Silver (Pewter) Vintaj Blanks - part 1

I made a pair of earrings with the silver Vintaj blanks this past winter.  And I wore them a ton.  Very pretty.  I love the Vintaj etched look and that I can create my own designs and that they are in silver (which I prefer to wear).  But I found some things that needs to be worked around when making silver Vintaj embossed or etched earrings, or pendants.  I call them silver, but the Vintaj blanks are actually made with pewter. 

***A good pair - front and back.

First, the silver/pewter blanks are really thick (compared to the brass and copper blanks).  Although I haven't measured them, the copper and brass blanks seem to behave similarly.  I have not attempted any embossing with the silver/pewter blanks.  

The embossing folders for the Vintaj Big Kick are metal inside a plastic sleeve.

After using a non-Vintaj brass blank, that felt the same thickness as the Vintaj ones - this happened (below) to an embossing folder.    I can only imagine what the thick silver blank would do. 

 *They look and feel like the same thickness and both companies say they are 24 gauge.

The etching folders are what feels like a piece of heavy duty felt - one-sided.  So, when you etch with them, the plastic sheets that go into the Vintaj Big Kick machine get imprinted as well.  The instructions clearly say to lay the etching piece down with the blank and put the clear plastic sheet on it with no protective barrier. 

This etched plastic sheet then transfers to the back of the silver blank that I am working with. 

*See the skinny lines - they are not supposed to be there.

So I have to constantly move the etching piece with silver blank around so that it is on a clear part of the plastic.  And then, basically all of the plastic sheets are getting imprinted all over. 

(This does not affect the embossing because the blank goes between 2 pieces of metal and then in between the plastic sheets).
As you can see, the silver blanks also make a pretty good indention in the etching piece - which can be good if you are making earring pairs, so you can get exactly the same image on both pieces but not so good if you want to make a different image on the same etching piece or use a different size blank with the same image.

When making the silver blanks, you also have to be careful of where the hole in the top of the blank is placed.  The earrings that I made in January have some etching surrounding the hole in the top of the blank.  This basically weakens the metal and eventually the earrings broke.  Whoops!

These are just my experiences.  Maybe someone more expert with these materials would have better or different experiences with these.  And even with these caveats, I keep plugging away with the Vintaj BigKick and the pewter blanks because they are fun to work with and I like the outcome.

Has anyone else worked a lot with these pewter blanks and had similar experiences or better experiences?