Midnight Necklace and Other Tales of Metal Smithing

Midnight Necklace: Brass and Beads

The curse of the midnight necklace.... is that it is not made of gold, and all who wear it are instantly fabulous. I took a few jewelry/metal smithing classes in college and still make jewelry from time to time. For this piece, I began by designing a star shape and sawing that shape out of a sheet of brass. I used a jeweler's saw. The chain was crafted by bending brass wire with a needle nose pliers into an S shape and linking all the Ss. I added some black beads for a little pizzaz.

African violet inspiration

African violet necklace: Brass and Yellow Jasper

A few years ago I made my mom this African violet inspired necklace. I cut the African violet shape out of brass, again with a jeweler's saw. Then I put the brass into a mixture of salt, woodchips, and ammonia to achieve the purplish patina. Here is a helpful link for making a salt and vinegar patina. Make sure to handle ammonia carefully, wear gloves! The stone is yellow jasper and I set it with 5 prongs. The prongs are part of the cut out flower piece. Easy peasy!

Swarovski and silver

I gave this last necklace to my mom for Christmas this year. The chain is the same linked S chain as before, but this time I used silver wire. The silver was so pretty and nice to work with. I bought tiny light blue swarovski crystal beads to add some shimmer. I love how airy and sweet it looks. These necklaces are all finished with lobster clasps. What kinds of jewelry smithing tricks do you know?