Ruby Leaves

This piece, which I am very proud of, took me four weeks to complete, granted I was confined to my school's schedule. The intricate cuts I had to make as well as the delicate pattern and ultimately the setting of some very tiny stones accumulated for a lengthy amount of overtime spent in my teacher's (Mr. Garrott) classroom. In the end all the extra work paid off because I was left with a pair of graceful, long earrings.

I began this project with a small sheet of nickel and used a jeweler's saw to cut out both earrings as symmetrically as possible. This was the most taxing step because the high density of the nickel caused the small blade to catch frequently and was difficult to turn sharp corners which my design required. After I cut out the leaf patterns, I annealed the the two to get them prepared for chiseling. Annealing is the process of heating up metal and allowing it to cool slowly so the metal softens. This allows the nickel to take the blows of the chisel easily and prevent cracks. With the chisel, I struck the leaves to form a linear texture through out the earrings. Then, I drilled a hole in at the bottom of the leaves where I was going to put the stones. This would allow light to shine through the stones. Afterwards, I soldered on one bezel cup each then set two synthetic ruby stones into the cups. Because the chisel marks were light, I simply colored the whole piece with a sharpie and sanded the excess off so the valleys were left shadowed. Lastly, I flattened two strips of silver

wire on one side then soldered them to the back of the pendants and shaped the wire into a "u" shape. This finally completed my work and my earrings were finally wearable! I was even able to wear them the next day! Overall, this work was completely successful and will hopefully be able to enter a few competitions.