Well, I have been busy making some very special cabochons for several weeks. I use some aventurine that Debbie and I mined in North Carolina and some Lapis Lazuli from Kandahar, Afghanistan courtesy of a Navy pilot. I worked the aventurine up into a rectangular cab, then wrapped it with 18 gauge Sterling Silver square half hard wire. Sized the resulting ring for me, and I am keeping it. (clicking on the thumbnail takes you to a full size image):
The lapis is a denim color, after cutting the edges from around the preform for the cab (40 x 30 mm), I decided to use the cut off pieces to make ear rings that would match the pendant. Tried for the first time using dead soft round wire to wrap the cab. Only difference was that I used nickle wire 20 gauge, silvery color, but when trying something new, much less expensive than silver. I found that wrapping the bindings was much more difficult than I expected. Binding with half round on square is much easier to maintain tight wraps. Of course I mad a mistake and identified the wire incorrectly in my photo.
Next project will be using some emerald (North Carolina variety) to make cabochons to make necklace, ring and ear rings as a set. Also working on a set of cabochons from some material sent to me by Jazzy (Artisan from California). Will keep y’all informed as things progress.
{ 1 comment }
