New Pendant, New Necklace

Taking advantage of my increased soldering confidence, thanks to the recent sea glass necklace, I soldered a few new bezels to be used in bracelets.

I decided I really like the bail that I designed for the sea glass pendant and made a similar one for a new pendant.

This new bail is made from copper that has a subtle roll printed texture and it's soldered on to a piece of 20 gauge copper that I had previously etched.

 

The soldering should have been simple, so of course....it was not.

I sweat soldered the back of the bail, propped the end of the etched copper just a tad to account for the dimension of the curled shape.

I'm not even sure what I did wrong, but after two soldering attempts, I still had two separate pieces.

BLEH!

I decided that I would give it one more try before I gave up for the evening, and I pulled out the secret weapon...

paste solder.

Using my soldering pic, I held the bail in place (all right....I was so frustrated, I was actually stabbing it) and the solder flowed the way I needed it to flow.

Happiness.

 

After a soak in the pickle pot and a cleaning with the brass brush, 

I used balled copper wire to rivet the bail backing to the etched brass front piece.

A few years ago, I had purchased a variety of stone cabochons so that I could practice my bezel making skills.

I have no idea what this stone is, but it makes me think of an Easter egg, so I thought it appropriate to use it as the holiday approaches.

 

I liked the recycled copper wire links that I used in my jasper pendant necklace, so I made more.

This time, I decided to use one of my steel stamps to add some texture to each side of the links.

 

Complementing the hints of color in the pendant stone, I worked with prehnite and honey jade beads.

More etched copper was used to make bead cape for the honey jade beads.

 

Once everything was assembled, the necklace was treated with liver of sulfur....

 

and then cleaned with fine grit sandpaper.

 

Completed necklace...

with recycled copper wire links, formed and drilled copper discs, sterling wire wrapped prehnite and honey jade beads, sterling chain and sterling clasp...

 

and one Easter egg pendant.

 

This necklace will be part of my inventory at Woodmere Art Museum's

Meet the Artists

on Saturday, May 3.