A couple weeks ago, I lost my cufflinks. They were nothing special, but about half of the shirts I own have a French cuff, so I took a quick spin through what was available online to buy some replacements.  And here is what I have learned about cufflinks:

If you want shamrock cufflinks picked out in ersatz emeralds, you can find them.  If you want a winking pirate, or matching male and female symbols, or a Mercedes logo (in diamonds, natch), you can find all of those.  In fact, nothing I can tell you will prepare you for how gaudy and ostentatious the selection will be.  You remember that jackass boss you had at that shitty job?  Apparently, he went on to sell cufflinks for a living, because this is exactly his taste in accoutrement.

Put on The Smiths and fire up the etching tank. These are what I came up with, using the process described in my prior post here.  I threw together some artwork in about twenty minutes, and finished the parts the same weekend.  I did two sets, one using Sierpinski triangles and one using the tracks made by subatomic particles in a cloud chamber

It’s right about the smallest detail I can get with the process I’m using right now, and for this and many other reasons I need to find a better way to do the resist stage than toner transfer.  I bought the backings on the bay of e, and painted it once with black paint, then took steel wool to it to remove the raised portion.  Then everything got a clear coat to keep the zinc from oxidizing.

Sometimes the quick projects are the most satisfying, and I’m pretty happy with the results.