One Link at a time

 
Just spent the good portion of  two days creating this amazing bracelet.  The challenge with pieces like this one is that each individual link has to be hand created separately.  It's much more "economical" to do a pendant or a pair of earrings because you are only working with one or two pieces.  With a bracelet like this one, you are working with many multiple pieces which increases the amount of work by that number of pieces.  In other words, a bracelet like this is truly a labor of love.

As I draped this labor of love over my wrist, I  was amazed at how flexible it felt and as I wore it throughout the day, I was even more amazed at how light it felt on my arm.  This may be one piece that I decide is not for sale......but.....as the saying goes.......everything is for sale for the right price.


Just in case you are interested, here is how I created this piece:

1. I created the "back plate" of each link from PMC3 clay and put it in my dehydrater to dry.
2. I created each "flower shape" from PMC3 and used a syringe filled with PMC clay to create the squiggles and shapes on the flower. I also used a straw to cut a hole in the flower for the CZ stone.
3. I joined the back plate and flower to each other using PMC paste and then filled the hole with PMC clay and set the CZ stone.
4. Once all the links were dry and refined (love those emery boards!), I fired them in my Kiln at 1650 for 2 hours.  Once they were completely cooled, I put all the links in my tumbler for 2 hours to work harden the links.
5. Now that each link is solid .999 silver, it's time to drill the holes where I need them.  Drilling sounds so simple and easy but guess what, it's not.  Yes, Drilling is easy but it is NOT quick, you are dealing with a very small piece and the hole has to be in the right spot, the piece gets hot (yes I've burned my finger many times), and you have to be careful so drilling this many holes definitely tests my patience...fortunately my patience wins in most cases!
6. Because patina will make a CZ cloudy, I used a fine paint brush to add patina to each individual link in all the areas except where the stone was set.  Yes, I used my magnifying glasses to do this.
7. I used 3M ultra fine sand paper to remove some of the patina from each link.  Why?  because you want a contrast between the darker areas & the shiny areas of each link so you have to remove and then leave some of the patina.
8. I then used my flex shaft and the "pink" attachment (my fellow silversmiths will know what that is) to bring out the shiny silver highlights.  I had to do this on each and every one of the links.
9. I used jump rings to link each piece together and used a square toggle clasp to finish it off.