Belt buckle overlay

[Pancho07]

I've got an idea for a belt buckle that probably won't be any time soon as I need to practice some parts of it before I actually get to it but my idea is to have a steel buckle with copper panels engraved and overplayed on the buckle. I know it's possible because I have seen it on friends buckles and online but I'm not real sure how to go about it. My first thought is to drill out the centers of the flowers and rivet them onto the buckle then slowly heat the whole piece until it blazes itself onto the steel but I don't know if that is the best way to go about it.

rough idea of what I want the buckle to look like

Closer idea of what I want the panels to look like

 

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

[ThomasPowers]

Silver soldering is a common method.  This is the hard jeweler's solder not stay brite silver bearing solder.

[Pancho07]

Thanks, every time I googled soldering copper I either got plumbing or stained glass so that put me in the right direction. For the steel on this buckle I'm thinking about rust bluing or browning it. If I do this would I be able to do it after the panels are on or would I want to do it before?

[Michael Cochran]

I watched a video of a company making spurs with silver overlay that blues the spurs after assembly was complete. They soldered the silver overlay then engraved them followed by a polish then a hot bluing. 

[JHCC]

Just make sure that your solder has a high enough melting point that it won't be affected by the hot bluing.