Silver and Glass Pendants

Hello there :) Today I'll be writing about silver pendants with glass set into the silver. These were made using the skills I've acquired from the silver class I attended down in Fife. 

When I got back from the silver class I made it my mission to order dichroic glass so I could make more of these amazing pendants.  

 Working with silver is the best part of making jewellery, I sat at my workspace and began to roll out the silver clay. Once I got the clay to the thickness needed I then transferred a pattern onto it, and once the pattern had successfully been added I cut the clay in half. 

On the first part of the clay the glass was placed in the centre, with the second part I cut out the circle

The silver before it is kiln fired

because the two bits of clay have to be sandwiched together with the glass in the middle. Before joining the clay together I added moisture to the silver so that it could bond together. 

After all this was done I had to wait for the clay to dry, this is the part were I become impatient, usually I'd wait a day or two for it to dry but this time I decided to put it into the oven. That was a good idea! No it really was because instead of waiting all that time the silver was dry within thirty minutes... yay! 

After the oven had dried the clay I let it cool down; even in its organic form precious clay is still very hot. Five minutes of cooling I then sanded away the rough edges and fill any gaps that

After being kiln fired and polished

may have occurred during the drying process. When all the sanding was done I then started on the bail for the pendant.

 I could have just drilled a hole in the top of the pendant but I really didn't want to do that and attaching a bail to the back would keep the pendant elegant in design. That and I just learnt how to make a professional bail so why not use that skill!  Waiting for the bail to dry naturally didn't take long, I let it air dry because the silver was wrapped around a

The bails that I learnt to make in
the silversmith class

plastic straw so it could retain its shape; therefore it couldn't go into the oven. So when the bail had dried I then bonded it to the pendant, waited for that to dry, then sanded all the rough edges away. 

Kiln day! Yay for this day! Every person who has worked with silver loves this part of jewellery working because this is the part were your silver is in the final stage. When the silver was done being fired I opened the kiln door and couldn't wait to brush off the frosty white top coat and reveal that beautiful silver. I'm sure I was a pirate in a past life my love of silver and jewels knows no bounds!  

I really enjoyed myself  when making these beautiful pedants, a lot of time, hard work, patience and money went in to making these. I will put these up on my Etsy page in the future but just now they will be tucked away until I get some sake chains to finish them off.

I plan to make more silver pendants in the future but just now it will just be maybe two or three pendants a month. If you wish to see more of my jewellery (even the stuff I haven't put in my blog) you can click on the links below :)  

Facbook Frost Raven Jewellery

Twitter Frost Raven Jewellery

Frost Raven Jewellery Pinterest page

Frost Raven Jewellery Etsy page

Hope you enjoyed reading this and Keep It Spooky Children Of The Night!