Saturday Share...The Hidden Truth

I recently was viewing a gorgeous coiled wire fibula on Pinterest and clicked through to see it more closely...not to study it and copy the design, but just to get some idea of the construction of the pin mechanism.  Alas, there were no photos of the back side :(  Likewise, I am drawn to a couple of talented enamel jewelry artists work and can never see the back of those sweet blossom earrings to figure out how the headpin is connected...you know what I mean?  I know that sometimes jewelry designers don't want to give away too much of the construction aspect of their work, especially if they use some signature, or secret technique that other designers would love to figure out.

Last month during our Component of the Month Challenge, Jenny Davies-Reazor created some amazing polymer clay components with vintage dictionary words embedded under resin.  I was amazed at the diverse, unique and plain old gorgeous designs that were produced from these.  I mean, they were so pretty, you could just hang them from a chain and call it a day, but, I think all the participants found that they were a bit of a challenge to design around, due to their construction.  Here are many of those creations on our Pinterest board for you to gawk at and drool over.

Here's mine...dream!

The biggest challenge I had was the fact that my component had 4 connector holes, which would be great if it was going to be a bracelet, but I really wanted a necklace for myself, so I set about trying to solve the 4 hole road block.

I am totally pleased with the outcome and have worn it almost every other day since its creation!  I described its construction on my COM blog post, and showed my beauty shots.  But...I didn't show the back.  The hidden secret of my piece.  Not sure why not.  I wasn't afraid of anyone copying the design, I mean, it has been done by others, most likely much better than I!  I got several queries about the back and never responded, but after the above-mentioned fibula back disappointment, I thought I would post this today.

See?  Nothing really earth shattering in the actual construction...copper wire, annealed to be flexible, curved into halves until a desired loop was made.  No real measurements were taken, I just laid the wire down on top and used my flat nose pliers to bend the corners... The hard part was figuring out how much to leave at the top to get a generous swirly thing and still he able to ball the ends in the flame a bit.  The head pin rivets were a stroke of genius on my part (she said, rolling her eyes).  I used 22 g wire, a bit big for wrapping like this, but wanted it to be sturdy.  I was a bit overzealous, unfortunately, as in really tugging the wire to tighten it, I pulled through the fragile hole Jenny had so meticulously drilled.  I cried and thought all was lost.  Luckily, the head pin stayed in place since there was a tiny grip of clay still around it, and the piece of the poor corner didn't fly off into oblivion, so I used my trusty E6000, and it has held so far!

The mended corner...you can see the extra glue that I should have tried to remove, but I was scared it would break again!

So, there you have it! My hidden truth!  Do you have any hidden truths you would like to share?  

Melissa Meman

Melismatic Art Jewelry

Art. Life. Love