Introduction: Large Flower Pendant/Brooch
More by the author:
About: I am actually an alien from the planet xbq79. I fell off of the spaceship and landed on earth when I was still in child form. I have been looking for my parents since. I really liked what I saw when I first di…
This was my first piece of jewelery ever made. It's approximately 4 inches in diameter in its curled state. It's a pendant and a brooch. Since I'm a really tiny individual, it makes a better pendant than a brooch. I'm not sure if anyone could pull this off as a brooch. It could work as a brooch for a Sailor Moon cosplay, but I digress. It is easier to do than it looks, but it takes a lot of work to do, especially with sawing.
This was made out of a 6x6 in copper and a 6x6 in brass sheet. I bought the brooch pins and the chain, chain circles, and hooks from a local jewelry supply store.
The process is almost the same as the process for the smaller pendant,https://www.instructables.com/id/Small-Flower-Pendant/.
Since this is significantly bigger, this was easier to make.
The very first step was drawing three actual-size flower designs on paper, cutting the paper as three square pieces with flower designs on them, then using wood glue or rubber cement to paste the biggest design on the metal sheet. It's best to do the biggest design first to understand how much space will be needed. With the 6x6, I couldn't have made all three tiers out of one material. Once the glue has dried, I used my jewelry saw to cut out the shape as accurately as possible. As a complete beginner, I of course messed up a little. I did a ridiculously good job overall I think because of the repetitiveness of it... So, if you want to get really good at sawing, this would be a great project to challenge yourself with.
There are some slight differences from the smaller pendant instructable and this one. For one thing, I obviously only used the straight stamp on the bottommost layer to create a leaf-like effect. Second thing, I borrowed those curved dentist pliers (contouring pliers, I believe) to curve each individual petal upwards. This pendant has a flat base unlike the smaller one because I manually lifted the leaves/petals. Here is an example of those pliers, anything similar could be used: http://surgical-instruments-supplies.medical-supplies-equipment-company.com/product/reynolds-contouring-plier-115_26741.html
Unlike the smaller pendant, the braided bezel is not flattened. I made the braided wire into a circular ring using a mandrel, and soldered the open loop to create a closed one.
I used a mechanical drill press to boar two parallel holes into all three places, making sure they're each perfectly aligned. That being said, the three pieces are held by two rivets, they're not soldered on. They would fall apart since there are 3 layers. The rivets are made from copper wire. One end of each wire was heated with a blowtorch until there was a little orb at the end. One orb part was spooled in from the back and the other from the front. Both orbs were then flattened with a hammer (so they look like nail heads). The non-orb parts were clipped enough to extend a little out of the jewelery, then they were hammered in.Both rivets are hidden under the 'stone,' but they can definitely be seen in the back. I'm sure my life could have been easier to buy rivets.
The only soldered parts are the twisted bezel, the pirate hook for the chain, and the brooch pin. I made the pirate hook out of the same kind of wire I used for the bezel. I used round pliers to make it into that pirate hook shape (C), and then filed the straight part (I) to make it flat enough to successfully solder.
This was made out of a 6x6 in copper and a 6x6 in brass sheet. I bought the brooch pins and the chain, chain circles, and hooks from a local jewelry supply store.
The process is almost the same as the process for the smaller pendant,https://www.instructables.com/id/Small-Flower-Pendant/.
Since this is significantly bigger, this was easier to make.
The very first step was drawing three actual-size flower designs on paper, cutting the paper as three square pieces with flower designs on them, then using wood glue or rubber cement to paste the biggest design on the metal sheet. It's best to do the biggest design first to understand how much space will be needed. With the 6x6, I couldn't have made all three tiers out of one material. Once the glue has dried, I used my jewelry saw to cut out the shape as accurately as possible. As a complete beginner, I of course messed up a little. I did a ridiculously good job overall I think because of the repetitiveness of it... So, if you want to get really good at sawing, this would be a great project to challenge yourself with.
There are some slight differences from the smaller pendant instructable and this one. For one thing, I obviously only used the straight stamp on the bottommost layer to create a leaf-like effect. Second thing, I borrowed those curved dentist pliers (contouring pliers, I believe) to curve each individual petal upwards. This pendant has a flat base unlike the smaller one because I manually lifted the leaves/petals. Here is an example of those pliers, anything similar could be used: http://surgical-instruments-supplies.medical-supplies-equipment-company.com/product/reynolds-contouring-plier-115_26741.html
Unlike the smaller pendant, the braided bezel is not flattened. I made the braided wire into a circular ring using a mandrel, and soldered the open loop to create a closed one.
I used a mechanical drill press to boar two parallel holes into all three places, making sure they're each perfectly aligned. That being said, the three pieces are held by two rivets, they're not soldered on. They would fall apart since there are 3 layers. The rivets are made from copper wire. One end of each wire was heated with a blowtorch until there was a little orb at the end. One orb part was spooled in from the back and the other from the front. Both orbs were then flattened with a hammer (so they look like nail heads). The non-orb parts were clipped enough to extend a little out of the jewelery, then they were hammered in.Both rivets are hidden under the 'stone,' but they can definitely be seen in the back. I'm sure my life could have been easier to buy rivets.
The only soldered parts are the twisted bezel, the pirate hook for the chain, and the brooch pin. I made the pirate hook out of the same kind of wire I used for the bezel. I used round pliers to make it into that pirate hook shape (C), and then filed the straight part (I) to make it flat enough to successfully solder.