New Work- incorporating GOLD!

 See the process below!

It started as a sketch.. i purchased this amazing Canadian ammolite from one of my favorite Etsy sellers (devali) after he sent me a pic and asked if i was interested (it's nice to have that kind of rapport with folks that i buy from on a somewhat regular basis!) 

well.. truth be told, it was even more amazing in person than the picture he sent, and i was sort of in love with it from the picture, so i knew it had to be made into something special... 

here's the sketch- i tried not to think about it too much- just trust the artistic gut and go with it. (i sketched out several more designs after this one, but i kept coming back to this one because 1- the simplicity lets the ammolite be the star and 2- it just felt right.)

Here's the stone laid out on the back-plate with the bezel on the main stone and the tube settings laid out. I was playing with the arrangement of the cups to see which way was more balanced. 

  

Here's the layout with the bail (sporting it's 14kt gold 6mm tapered tube bezel!) and the 2 pieces of 14kt gold 18 gauge wire, prior to balling the ends. 

 Here it is all soldered together. the gold balls and wires are all well attached and it just needed a long soak in the pickle to get the crud out of those tube bezels. I thought i was going to mirror finish the piece, but i really dig the satin finish on the bail as i was cleaning it up, so i decided to reevaluate once it's cleaned up to see which way to go.

Out of the pickle

 With the accent stones set and a satin finish on the piece...  then into the tumbler to work harden (as if i hadn't done that enough already with the hand finishing!!!!) and clean up any small scratches from setting

out of the tumbler and the main stone was set! Ta-da!