So today I mailed off the throw quilts that I was commissioned to make, only to realize that I haven’t been working on any sort of crafty stuff since then. I mean, yeah, I cleaned off my jewelry bench and sorted through the various jewelry projects, but that was it. I haven’t really made anything since 4/13.

That simply wouldn’t do. So I marched out to the garage and got started on three pendants. The first one is the rutilated quartz cab I mentioned earlier—I decided to set that with some pretty gallery bezel wire and an open back so that light could come through the cab.

The second pendant is a wee slice of polished ammonite fossil much like the one pictured above that’s been sitting on the bench for quite a while. And while I managed to get the bezel and backing soldered together for that I had a stone bitch of a time attaching a jump ring for the bail. A lot of jewelers will put the setting upright in a third hand or reverse action soldering tweezers, add a dot of solder to the correct spot on the setting, then try to get it to melt while holding the jump ring in position so that the solder will connect it to the setting.

Yeah, ruined a good five jump rings trying that. Then I remembered that I used to do it by laying the backing flat on my ceramic heat block and butting the jump ring up against it with a chip of solder over the join. That worked a treat.

The third pendant is also a patiently waiting project where I sawed off the handle tip of an ornate solid sterling spoon in order to turn it into a pendant set with tiny peridot cabs. Making the super tiny bezels was an adventure and a half but I managed to get those fabricated as well. By the end of the night I had three pendant findings put together, tumbled, and ready for setting and polishing. Not bad if I do say so myself.