Riveting rivets...

I did a lot of cold connections before I could solder, but I still love them. Especially since they can do connections with materials that wouldn't stand up to the heat involved with soldering. Until I figure out how to use othe people's pictures, I will just have to use mine as examples. I connected this blackened steel to the silver backing with tiny brass escutcheon pins. I couldn't have soldered the blackened steel.

This is another colored steel, but this time I colored rusted steel and did silver tube rivets in the holes in the steel strip. These rivets didn't connect anything, they were just a decorative element. I used the little brass rivets to connect it to the silver back. Instead of connecting it directly to the back, though, I used tiny silver tubes between the two pieces to give it some elevation.

This is another example of using the little silver tubes to raise the top piece above the backing. This way I could slip the shell and twigs between the two pieces and that helped contain the things.

Another thing about rivets is that they can allow two pieces to swivle if you leave a little space between the two layers to be connected. You can use a little piece of paper to act as spacer, then you remove it to allow the swivelling. I don't have any examples of this.