A twisted entry

And by twisted, I mean I feel the need to talk about one of the times when I use twisted brass.

Chrysocolla cuprite in sterling silver and twisted brass to be exact.

I had a bunch of half hard square sterling silver, which I paired with half hard twisted brass, and dead soft half round sterling. I lovelove any Chrysocolla that is mainly blue, although it's typically more turquoise or green than it is blue, and when I saw this cab for sale I had to grab it! It's by my rock artist friend, Juvy, from JC cabochons on facebook.

I found both of these half hard wires to be a real pain to work with.. literally.. my fingers were very sore by the end of it.
 

 I bound the middle of all 4 wires until I got to the point I figured I should be able to bend up the outside corners, and being careful not to kink or twist the wires, I shaped the bound area to the bottom of the cab, and bent over two wires in the back. I bent the "corner" wires up and over the edges, just enough to hold in the cab. I did a similar bend on the back and did a final shaping of the wires to follow the shape of the cab, then bound all of the wires together again on the sides to keep the bends in place. 

The hardest part of this, I think was when I was trying to keep all of the wires together and in the right shape at the top, so I could bind them. They did NOT want to stay. Half hard has a lot of spring to it.

 Once I got everything together, I bent my bail over and used the half round to secure the wires, and bent up the ends to a little curl on either side, pressing it against the half round to make sure everything stays in place.

Then I curled up one of the silver wires into a small spiral, and used the twisted brass wires to decorate further. I did my best to follow/accent the colour line on the stone, and I secured the swoops on the back.

After everything was secured and tweaked to my satisfaction, I bent open the bail wires.. because I like that look.



And that is the creation of this pendant.












Thanks for reading!

B