Wednesday 17 March 2010

Silver and felt necklaces... the sequel!

In Autumn 2008 I started developing some ideas for a series of sterling silver and embellished felt necklaces during my jewellerymaking evening class.  I wrote about the first prototype here, but never got around to finishing the other pieces I started.  In fact, I confess that I all but forgot about my selection of silver pendant bases that I had made that were hiding in my metalsmithing workbox.

Well, they finally made it to the top of my projects list again, (I have to admit that actually I've been a bit scared to finish them, as working with silver always seems terribly serious!) and I have made two more prototypes:  'Quezacotl' and 'Materia'  (if anyone can make the Otaku link to those names then I'll sort you out with a special prize :P).

I sawed sheet silver into a tag shape, filed the corners to gently round them, and then added a matte brushed texture and an asymmetrical hammer texture pattern.  Then I made the bezel settings from tiny strips of thinner silver sheet and soldered them onto the base tag.  The pieces of felt are made with silk hankie fibre, and embellished with tiny glass beads and hand embroidery stitches.

'Quezacotl'
I'm still not totally sure about jewellery photos featuring live models, but I wasn't sure how else to best show the necklace's scale...

And here's 'Materia':


12 comments:

Clasheen said...

Gorgeous, especially the green one!

PS A tip a professional photographer gave me is to have your model wear the necklace back to front (hanging down their back)and stand with their arms bent back at the elbows. This creates a beautiful line down the spine and you can take GREAT shots that way.

Unknown said...

Lovely work on those.

Chris Gray said...

They're simply beautiful Kate!

Jude said...

Wonderful - Hope you don't mind i included a shot in a blog post (linked to flickr).

be well, Jude X

Anonymous said...

These are stunning. The silver sets off the felting beautifully.

Kate said...

Thank you, everyone :D

and Nicola, thanks for the great tip - I shall try it (although I'll need to enlist an extra pair of hands for the photography this time :D)

and Jude, thank you so much for the inclusion - I am loving following your blog :)

Kate x

Karen said...

These are absolutely wonderful Kate - I just love them. No idea if I'm right or not but I think the link is to do with PSP the Final Fantasy VIII????????

Kate said...

Wow, Karen, I'm impressed - that's very close indeed!! (don't tell me you're a secret computer gamer? :P) 'Materia' is the name of magic in Final Fantasy VII, and 'Quezacotl' is the name of a magic beast in Final Fantasy VII :D (yes, one of my other hobbies is playing Japanese RPG games!)

Karen said...

Hi Kate - no sorry; definitely not a secret computer gamer - just a whizz on Google!!!! lol

Kate said...

heehee~!

ginny said...

beautiful necklace and beautiful blog!

Kate said...

Thank you, Ginny :)

Kate x