Once I had the 3D prints back from casting I was ready to start my final collection in the flesh.
I love being at the bench and its fun to try new and exciting shapes!
In this blog post I'll be showing you the making process of my Kinetic pearl pendant, with thanks to the William Dudley Trust for the funding to create my sunrise to sunset collection!
The first job is to clean up the castings, to do this I use large files and emery paper to attack the surface of the metal till it is flat and shining.
Next I polish each component indivudally to a high standard, and once the components are soldered together (or laser-welded!) they will need to be polished again to get that high shine we're all used to seeing.
Once soldered silver becomes very white as the fine silver rises to the surface, emery paper and polish removes this thin layer to get the usual silver colour back.
Yellow gold on the other hand gets a reddish tinge.
Once all the parts needed soldered are soldered I can move on to components that require movement and therefore laser-welding is more suitable.
Here I have welded the gold wire into the pendant so the bail has movement to swing the pendant. If I soldered this part in I would run the risk of the bail becoming soldered in place and unable to move.
Now the polishing and manufacturing is completed I can enamel the sunray sections.
I chose a nice light purple found in the inspiration photo and that also suited th pearl going inside the pendant.
Now the enamel has cured overight I can now add the finishing touches, the chain and the pearl slider that can move up and down like the rising sun, making this pendant kinetic.
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