In the race to Christmas, I either have photos of beginning a piece, or sections of videos along the way but nothing complete except this beautiful piece, I had the privilege to make.
It all started with a few rings with different colour and size gemstones. A couple of lovely large stones, a citrine and a synthetic ruby as well as 4 smaller amethysts and 4 diamonds of differing sizes. After sketching out several quick designs the client decided on one of the designs to be further sketched out which I did on Procreate (see below)
Once the green light was given, the fun begins!
As per usual, I roll out the 9ct yellow gold to several different widths and thicknesses for all the different components that go into this piece.
I anneal and bend up the various settings, soldering them together individually with hard grade solder to ensure a good clean, strong join.
Once I have sized them, straightened the settings and cleaned them up, I then put the small oval settings aside and begin the process of creating the claw settings for both the citrine and the synthetic ruby.
I love the cut of the synthetic ruby. Called a checkerboard pattern this is one really pretty cut! Check out the photos below.
Once the claw settings are made, I then make the diamond settings.
Clean up is next. No process photos of this as it is quite a dirty process going through the different grades of files and emery paper and eventually taking them all down to a 2000 grit emery finish which is basically a polishing paper.
This is to get the nice flat sides and sharp angles that are so appealing to handmade pieces.
Once they are polished, I solder the settings together in their different formats, make up the triangular rod between the citrine and synthetic ruby and solder these together.
Having ordered the chain earlier, I then measure out the distance needed between the stones and start the delicate task of soldering a super fine chain to a larger, thicker piece of metal. This is done very carefully as the chain will melt if too much heat is applied near it.
After this is all done, into the acid to clean up any oxidation that occurred and back to cleaning and polishing it back up, especially in those hard to reach places!
The chain all soldered together with the settings, after the acid and before the clean up, the amethyst settings set into thermoloc, a thermoplastic designed to hold work while setting the stones.
The checkerboard cut and the claws under the microscope, the piece before the citrine is set, all the stones are set!
First I set the amethysts, then diamonds, then move onto the synthetic ruby, then finally the large centre citrine. When I learned setting, I discovered such a love of setting. It's an exhilarating job as you work your way around the piece methodically and see the piece finally come to life.
The finished pendant!!
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