Anyone who follows me on facebook knows that I LOVE taking pictures LOL
I frequently take and post pictures of the process on my regular profile, and I decided I should also post them regularly on here.. so here is the evolution of a silver and brass ornate steampunk pendant.
First side.. I started with a basic 2/1 five wire ladder weave in sterling silver and secured the agate bead into the pattern with the base wires. As I went along with the two wire 5 down 2 up weave I started embellishing with watch gears.
After I got to the point where I thought it looked good, I curled up
one
of the wires I used to secure the agate bead, and then wove around
the securing wire as I curled it around the gear, adding a smaller gear
to fill out the gap a little as I secured everything together. I was trying to ball up the wire that was sticking out and kinda
flattened, but the reason it is kinda flattened is because it wouldn't
ball.. I assume it's because the wires behind/attached to it were acting like a heat
sink because it never really got red hot. So I hit it with a hammer. Repeatedly.
I decided to curl and weave the offending wire, and shaped the wires sticking out the bottom. Oh yeah and I added nuts and plates from a watch.. the ones that looked like the right shape when I held them up as I wove and coiled.
I decided it should go the other way up, so I flipped it around and made the bail with a double figure 8 weave. I balled the end of one of the wires from the bail and curled it up.
Once I had secure the balled end, I used the small bit of wire that was left to start the attaching of another plate, with little gems in it.. so cool!
At that point I was entirely sick of weaving with brass.. so perfect time to switch back to sterling!
I was adding the odd gear and bit and bead as I went with the sterling (much faster than the brass I might add) and shaped and secured the wire down along the line of where I figured the bead should still show.
It's looking a bit like lace! I think it is very cool and victorian inspired. I had to add on another couple of base wires along both the bottom and the one side, as the larger plate and the agate bead wouldn't have been properly secured otherwise. I added beads as I wove, and two different kinds of gears. I think I ended up with just the right amount of bead showing when I was done.
A few hours here, a few hours there.. all in all it took me 3 days to get this.
So then I went and stuck it in a jar of chemicals, watched it get all black, rinsed, scrubbed, polished, and got this :)
Here is the picture I used to show all aspects of the pendant. I hung it on a 27" antique brass chain with heart shaped lobster clasp. NFS :)
Thanks for reading..
B
I frequently take and post pictures of the process on my regular profile, and I decided I should also post them regularly on here.. so here is the evolution of a silver and brass ornate steampunk pendant.
First side.. I started with a basic 2/1 five wire ladder weave in sterling silver and secured the agate bead into the pattern with the base wires. As I went along with the two wire 5 down 2 up weave I started embellishing with watch gears. After I got to the point where I thought it looked good, I curled up
one
of the wires I used to secure the agate bead, and then wove around
the securing wire as I curled it around the gear, adding a smaller gear
to fill out the gap a little as I secured everything together. I was trying to ball up the wire that was sticking out and kinda
flattened, but the reason it is kinda flattened is because it wouldn't
ball.. I assume it's because the wires behind/attached to it were acting like a heat
sink because it never really got red hot. So I hit it with a hammer. Repeatedly. I decided to curl and weave the offending wire, and shaped the wires sticking out the bottom. Oh yeah and I added nuts and plates from a watch.. the ones that looked like the right shape when I held them up as I wove and coiled.
I decided it should go the other way up, so I flipped it around and made the bail with a double figure 8 weave. I balled the end of one of the wires from the bail and curled it up.
Once I had secure the balled end, I used the small bit of wire that was left to start the attaching of another plate, with little gems in it.. so cool!
At that point I was entirely sick of weaving with brass.. so perfect time to switch back to sterling!
I was adding the odd gear and bit and bead as I went with the sterling (much faster than the brass I might add) and shaped and secured the wire down along the line of where I figured the bead should still show.It's looking a bit like lace! I think it is very cool and victorian inspired. I had to add on another couple of base wires along both the bottom and the one side, as the larger plate and the agate bead wouldn't have been properly secured otherwise. I added beads as I wove, and two different kinds of gears. I think I ended up with just the right amount of bead showing when I was done.
A few hours here, a few hours there.. all in all it took me 3 days to get this.
So then I went and stuck it in a jar of chemicals, watched it get all black, rinsed, scrubbed, polished, and got this :)
Here is the picture I used to show all aspects of the pendant. I hung it on a 27" antique brass chain with heart shaped lobster clasp. NFS :)
Thanks for reading..
B
Comments
Post a Comment