some pendants, and cufflinks.

[Bionic Dingo]

Some more stuff I made this past term.

Sterling silver and synthetic ruby, hollowconstructed. The cufflinks are tube-set, and the pendant is gypsy-set. I gypsy set using a bit of a "cheater" method; if anyone on the board is interested in learning it let me know.



This one's sterling silver, pyrex, aquarium gravel and CZ's. it's a kimbrelite pipe pendant, 'cause I'm a dork like that.



and this last one's sterling silver and a bone tile I bought off of an australian goldsmith unloading some of his hoard. The reason I didn't touch up the tile is that it's well over a hundred years old, and I felt it would ruin it, somehow.

[Aunt Suzi]

Those are beautiful!  I'm in awe of your skill!

[gannon]

Nice!  I'd like to know your 'cheater' trick.

[Bongmistress]

Those are really nice, I LOVE the cufflinks 

[ViciousEdge]

I L-O-V-E the winged pendant. It is beautiful. Seriously, great job.

[ammasmama]

They're all wonderful, but i especially love the pendant. and i'm glad you didn't want to hurt it, i would've felt the same! (not that i can do that in the 1st place!)

[Bionic Dingo]

thanks, all! The bone tile pendant is actually one of my favourites, too. I wear it all the time.

Gannon: (I'm assuming a certain level of familiarity with gem setting when I explain, if you need me to go into more detail please let me know. Also, this technique involves a Foredom Flexshaft. I don't think a dremel is sensitive enough, but if anyone wants to give it a go I'd be interested in seeing if it works.)

Start with a seating burr, cutting a seat for your stone that's about .2mm smaller than the stone. cut until you have a bit of a vertical wall in the seat, enough so that it's slightly higher than the girdle of the stone. Cut as level as possible. clean the oil and junk out of your seat, then switch to a hart burr that's slightly smaller than the seating burr. At the point where the vertical wall meets the angled section of the seat, you want to do a slight undercut, about 1/3 of the way around the circumfrance of the seat. When I say slight, I mean about .2 mm, very tiny. The undercut needs to be level with the area where the vertical wall meets the seat around the remaining 2/3 of the seat. (the not-undercut part)

To put the stone in, slip it into the undercut side, and it should fit snugly into the seat with a little pressure. (I've used a gentle whack with the ball-end of a chasing hammer to seat, when I know the stone's not too fragile and the metal's relatively soft.)

Switch to your point burnisher, and put it into the chuck of your foredom. If you look closely at your stone, you should see a small amount of vertical wall sticking up past the girdle of your stone. You want to burnish the area about halfway between the top of the wall and the girdle of the stone. With your foredom at a very low speed, and with very gentle pressure, work your way around the setting. Start exactly opposite the undercut area of the seat.

After you're done going around the setting in this manner a couple of times, you can use the point burnisher to work the metal around the setting, if you'd like. Also, this probably won't work for you first time out, I had to do about 20 before I got the hang of it. But it's well worth mastering it, as it's easier to work with than the traditional method. Not to mention less metal cleanup.

Once again, feel free to let me know if they'res anything I wasn't too clear about.

[hello color!]

Whoosh - over my head! I actually probably like the first set the best. Atomic! Sci-fi! Aaand we're off! But, what will you do with the cuff links? Will you wear it yourself? You'll have to modify all the shirts to make them cufflink shirts! 

[ninjanator]

I ADORE all of them! I don't even know which one to pick as my favorite you get a this rocks for sure

[Bionic Dingo]

The cufflinks I mostly made just for shits and giggles. I can't wear 'em, and no one I know wants to, so I'll just hold onto them until I find a buyer or something. The pendant I made bacause I loved the cufflinks so much but coulden't wear them. I wear the hell out of that pendant.

I am a HUGE sci-fi nerd.