Something a little different...
Sometimes you get the urge to just make something, something different that will remain unique. When it comes to using natural crystals, there will only be one of that size, shape, type etc.
With today's wide ranging tastes often people are a little weary of a generic stone in a generic setting, an odd, different looking creation would most probably create a reaction, even if the knee jerk is a little negative it may register with the onlooker setting the seed that non convention is ok!
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So I find myself with some part tanzanite crystals, don't sigh, we know it's over sold and often heat treated but it's a popular colour.
The nicest piece is a triangular shape with colour zoned towards the bottom (well what shall be the bottom), sometimes finding the correct orientation can take a while, always worth having a 2nd opinion if you've any uncertainty.
I could've have surrounded the stone with silver and secured it within but I think this particular design makes the crystal appear part of the overall structure whilst hinting at it being a little fragile.
As you can see I cut a length of 3mm silver wire marking the positions where I was going to fix the silver clasps and the top jump ring.
I took two pre soldered 8mm thick jumprings and with parallel pliers reshaped them to ovals.
Instead of cutting recesses into the silver wire I decided to place the wire through the rings and solder into position at a slightly outward angle, the jumpring bail I attached at the same time. I had decided on just one jump ring to avoid making the length of wire appear longer and out of proportion to the overall piece.
It was just a case of polishing the frame now, recently I had been exploring a 'yellow' platinum polish for my silver and it does seem to be a tiny bit brighter than my normal rouge.
Fixing the stone was fairly straight forward a little pressure to open the ovals they evenly bend them into place to secure the tanzanite.
By Steve Breeson
