Tag Archives: gem

This has been a busy week.  I’ve been juggling a bunch of different projects, trying to wrap some up, get ahead on others.  I’ve made some progress in my quest to figure out how to incorporate felting for a bonsai.  Unfortunately, the avenue I’m following at the moment is very labour intensive.

Years ago, an acquaintance at the Gem & Mineral Club of Scarborough named Frank Hoffman commented that if you’re going to go to the effort of making a piece of jewellery, you should make it out of karat gold.  His reasoning was that for the same labour you would be able to charge a much higher price, because of the perceived value of the gold.  For this felted bonsai, I’m starting to think he made a good point.

Anyways… I made a pair of earrings this week, which are being given away as a birthday present, but I didn’t want to post those.  So… here it is, Sunday night, and I need to post something.

About a year ago, a lady on CWJ, Nancy Van Tassell, was selling off some Swarovski gems.  I bought a bunch.  They’ve been sitting in my stash ever since.  Recently, when I was cleaning up my bench, I discovered them again.  So… with the clock ticking down, I decided to try my hand at a pendant.  Since the gem has a deep back, I had to figure out how to set it without ending up with the point sticking out too much.  I also didn’t want the pendant to look really heavy.  So, the solution was to make an openworked bezel.  It turned out okay, but I think it would have looked better in a thinner gauge of wire.

My eyesight is going…  *gloom*… and I’m tired… and the pendant took forever to make… but hey, at least I got a piece done.