Ancient sea lily for a special pesce

One of my last projects in 2010 was the creation of this necklace showcasing a crinoid fossil. The piece was a gift for a special friend, and it enabled me to practice a few more techniques that I just learned this year: Forming with sheet metal, utilizing riveted prongs to hold the piece to the metal, and soldering rings.

All of the silver is sterling, and the back plate of the pendant is brass, which picks up on the warm tones of the crinoid fossil and frames the piece.

The piece has a double bail that hangs from brown leather, with a hand forged clasp.

As you may see from the sketch, I decided to orient the fossil opposite of what I originally planned. That is part of the beauty of the creative process; being able to change and adapt as I move toward the final product.

A profile in creative challenges

This necklace was a special commission for a friend. She had the teardrop shaped stone (amethyst, I am pretty sure) that was mounted in a very simple four-prong gold frame for a necklace. This is a piece with sentimental value to her, as it was given to her by her grandmother. But she wanted something original done with it, since it was a very standard (read boring) setting for the stone.

I took the stone out of its setting and it sat on my bench in my studio for a while (ok, a long while) as I worked on other things. Then one day as I was glancing at it, it occurred to me that the stone has a face profile carved into the side of it.

I thought that the Net Bezel Pendant design from Eni Oken (www.enioken.com) would be the best way to work with the piece. I had already done one piece with this design and really liked the results. The only thing was that I did not want to cover the profile of the stone with the wire netting. So I really had to think about how I would resolve that design issue.

I finally decided that I would wrap the netting wire around the wire of row that sits flush with the edge of the pendant on the profile edge. This would serve two purposes: Make the transition to the next row and also create an asymmetrical effect that would help to draw attention to the profile. Then when I finished the pendant, I reinforced the asymmetrical nature further by coiling the bail detail at different levels. It also makes the setting more secure.

I consulted with my friend and she decided that she wanted a long (24”) necklace out of doubled sterling chain. This really accentuates the nice vintage look of the wire pendant work.

This project is a great example of how design challenges are great opportunities for design innovation.