I recently picked up another jewelry making book. It’s called Metalworking 101 for Beaders. One of the projects I chose to attempt turned out like this:
The clasp is supposed to be a flower with a bee. Here’s a closer look:
I started with a sheet of 24 guage Sterling Silver and cut out the flower. I should have taken pictures of that, but I had enough trouble cutting all that detail with a jeweler’s saw without trying to add a camera to the mix. After I got all the parts cut I polished it and then put it into Liver of Sulfer to give it a bluish cast. Then I cut the bee’s body out of a piece of brass. That was easy to cut, but a pain in the butt to polish because it was so small. Next I cut the bee’s wings out of the piece of SS I used earlier. Then I made a ring out of some square wire and attached it to the back of the body, and finally I attached the wings to the body. I lost the wings twice while I was trying to polish them. In fact, I have an extra set because I couldn’t find them and I got tired of looking so I made another pair. Naturally the original set turned up when I dropped the brass bee body for the 53rd time.
Here’s what it looks like when the necklace is not clasped:
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