new chain for pendant

The first chain I made for this pendant didn't look right. The chain appeared too light in comparison to the heavy pendant. The new chain I made was similar, but different thicknesses of wire were used, as well as forging certain areas of the chain.

Amy Eisenfeld Genser

Amy Eisenfeld Genser is an artist that works 'Green', She uses colourful paper to depict underwater scenes. She loves the "organic irregularity of plants, flowers, rock formations, barnacles, moss, and seaweed".

AngloPlat drawings

For this AngloPlatinum competition we will be designing and manufacturing platinum pieces in groups, each member creating a piece that makes up a complete collection.


The photos below show my reference for AngloPlat, followed by some drawings and traces I did for my design.

I am making the earrings for our collection. Because platinum is so much heavier than silver, my silver prototype weight will be multiplied by 2 so that I can estimate the weight in platinum. The maximum weight for a pair of earrings is 5g per earring.

finished ring

This ring turned out exactly as I had hoped! Although the ring isn't very wearable because of the porous and fragile nature of the coral, I felt that as an object to look at, put on, take off and look at again - it serves its purpose as something visually interesting (miniature sculpture?)


The detail once again is found on the under side of the ring, and I balanced out the heavy coral with a thick based shank.

setting and shank

The setting is very similar to that of the pendant. I moulded the long claws so that they echoed the shape of the coral and fit snug into some sections. The forge marks left on the setting and shank is deliberate. Like most things in nature that are formed/affected by their natural surroundings, I would like to think that the hammer and plier marks that remain on my pieces show the journey of the manufacturing process.

Green ring sketches

Along with my coral pendant for the Green exhibition, I wanted to make a ring using the same kind of coral I found up the coast. Once again the detail on thes piece will be at the back, and I want to tie the two pieces together by using the same forging technique I used on the pendant.

The photos below show my designs for this ring...

AngloPlat Prototype

After desiging the shape of my earrings, and deciding that the way I will add colour to them would be plique ajour enamelling, I made my silver prototype...

Because silver solders melting temperature is lower that that of the enamelling kiln, I was not able to enamel onto my piece that I soldered together (far right), because the solder will run and the piece may fall apart. This prompted me to fuse my pieces together, a technique that I had never used before this. These fused shapes can be seen on the left in the photo below.

After fusing the earring shapes together I went on to enamel them without fear of them falling apart. The photo below shows the finished prototypes...