Monday, August 29, 2011

Lemons to lemonaide

I've been taking metal jewelry classes off and on for two years now. The first pair of earrings I made were nice but boy, were they heavy.(This was back when silver was less then half the price of what it costs now)  They are made of sterling silver with copper and brass bits soldered on top. After years of working in polymer clay my design  didn't account for the weight of all that metal. If you wore these earrings continuously, your ear lobes would be down to your shoulders. So, I stuck them in a box, (like so many unfinished or unsuccessful projects), and didn't think about them much until recently.
I decided to solder the tops together and make a pendant out of them. With the texture and reticulation, it might not solder well, but the planets must have been aligned correctly because the soldering took hold on the first try.



You can see they are now one piece. I should have photographed them as earrings, but you can kind get the idea.



You can see the patina brings out the texture and provides a bit more contrast. This is much better, and I will actually wear it now.



Here is a view from the back where you can see the small holes where they were once individual earrings. Notice the holes are not centered. Their placement balances the weight so they hang evenly.


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