Antique bronze stamping "die" or block for making Indian or Afghan amulets
The surface of this block is 22mm across
This die and others like it may be of interest to collectors, arteachers, and metalworkers, but artists using precious metal clay or polymer clay might also find them useful for creating pendants, beads, or simply adding texture to various projects.
The process for making traditional "plaque" amulets involves cutting a sheet of typically 18ga silver sheet to a size a bit larger than the die. Heating the sheet to red hot, quenching in water, laying it over the die and covering the silver with a thick sheet of lead. Several blows with a heavy, broad-faced sledgehammer, all across the surface of the stamping block (taking care not to shift the metals), forces the silver into the depressions in the stamping block.
Next the lead separated and the silver lifted from the stamping block it shows a clean and clear die-stamped impression.
Amulets are often reinforced with borders created with other dies (ASM-363 or ASM-347) which are soldered onto the edges of the images. Corners are covered by soldering on even smaller decorative components from multi-purpose dies like (ASM-364). Then all that's left to do is to create the ring or rings for suspending the amulet/pendant.
I have about a dozen, but each one is unique
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