Sunday, March 25, 2012

Anatomy of a Commissioned Piece

My best friend's boyfriend wanted a pendant for her upcoming birthday, and wanted something different. Her given names translate to the words 'pearl' and 'dove', so he wanted something encompassing both. First we started with a couple of sketch ideas. 


We decided on this last sketch. Since it was super basic and he seemed a little iffy on the idea, I created a more detailed larger sketch, below.
 There was also the idea to carve their names into the feather without it seeming too obvious unless pointed out. On the left 'RICH' on the right 'TOBY'


 Since this piece would be a casting, it first gets carved out of wax
 This is what it looks like immediately after casting.
After casting I soldered a little post into the 'cupped' part of the feather for the half drilled pearl to be glued (sigh) onto. It's really the only way to set pearls. Traditional bezel settings can easily break the pearl in the process. So, even though I hate gluing things, it had to be done. Antiqued, polished and then set the black pearl. Threaded onto a snake chain. And voila, finished product!  Pretty awesome, eh?

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