I have always been a fan of putting some kind of emblem on my stuff to personalize it with style, here is my take on a tablet cover and a kindle E book reader protective case , all been done by inexpensive hand tools and some improvised tools to make the job easier, i will be showing how to details for the tablet paisley with the green background i didn't make it for myself but took pictures while i was doing it , the eye for my ebook reader uses the same exact method, let's get started.

Step 1: The Design and Materials

after you pick your design spend sometime studying it , if you didn't draw it yourself chance is it's not drawn with the consideration of fabrication so feel free to make changes accordingly like the picture below the original picture had half flowers i had to cut another half and glow it next t it so i would have full flowers, also decide what materials you are going to use and for which parts i usually like to incorporate stainless brass and copper sometimes colored metal textured or shiny it all depends on your vision for the design , after you decide what is what think ahead of how you gonna connect the pieces together you have lots of choices depends on the material you are using since we are using different colors materials in this design and lots of small parts either use soldering very very carefully i wouldn't recommend for a beginner or you can use rivets which i decided to use with this design , print a few copies of the design and glue it to your material i use rubber cement holds well and cleans easy .

Step 2: Cutting the Metal

that's the most fun for me , i love using a jewelers saw to do everything it's by far the most favorite tool i've got , i'm not going to walk you through how to use a jewelers saw since there is already lots of tutorials and videos showing you how to , but i will say this take your time to tension the blade because a well tensioned blade is way easier to cut with the best way to test for that is to push your finger lightly in the middle of the blade and strum it when you hear a ringing tune means it's perfectly tensioned , also you don't need any muscle strength to use the saw only eye hand coordination and mainly control the saw in your hand not too tight not too loose and take your time and enjoy the process .
if you have pieces nested inside a bigger piece cut it first also if you have places in a bigger piece that had parts needs to be cut out by piercing do that first too .
the pictures are self explanatory for this step.

Step 3: Putting the Pieces Together

sine i have decided on rivets for that design i wanted to have a flush rivets that doesn't have any heads that blends with the brass so i counter sunk the drilled holes in the brass to have a room for the copper rivets to sit , pick your wire size carefully and drill accordingly since you needs a snug fit for your rivet , in this design it has so many rivets not to hold the pieces together but for the design sake so i did most of them on the brass part only not holding it to anything and left a few strategically selected holes to rivet with the stainless background later on .
riveting can be daunting task you have to make sure everything is right first before you start hammering or you will have a ruined rivet , hole or both , make sure wire fits tightly in the drilled whole also the length on rivet must be about 1/8th on each side .
the usual way of riveting is hammering on the rivet head with a ball peen hammer in a circular motion to flatten the head flip and repeat till you are done , since there is so many rivets to do and i'm lazy by nature so i made a small jig to save me time effort and frustration "here i spent more time making that rivet helper than it would have taken me doing the rivets the old fashion way but i believe if the necessity is the mother of invention then laziness definitely is the father"
so back to the rivet helper which basically is just a C clamp "a G clamp for reader's from the UK " remove the part like in the picture file both ends to be flat you will find a small notch in the middle of the screw bolt file till it's just a very small one but don't file it altogether now close the clamp till both ends meets and mark where it lands now with a dremel tool and a round diamond head make a half sphere notch on both ends in the center and you are done.

so you ask what this tool does ? well instead of flipping the piece so many times hammering a little on the rivets heads so they wouldn't pass through the whole till the heads get big enough to hold the rivet in place , just by using this tool it will do the same thing easier and better by tightening the clamp the double action pressure on the rivet heads on both sides is the same and so easy you don't have to flip adjust or fiddle with the tiny rivet any more , the clamp will hold it in place all you need to do is just screw in the clamp and you will have perfectly round heads the same exact size every time bu since i wanted flat heads in this design i ended up using this to rvet all then used a hammer to flatten both sides but still was way easier the traditional method

Step 4: Texturing and Finishing Touches

after putting it together you might change your mind about the way you wanna finish the piece in my case i ended up texturing the brass with an engraver and steel brush the stainless to give a matte look to it for the flowers i heated the copper with a lighter for a few second to give i that beautiful red color i'm not sure it's showing well in the pictures but in real it looks very good.

Step 5: Putting It on the Cover of Your Choosing

there is different ways of attaching the piece you make to your tablet you can glue it with epoxy but it's messy and destructive , you can rivet it in place but if drilling holes in to you tablet case is not an option then use double sided tape the strong one rated 20 pound a bit expensive but worth it , cut a few small pieces and adhere to the back o your piece and then stick to the cover and you are done , in this case i've used double sided tape since it wasn't my tablet also added some jewels to make it more feminine .

now it's your turn to personalize your stuff , if you have any questions please leave a comment, thank you for viewing.