Tips on Making Metal Nosepieces for Cloth Masks

Tips on Making Metal Nosepieces for Cloth Masks

At Beth Millner Jewelry we have put together a free pattern for the mask and nose pieces. Also, below are some tips and tricks on how to make them in your community or at home.

With the help of many from our community, we are able to provide this in-depth blog post with videos on how to make metal nose pieces for homemade masks using metal roofing tools, jewelry making tools, or tools from around the house.

One of my favorite tips is to use a heavy-duty paper cutter to make your strips! 

Tips on Making Metal Nosepieces for Cloth Masks

Photo by Rich Uren.

1. Tools from around the house. 

Here is a perfect simple solution to making metal nose pieces using a scoring and snapping method with tools around the house. The key here is the right type of metal. Make sure you have 28 gauge aluminum. Thicker metal will be more difficult to break and thinner metal would be too flimsy to make a nice seal around the nose. Thanks to jewelry artist Jaquelyn Lambert of City by the Lake Jewelry.  

2. Finishing corners of aluminum 

One simple method to finish the corners a little is to use kitchen shears and snip of the corners just slightly.

If you would like your strips more smooth, which is not 100% necessary if you're not using the mask very often.

Here are some great tips on how to finish the edges of your aluminum strips with sandpaper. Wet sanding is preferable if you have black/gray sandpaper for metal. You can also use a metal nail file and file the corners of the strip much like rounding your fingernails. The multi-piece sanding method in the video is by Angela Carter of Alternative Chic Jewelry. 

3. Making nose pieces using roofing tools & belt sander

Here is Mike, Beth's significant other making metal strips using his sheet metal brake. See how he twists the strips back against each other in order to straighten them out? Beth and Mike rigged up a belt sander in a vice to make the first 2000 of these nose pieces at home. Make sure to be extra careful when using power tools!! We do not want to make medical staff busier at the hospital.  

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If you have materials you would like to donate to us, please contact us.