trim some of the copper, you may want to bend the outside edge of the copper 180 degrees (the part that will face you) so that it's a nice smooth edge. I didn't do this and wish I had. At the point I placed the end caps I was in burn out mode and made some rash decisions that I came to regret. Much to do with problems with the bottom curve of the veneer not holding well with the epoxy. I eventually got it sorted out and all was well but it kinda sent me in a tail spin mentally with the project and I started doing things like making cuts on the fly without thinking it out, hammering parts on etc... If you get frustrated take a break walk away and come back to it.

The name plate was pretty easy. I had actually engraved it on a scrap piece as practice and had no intention of using that specific piece. After some other attempts at different designs and approaches I noticed that poor little piece and liked it. I just used the sharp ended stylus generally used to punch holes to etch the text in there. I did it by hand with no guide though I might suggest you set yourself some wax guide lines at least or maybe even draw it out first. Anyway after that I cut a piece of veneer to match the size I wanted the plate to be. I traced around that on a piece of aluminum and gave it a border only as thick as the veneer. I cut 90 angles on each corner (45 in each direction). Took my flat pliers bent a small little lip up to 90 degrees. Placed the veneer in there and then used the hammer to lightly tap it in place pretty much permanently. This piece will be glued to the riser I carved in a hole I cut the veneer piece from. That will make the plate be almost on level with the veneer (slightly lifted).

Wow so this is what writing a novel is like.... On to the next stuff....