Begin by opening a new file, about 450 pixels wide by 200 high, witha black background and 16 million colors. Set your foreground color towhite. Using the shape drawing tool set to Ellipse, and with the styleset to Filled, draw a relatively narrow one white ellipse.
 
 
 

Now copy the ellipse using the selection tool. Set your background colorto black and paste the ellipse as a transparent selection. Paste copiesof the ellipse one after the other, being sure to leave a little blackspace between them, until you have a whole row.
 
 

Now blur the image a bit. Go to Image, Blur: Gaussian Blur. Set theRadius to 6.00.
 
 
 
 

Next we apply a Hotwax coating. Be sure the foreground color is stillset to white when you do this. This gives us the basic shape of our threads.All we need to do is slant them slightly.
 
 
 
 

To create the slanted threads, go to Image, Deformations:Skew. Set theHorizontal Skew to about  -12 to -16 and the Vertical skew to 0. Youcan play with the horizontal settings quite a bit and still get good results,but to have the threads match a standard screw, the skew needs to be negative.Afteryou have skewed the threads, go to Window:Duplicate. A new copy of yourthreads should appear. We'll use this new copy for the next step, keepingthe original in reserve.
 
 
 
 

Using the Selection tool, select the lower half of your threads. Thisis the part we'll use to make a point for the screw. Go to Deformations,Perspective - Horizontal. Set the % difference to so you get a nice point.Here I set it to about 83%. Now copy this modified portion of the thread.(Edit:Copy)
 
 
 
 

Go back to your original image window now. You may need to select youthreads with the selection tool and move them to the left a bit to makesome room for your point. After you've done that, simply paste in the point(Edit:Paste) and carefully allign it to match the rest of the threads.This may take some effort.
 
 
 
 

Now we'll make the screw head. Open a new window, about 180 x 180 pixels,with a black background and 16 million colors. This time use the Shapestool to draw a larger wider ellipse. Be sure antialias is unchecked.
 
 
 
 

Use the Area select tool to draw a rectangle that includes part of theright side of the ellipse. Hit delete to remove that section.
 
 
 

Next draw a smaller rectangle on the left side of the ellipse. Thiswill become the area where a screwdriver would fit. Again hit delete.
 
 

To make the screwhead match the rest of the screw, first we select thewhite area with the magic wand. Apply a cutout (Image, Effects:Cutout.Fill Interior with Color unchecked, Shadow Color Black. Opacity 100, Blur16.5, Vertical and Horizontal offsets at -4) and then a Hotwax coating.When complete, copy the screwhead (Edit:Copy)and return to the originalwindow.
 
 
 

To finish the screw, paste the head in place (Edit: Paste as a New Selection).Now all we need to do is cut it out from the black background.
 
 
 
 

To remove the screw from the black background without leaving a jaggededge, follow this procedure. First select the magic wand and set the Toleranceto 20. Click on the black area. This should leave all but the screw selected.However, the marquis will probably not be as close to the threads as wemight like. To remedy this, Go to Selections, Modify:Expand. Expand by1-2 pixels until the marquis closely follows the threads of the screw.Now invert the selection so the the screw is the selected area (Selections:Invert).To avoid a jagged edge, feather the selection by 2 pixels (Selections,Modify:Feather) and copy (Edit:Copy). Paste as a New Image. This will giveyou the screw with a transparent background.
 
 
 
 

Simply resizing the screw will give something suitable for use and alsohide any imperfections. The standard screw is colored like steel or aluminum.To change the color to match other metals, I used the Colorize filter fromGreg's Factory Output Volume II. For a brass screw I moved the Blue sliderdown to about 63, and for more of a copper color, I moved the green sliderdown to 100 and the blue slider to 80.
 
 
 

A wide variety of screws can be created by varying the size of the initialellipse, the skew of the threads, or the color and the size. Leaving outthe point can give you some very passable bolts as well. Add a drop shadow,and they should be suitable for decorations or tubes.