A quick story (with video!!) of how one necklace got made.
I imagine this happens with other artists, not just jewelry makers. You buy materials that you love right away, but don't use right away.
You keep hoping an idea will come to you. If none do the item sits. Waiting. Especially if it's something really stunning - a one-of-a-kind piece. Will you do it justice? Do you dare? Is your work good enough for that marvelous thing?
Well this is the story of one such item. Here it is, along with the things I'll use to make the finished product.
Next to the beads. That's it. A handmade glass pendant, 2 1/4 inches across. It's basically a long tube with a bend in the middle, but the colors are amazing. And the depth of the texture just knocks me out. I've had it for like 10 years. Picked it up at a bead show when I lived in New Hampshire. Loved it, but hadn't been brave enough to come up with a way to wear it. It was like when my mom gave me beads from her mother's necklace and wanted me to make something for her. What could I do to live up to that???!!
Then I found those beads up there. They're iolite which is a stone in the cordierite family. This group of minerals was named after French geologist Cordier. The name iolite comes from ios, the Greek word for violet. The color is more blue or navy than amethyst, a cooler shade of purple and reminds me a lot of tanzanite. Not as expensive as tanzanite though! I haven't worked with it much, but when I saw this string in person I immediately thought of the pendant.
Lately I've been kicking around the idea of using some silk cord I've also had for a dog's age and an idea was born. It would make a fine material to string the glass through. I have some in black, but the gray would be even better. Of course I'd need a way to attach it to the chain I envisioned making up most of the necklace. Lucky for me I had some glue and had already tested it with the cord and it held very well. My idea was to intersperse links of wrapped iolite with the small sections of silver chain. Luckily I had some pure silver on hand - 14 gauge wire for the large rings and 18 gauge for the small ones. Two sizes for some visual interest.
The first thing I needed to do was make some medium-sized rings out of fine silver. With my fusing skills being less dusty than I thought, I set to work! I haven't made many jump rings recently, but it all came back to me as I made the ones I'd need for the rings. I won't go into the specifics, but you have to be very precise when you make these. With experience years ago and a lot of ruined rings, I learned to make them as perfect as I can - it's worth the extra time it takes!
Because I wanted the chain to be quite sturdy, I needed to wrap the bead links directly to the circles in the chain. I didn't want to use open jump rings because they aren't as strong as a fully closed ring. This meant I needed the chain done first. Here I am fusing the larger rings first and then linking them together with a smaller ring.
I apologize that the ambient light is a little bright. Next time I'll lower the window shade so the flame shows up better. It isn't invisible though so I'm not upset about it. Boy, my hot pliers are a sight, aren't they? Well, that's why I use them for this. No sense ruining perfectly good pliers.
The best practice when fusing silver rings that you ultimately want to join together to make a chain, is to fuse the larger ones first. Once those are done you can fuse the smaller around the larger ones. If you tried it the other way around you would most likely ruin the small rings due to the greater amount of heat and time needed to fuse the larger ones. They would melt into useless lumps. After I finished the larger rings I gently hammered them for strength.
With those done it was time to wrap the iolite beads. I selected 4 that were of about the same size (my strand is graduated) and breathed a sigh of relief when I found they would thread 20 gauge wire. I didn't want to have to go to a thinner wire because it would be too much of a size difference between the bead links and the chain. As you make each wrapped loop it's important to stop and fit it over the circle in the chain before wrapping it tight. At one point my husband came in to talk to me and I finished wrapping a loop around nothing! Gah. Do over.
After it came out of the tumbler it looked like this!
Next up, the clasp. For necklaces I like a large one that you can feel and handle well out of sight behind your neck. A swan clasp is beautiful and easy to use. This time I used 16 gauge sterling silver wire and gave it a little hammering for texture.
Clever you if you noticed I have two different hammers. The one I used on the rings has a flat face and won't introduce any texture to the metal. The one I used for the clasp has a gently curved face that will make small changes in the metal. Not as much as the other end of either hammer, but when you want something to come out clean and flat, you need the right tool.
So far things were coming together really well and I felt pretty confident in how the piece would turn out. But how to deal with the pendant? I've never used silk cord before and as I took it off the cardboard it was sold on, I had to iron out the creases. Hilarious. Like most glass beads the hole is rather large and so I used a couple of my favorite little flat spacer beads to cover them somewhat and finish the pendant on the silk. But how to keep them in place? A couple of knots ought to do it. I ran the cord right through the pendant and tied a couple of loose knots near the spacer. Then I ran the other ends around the circles in the chain bringing them into each knot itself and adding a bit of glue as I worked the knot tighter and tighter.
Getting them to be even lengths wasn't too hard, I just eyeballed it. The knot doesn't support the pendant - it's only there to keep the spacers in place - so doesn't have to be super strong. I planned on using more silk cord on the other ends of the chain. It would be more comfortable to wear against your neck that way, but that silk would be supporting the weight of the necklace so those knots would have to be much stronger.
