Sue, A longtime patron of our jewelry, brought me a Thomsonite brooch that had been in her collection for many years. She wondered if I could convert it to a pendant.
This was, arguably, the finest North Shore Thomsonite I’d ever seen. I thought I could just cut off the clip, wrap it with a prong set, and be done with it. The more I looked at the vintage brooch, the more I thought it demanded a rework by a goldsmith rather than a wire wrap by me. Sure, I could have wrapped it; took her money and ran; but I felt the character of the historic piece deserved a stately simple solution.
Fate showed itself at our next Rock Club meeting, when I won the door prize; a custom made pendant by one of the club’s master silversmith’s Ken Schug. I told Ken that I probably did not need one of his pendants (we laughed together over my win), but told him I had a project for him. He agreed to a pin removal from the brooch. I no longer have the delicate tools needed for this removal. Although I am a trained Silversmith myself, I gave it up for wire wrapping and sold my Silversmith tools years ago.
Let me talk about what I found out about the brooch. First it was 18kt gold and custom made. Unbelievably meticulous effort was used by the master Goldsmith that produced it (probably in the 60’s), used small grey seed pearls, that were prong set and glued surrounding the oval Thomsonite cabochon. Because of the pearls, we could not use a torch for soldering the piece. A Laser for soldering was required, as lasers produce little or no heat.
Rear view.
After Ken removed the pin and associated brackets from the brooch, I went to Korner Gem in Traverse City. Korner Gem is owned by my pal Kevin Gauthier. We refer customers to each other regularly. I traded the gold left over, for a new bail; soldered to the former Brooch Mike (one of the Goldsmiths’ at Korner Gem), soldered a bail on, using his laser. I payed for the time taken, and some laser time, but the price was much less than if I had not had a this trade of gold.
I took the pendant with me the next time I went to the Upper Peninsula, and Sue came and picked it up when I was doing jewelry demonstrations at Copper World in Calumet. She was very pleased.
The pendant turned out fantastic, and you could not tell that this was a conversion. I enjoy the camaraderie of jewelry making networks, rock club buddies, and appreciate skillful work from others. My customer was delighted, and even though I was only the director of this work, I too was very pleased. Because of good fortune, and having skillful friends, I was able to provide Sue with something new from her something old.
You can see Thomsonites that I have wire wrapped by clicking here.
