This instructable is for a hammered copper bangle. I originally made this for a birthday present for my girlfriend. Looks great brand new and develops an awesome patina over time. The one she wears around normally is about a year old and still looks great, this one is a much brighter copper.

First of all this is a pretty easy project, so much so that I may not show my girlfriend this instructable for fear of losing some of the brownie points that this bracelet garnered me...

Step 1: Tools and Materials!

First of all there isn't too much in terms of materials you need for this one, you could really get by with a ball peen hammer and a file, but if you have a bench grinder and an anvil it makes it go quite a bit easier.

Materials:

piece of copper- I ordered the Multipurpose Copper from McMaster Carr 1/8" thick 1"w and 12"l for about $10 and that is enough to make 2 of these bangles.

Tools :

-Ball Peen Hammer
-file - either a mill or flat file works great
- Anvil- Not necessary, if you have a chunk of wood or something you dont mind denting as you hammer you are all set
-bench grinder- again, not necessary, but way faster than just using the file...

Step 2: Starting to Form the Copper

The first step in the process is to grind down the edges to the copper, any rough stuff can be taken off with the file or the grinder, if you have a grinder it goes way faster...

Square up the edges and round the corners, so later when it is worn, its all nice and smooth. Way easier to do this now than at the end of things

Once you have this all set, we get to do the fun stuff, and start hammering out the copper

Lay it out flat on your anvil/hammering surface and using the round edge of the hammer start hitting the copper at one end.

Slowly work your way from the end of the piece towards the middle, the more you hit it the more it starts to curve. Keep doing this until you get to about the midpoint of the copper.

Step 3: More Hammering!

Now you get to repeat the process for the otherside. Keep hammering, once you get to the middle, repeat again, and gradually the piece starts to close in on itself.

Once the piece starts to look more or less like a bracelet you then need to flip the bracelet over and start to gently close things up using the flat side of the hammer.

Step 4: Now You Have a Bracelet!

remember an hour or so ago when you just had a chunk of copper? This is way better...

You will probably need to do a little fitting to make sure it stays on and doesn't slip off, but that is easy enough, just repeat the end of the last step tapping things with the flat end of the hammer.