Pendants are my specialty–I have made over a thousand and lost count along the way. I can make a good quality pendant in an hour or two if I am not interrupted. When I am doing a demo of wire wrapping, customers often ask “How long does it take you to make a pendant?”. I try to field this type of question with care. Is someone fishing to see how fast they can make a pendant? Or are they just showing real interest?
Generally these curious people never think of the time I have in finding the stone, cutting and polishing it, and then finishing up the piece of jewelry. This is a question that cannot easily be answered and I usually explain this to a customer. What used to take me four hours, might take one hour now that I am more proficient both in skills and tools.
When I get down to the actual wire wrapping I can get it done in a very proficient manner.
What, you may ask, can Don make in 8-10 hours? I’ve been sitting on a project that I just have not had the time to do. Fortunately and unfortunately I have been laid up recovering from a knee replacement. This has given me the opportunity to tackle these challenging projects.
A great stone is always the start for my jewelry. I bought the finest matched pieces of Azurite-Malachite I’ve ever seen at the Tucson Gem Shows last February. I could envision the finished pendant the minute I saw the stones.
After my successful operation I decided to jump in and challenge myself.
I first laid out the pendant. I would make this as four separate components. Any time I do a multi-stone pendant, it requires a lot of thinking ahead, about how the various parts will mesh together, as well as what stones to use.
The dark blue azurite perfectly matches the coloration of London Blue Topaz, and the pendant needed something at the bottom to “anchor” the design. I decided on a 16X12 mm, 12 ct gemstone. Pinks and shades of lighter blue also fit into the color palette. I decided to run a strip of 5mm facetted stones down the center between the two mirror Azurite-Malachite cabs. After some experimentation I decided on Pink Tourmaline, Apatite, and London Blue for the 2.5 caret facetted stones. I roughly laid out all the components.
Pendant components laid out
Now the real work began. I had to think on how to to best combine all the components, so I had to slow down and really decide how things should go together.
The pendant progresses.
Now let’s push on the the finish while fighting the tiredness the pain medication is causing. I just love a challenge. Fortunately the plan came together. The finished pendant is named “Lasting Romance”. I think that just about sums up one of the most beautiful pendants I’ve ever created.
Lasting Romance--the finished pendant.
WOW!