Shown here is the final step in the Nicki Pendant by Ashton Ludden on a small engravable key tag. Ashton has taken this piece from outline to finished artwork with nice results.

Because this piece is not as involved as say, a game scene on a rifle, it is a great design to study for new engravers. It works well for study because it has one simple subject that is not overly complex or time-consuming. As many new engravers will find, being able to study the work of others is an invaluable step in finding one's own style and building skills.

With a growing online community of engraving artists, those who are just starting out (or taking their time!) can even benefit from simply studying photos of engraved work like this. Even better than the final work is a step-by-step photo tutorial that outlines some of the methods used to create the design.

Check out a new tutorial showing the basic steps and progressive photos of Ashton's work on the Nicki Pendant featured in our Resource Library.