Friday 11 May 2018

A present for a friend

I am now at that age where my friends are turning 40.  Yes, I'm 40, good guess!  It was my oldest friend's 40th last weekend, 2 weeks before the event I suddenly realised I needed to buy her a present.  She's not an easy person to buy for... I decided something handmade would be more suitable.


I'd been thinking about an idea of making a pendent using 3 different size circles.  I cut them out of 1mm thick sterling silver sheet using a circle punch.  The mid-sized circle was left blank.  The larger and smaller circles were texturised before punching them out.


The smallest circle is patterned using a centre punch and hammer to make tiny indentations.  The largest circle was rolled through the rolling mill with a skeleton leaf.  I adore this pattern and have it in mind for some future makes.  As the pieces had burrs after punching, I had to file and sand to clean them up.  The smallest circle got a stick soldered to the reverse and the larger two had holes punched through.


This "stick" (a piece of 0.8mm round wire) was inserted through the other 2 circles, then I just used the round nosed pliers to make a bail before filing and sanding the edge.


It was really hard to take photos as I had put it in the barrel polisher, meaning it's very shiny!  I've just put it on a bought trace chain, also in sterling silver.  

This was a pretty quick make.  When I told my tutor my plans, she said I could get it done in half a session.  It actually took me a session and a half, but I work really slowly and do rather a lot of talking and eating!

Oh, and yes, the friend liked it!

20 comments:

Christine B said...

It's beautiful Wendy! What a lovely gift for a lucky friend! Christine x

Isabel para ALROMASAR said...

You have left a beautiful pendant that surely your friend has loved!.
Hugs from Seville.

Christine said...

That is gorgeous!

Rachel said...

That's a great success - well done!

Ellie Foster said...

Dear Wendy
That's a really beautiful and thoughtful gift - no wonder your friend liked it!
Best wishes
Ellie

Karen S said...

This is a beautiful. Your friend is very lucky!

Pamela said...

This is a fabulous gift! Your friend will love it.

Sandy said...

LOVE it. I love how the texture of the large one stands out against the smooth and shinny. Very pretty, certainly can see why she liked it. Before reading that your texture of the larger circle was to do with a leaf, it made me think of trees. I love trees and find them interesting.

Sandy's Space

elizabethdee said...

Your pendant is gorgeous!! And your friend is very lucky. Hope to see more of your silversmithing.

Bethany said...

Oh wow! I love the different textures on each disc.

Fiona said...

that really is a very lovely gift...

Hugz

Jane said...

love the leaf texture! Can't beat a hand made gift, not surprised she loved it

Pudding et Biscotte said...

This is an adorable present! The different textures are very interesting - I love the skeleton leaf embossing in particular - and your lucky friend will wear a unique piece of jewellery. Wishing you a nice weekend! Sandrine

Anonymous said...

That is gorgeous. I love the shiny and textured contrasts and it works really well.

Anonymous said...

Wow Wendy what an amazing gift,you are very clever ,lucky friend xx

Miss Val's Creations said...

It came out beautiful! I am sure she will love it! The shinier the silver, the harder it is to photograph. Such a challenge.

FlashinScissors said...

Wow, that’s a gorgeous gift for your friend! Very lucky friend!
Hugs,
Barbara xx

Sandy said...

Making blog rounds so thought I'd pop back in. Hope you're doing well.

Sandy's Space

Sandy said...

Never noticed your disclaimer before. Not sure I understand, so perhaps you can enlighten me. You mean when people come to your blog and read and leave a comment, you send a note to them in their email instead of visiting their blog and leaving a blog comment? Or do you mean you write an email to them, but it appears as a comment on their blog? YEARS ago there was a big push about being no reply because it didn't give users blog traffic. As it was years ago, I wonder if that's changed?

I did a quick look and didn't see the area you mentioned about show my email. So for this one exercise and effort to understand will leave my email for you. sandycrochet@gmail.com.

Generally speaking, if I take the time to visit and leave comments multiple times and don't receive a reciprocal visit and comment, I remove that blog from my blog list; but am now wondering if it's because things have changed. Always good to learn new things. Several weeks ago I learned about subscribing via email from a fellow blogger. Thanks for your time.

pennydog said...

Ooh I really like that!