Rosette Collar

This is one of the new pieces I just finished for my upcoming show at mesa art center.  

Rosette Collar

silver plated copper, sterling silver, fine silver, freshwater pearls, antique chandelier crystals

I outlined most of the process of making this piece below-with pictures!

 I had the parts waterjet cut from copper sheet metal.  To give you a sense of scale, the copper piece below is 36"x36".  The parts for this necklace are towards the bottom-they look like flowers but have little tabs sticking out all around the petals.  I had several other pieces cut for other projects as well.  Normally I do all my piercing by hand, but I ran out of time and had things I wanted to get done for the show and this saved a TON of time. 

 These are the parts once cut.  The waterjet cutting also makes finishing super easy because they are cut perfect-no need for filing, just a little bit of sanding!

As you can see, the longer tabs on these are bent around the back and soldered, to form links for the jumprings to join each piece. 

 

 Here they are all set up for soldering.

This is after they have been soldered, connected with jumprings, and the jumprings soldered closed.

After that I took it to a silverplating company and had a really thick plating put on the whole chain.

This is after the patina was put on, and the crystals were set.  I just used a wood dowel and a bezel pusher to push the prongs over the edge of the crystal and into place.

 

And this is the finished piece.  I forgot to take pictures while I was adding the pearls.  They are just attached with a fine silver pin, balled on both sides of the crystal.

I really want to keep this one!