A Memory You Can Touch
We use the actual piece your loved one touches to make into silver or gold one of a kind fingerprint jewellery. Creating an impression of a child's or baby's fingerprint and translating it into a necklace or pendant is a very personal and permanent way to be able to touch your baby's delicate fingertip across space and time forever.
When Do Babies Develop Fingerprints?
Babies' fingerprints are very delicate, they usually start to appear from 6-9 months and start looking more defined around 1- 2 years old. However, it's really lovely to capture the scale of the tiny finger at that precious moment in time when they are newborns, so here are some steps to take to help take a live, in-person impression of a child's or baby's fingerprint to make silver or gold fingerprint jewelry for Mom.
To Use the Compound:
What I usually do is warm it in my clean hands. I knead it between my fingers, roll it into a ball, press it into a nice shape, then firmly press baby's finger into it and finally "peel" the finger off.
Make sure that if you work the material with your hands, you avoid creating any visible air bubbles that might show up in the final piece. If you see pale pockets on or near the surface, press them out before you take an impression.
Heating the Compound:
I like warming it in my hands over time. If you use your own body's warmth it is kind of nice because it doesn't overheat and you can kind of add your own energy to making the piece. Just make sure you shape it again the way you want it to look before making the impression.
If you want to heat it faster, you can aim a hairdryer at it either on the baggie or you can hold the material in your hand and aim the hairdryer at it, then put it on the baggie, or you can let it sit under a hot lightbulb.
It does not have to be hot in any way, just warm and pliable. You want to reach a temperature where you don't have to press too hard of course, but firm pressure makes a nice print.
Making the Impression:
Place the baggie it came with on a hard surface. Press and shape the material into a nice shape approximately the size of the finger, and when you press the finger in, make sure it displaces some material around the edge.
You can re-work the compound as many times as you like, and you can make impressions over and over but of course you have to work with a baby's patience and temperament so that might be the most difficult part. Experiment with your own fingerprint to see what kind of result you can get, and bear in mind, fingerprints are difficult to see in the compound but much easier to see in metal.
The Goal Can Be to Capture the Shape of a Newborn's Finger
Newborn babies don't have strong fingerprints, and it is better to think of it as getting a nice impression of the shape and size of the finger captured forever. Some of the most darling results are pieces that capture the first two sections of the finger. This is easier to capture in the large size. In the small size, It's nice to get a small ridge around the end.
The compound may initially seem small, but once you have flattened it out and made an impression, and we make it into solid gold or silver, the pieces are much more substantial.
What Should It Look Like?
The better it looks to you before you return it, the better it will turn out. We will remove any harsh lumps on the sides and back and make it as smooth and attractive as possible, but we don't touch the delicate area of the fingerprint.
A Memory You Can Touch
We use the actual piece your loved one touches to make into one of a kind, silver or gold fingerprint jewellery. Creating an impression of a child's or baby's fingerprint and translating it into a necklace or pendant is a very personal and permanent way to be able to touch your baby's delicate fingertip across space and time forever.