Netting backed pendant

I seem to have lots of times that I misplace the label on things. This is one of them. I can't remember what stone this is, but it is gorgeous. My muse and I decided that this needed to be mounted in a way as to cover as little of the stone as possible.

First and second row

First I took some 18g sterling silver, and then I bent it around the stone. This took a little bit of tweaking, as my DS 18g isn't as soft as I think it should be. Once I had it lined up properly, I hammered the wire to elongate the bottom to create a frame that you would be able to see a little once the pendant was done.

I wish I had used 26g or 28g for the netting, but all I had was 30g. Let me tell you, the smaller the wire is, the harder it is to stop from kinking and breaking during the netting process. This was a lesson in frustration for me, but eventually I got it all lined up properly.

The netted frame

As I was making the first set of loops, I found that I had to hold down the previous loop to set them in the right spot. I also had to slide all of them around a little once I got to the top on the other side, to make sure that the spacing was even and that the next set of loops was going to look right. I then did a modified figure 8 to secure the bail wires together and solidify the netted weave. This of course meant I had to over under a little to get back to the starting point and start the next row of netting, but other than the sewing action (I prefer to weave on open wires) that I find such a pain.. the next few rows of netting were fairly easy.

time to secure the 22g

I then figured that the easiest wire I had to secure the stone onto the back, was the 22g fine silver I have. Originally I planned on bringing the netting up the stone a little and holding it in that way, but that didn't work out.

I secured the 22g on the frame (I always use at least 3 times around to secure) and then pulled it back and forth a couple of times, making sure that it was tight to the stone before going back around the frame to bring it back the other direction. This nice thing about fine silver is that it's sooooo soft! It is incredibly easy to form to something.

Once I was far enough down on the top to hold the stone in, I secured the fine silver to the other side, and trimmed it. Then I did the same on the bottom.

all done!

I pushed all of the wire down onto the stone with my fingers, and then decided that it needed to be just a touch fancier, so I gave them all a little bit of a twist with my chain nosed pliers. The bail I made by hammering it a little bit and then curling it around my stepped mandrel.

I am in love with this synthetic rubber cording I found at artbeads.com. I used argentium silver center crimp ends and a sterling silver clasp on the smokey quartz coloured cord.




Thanks for reading!

Becca