Jewelry from lead type
I picked up a few letters of lead type (helvetica, of course) from a little shop, and I am wondering about the feasability / safety of creating some jewelry from it.
I got it all cleaned up (Crest Total Whitening Paste works like magic!), and now I’m looking for a way to make it safe to be around. I know lead poisoning is not to be taken lightly, so I’m wondering if anyone here knows a way that it could be rendered safe.
I don’t want to just display them, so if you have other ideas of cool ways to use a handful of letters that don’t spell anything, let me know.
nullotheist,
You are not being over cautious in your concerns about creating jewelry from lead type. Although the alloy found in “Lead” type is a mix of Lead, Tin, and Antimony, it still contains large amounts (75% or more) of Lead.
Considering that jewelry is often worn close to the skin, anything containing Lead would be a bad idea, unless the jewelry was safely encased in an acrylic, glass, or some other material to permanently shield the wearer from any possibility of contact with the potentially lethal metal.
If you enjoy creating jewelry from metal type, consider making a plaster mold of the lead type face, and recasting it in Silver, which is more expensive, but wears better, and is also much more benign. You can consider the benefits of casting multiple artifacts in Silver, from a single Lead type.
I think you are on the wrong website.