Full of new year optimism, I decided to set myself a creative project for this year. As many jewellers do, I have a collection of beautiful gemstones, some of which I have had for years, and I decided this was the year I would start to use some of them. I chose 12 gemstones from my collection and hid them inside 12 little envelopes, to be opened on the first of each month. As luck would have it, both the January and February gemstones were amethyst! I'll be sharing some of the ideas and development as well as the finished pieces I make with the gemstones each month. I hope you'll enjoy following along as each design emerges.
For January I created a dragonfly pendant, which I loved making. I’m still finalising the February piece, (February being the short month that it is) so I’ll share that with you next time.
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12 small envelopes containing the gemstones
Sketchbook research into amethyst meanings and properties, wear amethyst to 'help make dreams come true'
Creating the setting for the stone and the forged silver bar for the dragonfly body
The setting has now been soldered onto the body, and I have created the wings from a sheet of silver, rolled with a leaf to create a wing-like pattern, and cut out by hand with a piercing saw
I've just got the final setting of the amethyst and then polishing to do to complete dragonfly pendant