Building an Ammonite Focal Tutorial

Like the Acorn Bead I shared last couple of weeks ago,
 I've never made this kind of 2 sided Focal before either.

Here's a step by step of how I made all the pieces and put them together and the finished piece.

Create 2 identical round pieces with whatever texture you would like,

Ammonite is one of my favorite so of course that's what I chose.

I made these 3 cards thick.

I made 2 strips the approximate width I wanted to separate the 2 pieces,

they are 4 cards thick and I dried them on the next size smaller circle cutter.

I tested them out and cut one in to a smaller piece

 to allow for fairly substantial stringing material to be able to fit through if that's what I choose to use.

More testing, next step, filing things down so they have a nice snug fit

before I attach it all together to make a single piece.

Moisten both inside surfaces of the rounds and the edges of the connecting pieces,

put together and put pressure on them to give them a chance to bond.

Fill in any gaps with paste...

Continue to use a clay shaper and watered down copper clay to fill and smooth until all the spaces or gaps are filled and nice and smooth.

Almost ready for the kiln!

I placed it in the container on end with the holes on the bottom so it won't fill up with carbon and put the other pieces I'm firing with it around it and cover it up 1 layer at a time.

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy