Amber in Chantilly Lace

Amber in Chantilly Lace - Front

Amber in Chantilly Lace - back

Amber in Chantilly Lace - Front

Amber in Chantilly Lace - side

Pattern Info

Pattern info for this project can be found here:
Chantilly Lace Ring »

Difficulty:

Category: Jewelry

Type of item: Accessory

For: Women

Style: Classic, Romantic

Materials

1,3x0,9'' natural amber pendant, 2mm and 3mm round silver beads, 26g silver wire, jump rings, 3mm aquamarine rondelle bead

What was your inspiration?

Last year I asked for help with setting an amber pendant in Perri Jackson's (ShaktipajDesigns) beautiful Celtic Braid bezel (http://www.etsy.com/listing/114373549/holiday-sale-celtic-braid-pendant-coiled?).
Perri sent me detailed instructions (thank you again, sweet lady), but I couldn't make any jewelry for a while. When I started again this year I felt so out of practice and so intimidated by all the bigger and smaller challenges the setting of a clear amber pendant bears that I decided to begin with something less complicated.
Perri's email drew my attention to her beautiful Goldilocks pendants: http://www.flickr.com/photos/perri_jackson/4278385272/
and I decided to try this first. It's basically a RAW (Right Angle Weave) stitch, but there is a trick to doing it with wire. Fortunately Perri explains all her tricks in her wonderful tutorials, this one in the Chantilly Lace Ring Tutorial (http://www.etsy.com/listing/115814337/holiday-sale-chantilly-lace-silver-wire?) :D.

The amber is a front-to-back-drilled pendant, unfortunately, not a cabochon. The aquamarine rondelle bead covers the drill hole. I'm still not sure whether I like it or not, so if you have other ideas how to cover the hole, please let me know.

What are you most proud of?

I've never set an amber pendant before. Amber is so soft that it can even scratch by being worn on cloth surfaces, and it flakes easily. So it's necessary to adapt to the stone, design-wise and tool-wise. At one point I was really afraid that I might break it and I'm more than happy how beautifully it turned out in the end.

What advice would you give someone starting this project?

First practice the RAW stirch with wire. It's different than RAW with thread. And if you want to set a stone, begin with a sturdier one.