I made my pendant for my mother . My moms favorite color is orange so I chose a stone to reflect that. I chose the design as i felt like it was elegant and kind of organic like which reflects my moms love for nature and art. The most interesting thing was trying out all the various types of designs, I practiced on 6 or 7 stones and really tried to get a nice design before this one. I ended up also using my hands more than tools which I thought was interesting. The most challending part was getting the smaller stone to sit right. It kept falling out and I needed to also secure it well which was a struggle
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I made 3 sets of earrings, the ones on the left are my main pair. I wanted to incorporate a chain mail like style into the earrings as I feel like it fits my style with the silver, chain mail and green beads. I had some issues with the sizing of my rings, at first I chose too small of a gold jump ring to fit around the others to I took some larger ones. I then had issues getting the green bead on the jump ring but decided to have the ring just close around the bead instead of all the way though. I had issues working multiple rings at once as the pieces where stacked but I got a technique for it down after a bit. I love these earrings and all the ones I made and I will definitely be wearing them on the regular.
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For my metal pendant I decided to make an abstract dessert themed landscape. My pendant has 2 cacti, little holes representing stars and a cut out to represent the sun. I chose the gold colored metal sheet as I think it matches the light golden color of sand and the sun which are common themes in the dessert. I really liked working with metal as it looks very nice and professional at the end, especially after buffing. On the other hand it takes a very long time for post processing of the piece. I think I spent only 3-4 days designing and cutting while I spent almost 2 weeks filing, sanding and buffing. My biggest challenge was getting the thin strips of space around the cacti to get them filed and sanded, the file and the sandpaper would slide off but I learned that if I go slow and hold the objects in specific ways its not as much of an issue, as well as being ready to dedicate the time to do those parts carefully. I also struggled to sand the area around the holes down but I realized if I use just the tip of the paper and then go over it with longer strokes along the whole piece it cleans those areas up.
I think the most successful part of my project is the design, I like how its abstract but still recognizable and I love how the hole for the necklace fits in with all the other stars. I think I could have improved my sanding a little bit as by buffing did not clean the whole thing up perfectly. I also think some of the lines could have been a bit neater but I don't think its too bad as it makes it look more organic. |