This post is all about a pendant I made with one of my favorite stones :)
Yay for a fab lab cab! (because I am excitable, and this pendant was such an interesting one to make)
Once again I got too involved to make sure I took all of the process pics that I should have, and I am sorry about that LOL.. and this is why I haven't finished writing a tutorial yet.
This is the first labradorite I have ever had, that had the lines in the schiller like this.. the cutting and shaping of this cab was excellent. I am pretty sure I got this one off of facebook (here). I spend a lot of time looking at rocks, but I only buy the ones that speak to me.
So I started off doing a 6 wire 1/2 ladder weave (which means six base wires, with one revolution on the climb up, and two times around when you bring the wire back down) with 20g sterling silver wire wrapped with 30g sterling silver wire.
Once I had woven the panel the height of the cab, I gave it the appropriate curve and balled up the ends of some of the base wires. Then I pulled the wire furthest from the cab over, both on the top and the bottom.. but on the top I hammered, annealed and then shaped and attached the wire.. and on the bottom I did the same, but added a swirl, attaching that together with another of the wires from the bottom that I had coiled around.
At this point I could have left the cab in while I constructed the pendant, but normally I prefer to leave the cab out until I can't anymore, as it makes some of the tight spaces you have to work with.. even tighter.
I pulled one of the four remaining top wires down and over, but I didn't attach it until after I had worked on the bottom some. On the bottom I took three wires and wove them together, shaping them to look nice with the swirl and the bottom of the cab, then I wove the three together up until you see the curl on the side and then two together from there on. The curl is where one of the wires ended, so that is where the weave ended LOL
On the top I now had a couple more wires to work with, as the two I had just woven up the side to hold the cab tight in place (which at that point was put into the frame permanently) were fairly long. I kept weaving up until a little ways from the end of the wire. I attached the wire I had pulled over and formed earlier in the process, echoing the hammered wire's shape. Then I decided the bail was going to be done with 2 wires, so I coiled the last top wire and shaped it in a couple of swirls (see later pictures). I did a figure 8 weave up the bail wires for a bit and the grabbed the 2 wires that had been woven up from the back/side and curled them around the base of the bail. At that point I went back to the bottom and pulled the last wire over that was left.. wrapping it around the back and up again at the spot of the curl on the side, curling it around as well to decorate.
I pulled the bail wires down and wove around the curve I bent them into, using the weaving wire to secure the curled balls end down.
At this point in the process I realised that the side was calling for a little more embellishment, so I grabbed two more wires, balled them up, and wove them into and interesting shape for the side and front. I attached them by curling the balled ends around the hammered wire, as well as using the weaving wire to anchor and add a bead. I continued up the side a little to give it the shape it has in this picture, with a coil and a swirl to anchor at the top.
In this series I took quickie pics from all angles to kind of make up for forgetting to take involved process pics.
This one first really shows the height of the cab, as well as being a good view of the swirl and anchoring/weaving/shaping done at the bottom.
The second picture is also good for showing the height of the cab, and you can see well what sort of bends went on to form things to the final shape.
These two of the back show what I was talking about early on about swirls :)
They also are good to see where I tucked ends and secured with weaving wire. If they weren't balled ends, they would be pinched flush and much harder to see LOL
This last picture is the one I did in my light box. I'm not liking the beige background so much, so if this isn't sold by the time I find the right new thing to use for a background, I will be retaking these shots.
Thanks for looking!
B
Yay for a fab lab cab! (because I am excitable, and this pendant was such an interesting one to make)
This is the first labradorite I have ever had, that had the lines in the schiller like this.. the cutting and shaping of this cab was excellent. I am pretty sure I got this one off of facebook (here). I spend a lot of time looking at rocks, but I only buy the ones that speak to me.
So I started off doing a 6 wire 1/2 ladder weave (which means six base wires, with one revolution on the climb up, and two times around when you bring the wire back down) with 20g sterling silver wire wrapped with 30g sterling silver wire.
At this point I could have left the cab in while I constructed the pendant, but normally I prefer to leave the cab out until I can't anymore, as it makes some of the tight spaces you have to work with.. even tighter.
I pulled one of the four remaining top wires down and over, but I didn't attach it until after I had worked on the bottom some. On the bottom I took three wires and wove them together, shaping them to look nice with the swirl and the bottom of the cab, then I wove the three together up until you see the curl on the side and then two together from there on. The curl is where one of the wires ended, so that is where the weave ended LOL
I pulled the bail wires down and wove around the curve I bent them into, using the weaving wire to secure the curled balls end down.
In this series I took quickie pics from all angles to kind of make up for forgetting to take involved process pics.
This one first really shows the height of the cab, as well as being a good view of the swirl and anchoring/weaving/shaping done at the bottom.
The second picture is also good for showing the height of the cab, and you can see well what sort of bends went on to form things to the final shape.These two of the back show what I was talking about early on about swirls :)
They also are good to see where I tucked ends and secured with weaving wire. If they weren't balled ends, they would be pinched flush and much harder to see LOL
This last picture is the one I did in my light box. I'm not liking the beige background so much, so if this isn't sold by the time I find the right new thing to use for a background, I will be retaking these shots.
B
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