Pine Tree Pendants in the Works!

I started working on these pendants last night and I've made quite a bit of progress.  I sawed out the pine trees, used back pieces that I had roller milled oak leaves to, then soldered the pine trees on.  The trees were very tiny to saw out and the metal was wiggling all over my bench pin, which loosened it and then out came the mallet to hammer it back in.  Every so many minutes, smack went the hammer!  I discovered that I could draw a pine tree and the one side of it could be the other side of the next tree.  I would have no space in between and no wasted sterling sheet!  Think puzzle pieces.  It also allowed me to saw one section and complete half of each tree.  I'll draw a picture later to explain!

I wanted to add something that looked like a small fence in front of one of the trees.  I left enough room to place a piece of gallery wire just beneath the tree.  Quite a trick to use the hard solder to get the tree on and I then used soft solder for the gallery wire.  I didn't want to get the temp up too high on the more delicate wire.  I was able to first heat the gallery wire and melt the solder on to ensure it would be evenly spread out.  I then pickled that piece and then re-fluxed and heated to solder the gallery wire on. The wire and tree seemed to be the same gauge, so it worked out fine.

These are less labor intensive than the wire wrapped pendants.  These will be a bit more affordable and still a lot of fun.  I added peridot and quartz stones to the chain and also added a nice peridot brio to the middle pendant.  Nice cut, but some inclusions...  well, at least you know it's real!!!

I use hard boiled egg at my remote studio and love the fun colors that pop up layer by layer.  Not sure why I had such a copper look on the first round, but it was cool and I took a photo.  I'll post more photos when the pieces are finished.  As always, thanks for looking!