fish-pond-pendant

Firstly, the design is not mine, but used with permission from Gary Drostle. He is an amazing artist and you can check out his work at http://www.drostle.com
Here is a link to the actual mosaic he did.
My version used somewhat different techniques and materials and is a bit smaller.

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The center stone was part of a experimental gem set technique that I was messing with.
So it was just fortuitous that it came out successfully and that I had it in stock.
After I had cut the emerald, I drilled it out so that a one pointer diamond would fit in.
The emeralds is about 3 mm and the diamond about 1 mm in diameter.

Then I laminated it into the emerald using Hxtal resin.
I used a needle under a microscope so that the resin just wet around the diamonds girdle.

Then I set the emerald into an 18 ct gold tube.

Then I cut an amethyst into a brilliant cut and drilled a cup shape where the gold tube fitted in using diamond burrs and water as a lubricant.
I use a wooden dowel stick that is mounted on a hanging motor mandrel with 1200 grit then 50,000 grit to polish the cup.
I drill and polish the cup before I finish the table of the stone so that there are no chips left from the diamond burr.
I sell a gem carving tutorial here.

This tube was made to fit quite tight and then wet with resin and left for five days to harden.
Thing is with this resin, you have to be very careful because when it is hard, there is no ways one can remove the inset stones without breaking the parent stone.
Once it had hardened, the amethyst was set into a gold tube as well.

Now to the actual pendant.
The first thing to do is to make a cup in silver for the' pond'.
I did not want to work with IT solder because I knew there were going to be multiple firings at temperatures exceeding 500C so I decided to form the cup using a forming blank that I turned on my lathe.

Actually, I made two formers.
Here is the 1.2 mm thick silver plate, the rough first blank and the rear part.
I just used some scrap steel and brass for the cup formers.

Then I fit it into my vice and start tapping and bending the silver over the iron front.
So the brass ring holds the back flat.

I tap it forward until about here and then anneal it.

Because the brass ring holds the back of the pond, it remains nice and flat.
Also, it prevents the vice jaws from marring the silver.

And eventually it forms very nicely over the die.
Also, at the time I thought I was going to enamel the floor of the pond directly to the bottom, but that proved to be inefficient, because there is no guarantee that the vitreous enamel paint comes out good.
And after the third failure, the enamel and painting was shifted to a separate copper plate.

So I made another slightly smaller die and when the cup was formed over it, it would fit snugly into the first cup.
So basically, a copper cup that fits into the outer silver cup.

It was just a matter of getting the thickness of the copper correct.

This cup now was an easy way that I could make blank 'canvasses' for enameling the floor of the pond on.
So the many failures that came after were not events that caused unseemly language in my workshop.

The Surround Bricks.
All the copper and silver work was done like this. Firstly I solder strips of various sizes together. Then the pairs are soldered together in turn.

Then I roll the 'plate' a bit to flatten everything.
I made a few of these and they formed my 'stock' material.
Then I cut the various strips and formed them into the different circles that were needed.

For instance, the outside 'paving' was made from vertical strips and then bent round into a ring so that is fitted nicely and then soldered.
The possibilities of this type of mixing of colored metals are endless, and were I to have a laser welder, I would also include some more exotic metals like titanium and niobium.

The back, because of the manner in which it was formed, has no solder seams.

The next ( middle) ring is just made of silver that I have made notches in and the blackened with Liver of Sulfur
The inner ring is filed shallower so as to create a step into the pond.
Then the glass goes in. And the middle and inner ring lie on the glass that is fitted on top of the enamel painting. Make perfect sense so far, right?

I decided that laying glass on top of the enamel would give it a more 3D look and depth.
So I cut some glass the right shape and drilled a 10 mm hole in it.
If you ever need thin glass, a good source is a picture frame.
They generally use 1.5 mm glass and it's dirt cheap.

One of my major hassles in life it to transfer a design onto metal.
I have done transfer paper, decals, carbon paper, printed paper to name a few.
I finally worked out a fool proof method.
Print your design in reverse out on a laser printer on a piece of tracing paper.
Put your design on a piece of pre sanded metal face first and use an earbud that is whetted with acetone or lacquer thinners and lightly wet the back of the tracing paper.
The acetone causes the toner of the printer to liquefy and thus it adheres to the metal when you remove the tracing paper.
Viola! the design is transferred.

I use a 0.7 mm thick piece of 18 ct gold and then I pierce the fish out using a No 8/0 blade and file them round and finish the sides off.

Here is a picture of the fish lying on top of the un drilled glass.
I am working on the fish positioning and shadow fall.

I made many attempts at a reasonable background, these are the ones I bothered making a photo of. The others were too wrecked to photograph.

One background that came out quite nice for what it's worth, was this one.
But it didn't show the shadows of the fish at all.
Still, I quite liked the effect, because it looks like a tile mosaic.
First I engraved the line in, then fired with black.
Then all the little squares are packed quite high and fired just ---- so.
Just before gloss over occurs, to give a tile rough/matte effect.

This one on the same idea. I like the way the copper went a brick kind of colour.
First I engrave the lines out, then I fire some finely powdered enamel in the engraved lines. Then I fire a clear coat on top. I would have stoned the face and then fired it again if I had not discarded it.
Still, these are techniques I will store for future investigation when my second childhood comes around.

Anyway, so here are all the exterior components.
The center rings and bail were made separately, as were the outside mosaic.

So I enameled a mix of blues for the background and then I used painting enamels from Thompson to fill in the shadows.
I like Thompson's because you can buy the actual oxide colours, so you can vary the viscosity and fineness of the paint. I use pine oil as a carrying agent.
I like it because stays open for a medium amount of time and leaves little residue when it burns off----and it smells nice. The others paints that I use is WG Ball painting enamels from the UK. These are pre-mixed so they tend to settle but they still very good.

So here are all the individual components before assembly.

The fish and center stone are attached with a UV light curing acrylate adhesive.
As was the center part of the glass.
I take great care while the resin cures, because should they shift during curing, the fish and center can not be removed without destroying them.