After measuring out what I figured would be the right length to get me to about 14 inches more (keeping in mind how long the clasp is for the total length!!) I glued two flat sections together along a bit of their length and tied a knot in that. I didn't forget to run the silk through both the chain and the ring that would hold the hook and the the eye ring. Phew! With that in place the necklace was the standard 16 inches. Woo hoo! I'm always so worried when I make a necklace that I won't get the length right. So many little sections have to come together and I'm bad at math. I measure often!
So 16 inches may be standard, but not very versatile to wear with different tops. I needed a section of chain at the end so I could adjust the necklace to different lengths. Back to the torch! This time 8 circles the same as in the chain itself and we had some room to breathe. It add almost 2 inches to the overall length. It looked a little naked though. A finisher, that's what we need. But what...I have some gunmetal blue pearls, but that was too same-y. Need contrast. The underling glass in the pendant is deep red so voila - a faceted garnet. Just perfect!
I can hardly explain how organically this came together. I don't usually sketch beforehand. I have an idea and I just work it through, adjusting as I go. Is this how other artists work? I have no idea, but it was interesting to document my process. Not sure if I'll do it again, but maybe.
Well. Did you read the whole thing? Lol. I can't say that I'll do this all the time, but I did rather dig making the videos. I should get a better mike.
I imagine this happens with other artists, not just jewelry makers. You buy materials that you love right away, but don't use right away.
You keep hoping an idea will come to you. If none do the item sits. Waiting. Especially if it's something really stunning - a one-of-a-kind piece. Will you do it justice? Do you dare? Is your work good enough for that marvelous thing?
Well this is the story of one such item. Here it is, along with the things I'll use to make the finished product.
Next to the beads. That's it. A handmade glass pendant, 2 1/4 inches across. It's basically a long tube with a bend in the middle, but the colors are amazing. And the depth of the texture just knocks me out. I've had it for like 10 years. Picked it up at a bead show when I lived in New Hampshire. Loved it, but hadn't been brave enough to come up with a way to wear it. It was like when my mom gave me beads from her mother's necklace and wanted me to make something for her. What could I do to live up to that???!!
Then I found those beads up there. They're iolite which is a stone in the cordierite family. This group of minerals was named after French geologist Cordier. The name iolite comes from ios, the Greek word for violet. The color is more blue or navy than amethyst, a cooler shade of purple and reminds me a lot of tanzanite. Not as expensive as tanzanite though! I haven't worked with it much, but when I saw this string in person I immediately thought of the pendant.
The first thing I needed to do was make some medium-sized rings out of fine silver. With my fusing skills being less dusty than I thought, I set to work! I haven't made many jump rings recently, but it all came back to me as I made the ones I'd need for the rings. I won't go into the specifics, but you have to be very precise when you make these. With experience years ago and a lot of ruined rings, I learned to make them as perfect as I can - it's worth the extra time it takes!
Because I wanted the chain to be quite sturdy, I needed to wrap the bead links directly to the circles in the chain. I didn't want to use open jump rings because they aren't as strong as a fully closed ring. This meant I needed the chain done first. Here I am fusing the larger rings first and then linking them together with a smaller ring.
I apologize that the ambient light is a little bright. Next time I'll lower the window shade so the flame shows up better. It isn't invisible though so I'm not upset about it. Boy, my hot pliers are a sight, aren't they? Well, that's why I use them for this. No sense ruining perfectly good pliers.
After it came out of the tumbler it looked like this!
Next up, the clasp. For necklaces I like a large one that you can feel and handle well out of sight behind your neck. A swan clasp is beautiful and easy to use. This time I used 16 gauge sterling silver wire and gave it a little hammering for texture.
So far things were coming together really well and I felt pretty confident in how the piece would turn out. But how to deal with the pendant? I've never used silk cord before and as I took it off the cardboard it was sold on, I had to iron out the creases. Hilarious. Like most glass beads the hole is rather large and so I used a couple of my favorite little flat spacer beads to cover them somewhat and finish the pendant on the silk. But how to keep them in place? A couple of knots ought to do it. I ran the cord right through the pendant and tied a couple of loose knots near the spacer. Then I ran the other ends around the circles in the chain bringing them into each knot itself and adding a bit of glue as I worked the knot tighter and tighter.
After measuring out what I figured would be the right length to get me to about 14 inches more (keeping in mind how long the clasp is for the total length!!) I glued two flat sections together along a bit of their length and tied a knot in that. I didn't forget to run the silk through both the chain and the ring that would hold the hook and the the eye ring. Phew! With that in place the necklace was the standard 16 inches. Woo hoo! I'm always so worried when I make a necklace that I won't get the length right. So many little sections have to come together and I'm bad at math. I measure often!
I can hardly explain how organically this came together. I don't usually sketch beforehand. I have an idea and I just work it through, adjusting as I go. Is this how other artists work? I have no idea, but it was interesting to document my process. Not sure if I'll do it again, but maybe.
Well. Did you read the whole thing? Lol. I can't say that I'll do this all the time, but I did rather dig making the videos. I should get a better mike.
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