The Elements of Creating a Necklace

Metal - Finished Pendant

Today I’m going to give you an idea of what all goes into the creation of one

Metal Sketches

of my Elements necklaces. As I was making my latest, Metal, I took some photos of the process so that you can see some of what all goes on while I am creating. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures during the fold-forming

Pyrite in Agate with bezel

process because of the groove that I get in during it, but you can visit Charles Lewton Brain‘s site for more info on that (by the way that book would make a great holiday gift :^).

First, I found a gemstone that I thought fitted the element of Metal. Then I made some designs around that stone. I fitted a bezel to the stone, soldered it into a ring, then I textured some brass sheet for the bezel back using an asphalt roofing shingle. I then soldered them together.

Look at that Seam

Next I began work on the fold formed elements of the pendant. I loosely cut some copper sheet into the shapes I had sketched out and began to hammer the folds in. When I was happy with the designs of the

Shingle Textured Brass

folds, I finished off the edges of the two pieces and formed them into 3-d shapes.

I proceed to move the fold formed pieces around the bezel form until I found a position that worked the best with the design. It was at this point that I realized that the shape of the stone which I had

Original Positioning Idea

picked out resembled an eye. This changed the way I wanted it displayed and I deviated from my original design plan (this happens a lot as I work through pieces, the metal sometimes disagrees with my original plan and we devise a better design

Back of Piece

together).

At this point I am able to cut down the bezel backing into tabs for riveting the fold formed pieces onto. After this I plan out the shape of the forged wires that will also be riveted to the pendant. I’ve included some different design ideas that I worked

through here with the final design showing the actual wires which were then hammer textured with my riveting hammer. At this point I rivet the piece together and voila, a necklace is born. There was also a lot of sanding and filing that took place, but I didn’t take pictures of those processes. Of course it still needs a chain, but that’s another day…