Make a Pendant From a Briolette

Make a Pendant From a Briolette Experiment with Hammering for Different Effects

I made this pendant with a beautiful big deep ruby red faceted glass briolette but this is just an idea. You pick your own briolette and metals and beads to use. My briolette measures 25mm long and 18mm in diameter.

A bright 5mm dimpled brass bead accents this pendant and pretty filigree bead caps. The accent bead you use will need to have a hole large enough to accommodate 20 gauge wire doubled. The bead caps can't be so big that they stick out past the edges of the briolette. When you bend the wire up they need to lay flat and fit snug. Experiment.

To Create this lovely Deep Red Faceted Glass Briolette Pendant I used 20 gauge wire because this briolette is heavy. You decide what you need. I threaded the side drilled holes with the wire and took the ends of the wire and added vintage style filigree bead caps and made sure they laid flat against the briolette. I then brought the wire ends up through a 5mm dimpled shiny brass bead. The doubled brass wire was made into a sturdy double loop with about a 3mm opening. Tip - When you wrap a double loop try to keep the wires side by side when you make the loops and wraps. Stick the point of the round pliars through the loop to shape it and align the loops. If you carefully lay your wrapped loops on a metal block you can hammer the wraps and the loops to make a faceted look or just leave it plain. Be careful to not hit your accent bead. Twisted wire would look very nice, too.

The pendant hangs from a Hammered Brass 10mm Jump Ring. I took a link from a big 10mm round chain and hammered it to make my jump ring. Hammering really changes the look of jump rings and chain links. Make sure they keep their shape when you hammer them so the ends meet properly. You might have to bend and align.

2009 Art Speaks in Lowes Hotel Miami Beach

The 2009 Art Speaks at the Lowes Hotel on Miami Beach was a fun private event. The idea was pure genius and I hope catches on.

Event planners basically held a conference for a large nationwide company and the Artists were the entertainment afterwards! There were about 400 + people. How cool!

A mixture of Sculptures in many different mediums, Painters, and Jewelry Artists captivated their audience.

Some of these artists were established and had many clientele. What was interesting was the neat mix of the less established artists from the art college and ETSY! We had OUR chance to show our talent, too!

We didn't just display our Art we did demonstrations! THAT was the entertainment appeal for the conference attendees.

Scenes sprang to life with people, plants and animals! Smiles on paintings and people graced the landscapes of the conference room.

Fingers inquisitively poked wet sculptures and the slopes of smooth and rough and pondered taking them home.

Jewelers with precious and semi precious gems and metals pounded, strung, soldered and made little twists here and there with a flick of the wrist and a pair of pliers or wire.

Eyes sparkled with surprise as creations emerged before them.

"How do you do it?" They asked. "I'll show you." We said.

PS

I got to promote ETSY. Some of the artists didn't know that ETSY is so much easier than Ebay to advertise with and is cheaper so the Artist makes a better profit. I passed out many business cards with my ETSY shop http://www.bajunajewelry.etsy.com/