Goodness, the Hybrid Handmade House is a whirl of activity. Not only am I busy making Man Brooches for the Sup Brooch (see
here and
here for information), deadline 22nd November 2013, I am also preparing for a local Christmas Fayre in the next village next weekend AND my Family Tree necklace is being featured in Notonthehighstreet's Advent Calender on their blog (you can see the necklace
here). I'll post a link to the Advent Calendar when it is published.
In preparation for the Fayre, I've been adapting some of my Etsy pieces. This lovely etched, hydraulically formed shell necklace was given a bit of patination to bring out a bit more of the shell texture.
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Etched Shell Pendant from Les Petites Callioux collection, Cari-Jane Hakes |
These are really involved pieces to make so I don't make that many of them. First the silver has to be etched and then hydraulically pressed to give it volume and 'pebbleness'. It would of course be easier and much quicker to solder this to a flat back plate. For this pendant, I took the road less travelled and decided to give it a hydraulically formed back plate. Matching the two halves up and getting a good, clean solder join is very time consuming but needed to be done. I was determined to create a pendant that had the tactility and shape of a pebble and so a curved, hydraulically formed back plate was essential.
I've lengthened the chain a little which makes it easier to hold the pendant in your hand and have added some little 'barnacles' to extend the language of the pebble up through the chain.
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Barnacle detail to the chain of the etched Shell Pendant, Cari-Jane Hakes |
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etching detail, Cari-Jane Hakes |
You can see more photographs of this piece in my Etsy shop
here.
Finally, Society 6, the lovely people who print and ship my still life photographs are offering free world wide shipping with this
link. How fabulous! Click
here to see more.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have big, wild, faceted man brooches to make!