New TOOLS! New GEMSTONES! New DESIGNS!!

So, what have I been doing for the past few months??  Well, I've purchased a few new and totally cool tools. I went on a gemstone buying trip and bought some amazing stones.  I've been experimenting with my new tools and gemstones to create a few new designs. 

This is a sneak peek at my latest design. 

This design was created with nearly 140 carats of amazingly beautiful rhodolite garnets and a gorgeous fine silver "love letter" pendant. 

The pendant was created by passing a piece of fine silver sheet through my rolling mill with a section of a low-relief paper pattern.  The rolling mill compresses the pattern onto the fine silver, destroying the original paper pattern in the process.  The pendant is then shaped, drilled, filed, buffed, polished and work-hardened* in my rotary tumbler for about 10 hours.

*Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver and is a very soft metal that must be properly work-hardened to make the metal more durable and less prone to bending and warping.