Handmade sterling silver healing crystal cabochon bezel set studs
Handmade sterling silver healing crystal cabochon bezel set studs
The more you do something the better you get, so with this in mind I ordered a selection of different healing crystal cabochons, in different sizes and shapes, to work with, based on bead sizes.
When you order beads and cabochons online, you really are leaving it in the hands of the Gods, as you never really know what you are going to get, when it comes to the actual size!
It's with this in mind, that I ordered a selection of healing cabochons, which included Amber, Malachite, Carnelian, Amethyst, Lapis Lazuli and Rainbow Moonstone.
I deliberately wanted them to be big enough for me to work with, without causing me too many problems, and based on the 6mm and 8mm round and oval beads that I currently work with, so I ordered them in sizes 7mm x 5mm and above.
When they arrived I was surprised how small they where, but what added more complication to the equation, was that althought they are all apparently 7mm x 5mm ovals, they where not all the same size, and to check I wasn't going crazy, I rechecked my order and measured them with caliphers!
The variation in 7mm x 5mm sizes was quite significant, but I took on the challenge of working with them, and planned to use them to make some contemporary studs.
And set about using 3mm bezel wire to start the process:
I am not going to bore you with the whole process as I have detailed accounts of the process in previous blog posts in my metal smithing journey, which you can read at your leisure if interested.
So here's a gallery and overview of what these babies became:
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Rainbow Moonstone Earrings
These gorgeous round rainbow moonstone started off as studs, until I realised that the stars might be a little too big for the ear lobe. So I thought they would look better if the hanged lower on the ear. These babies has a blue lustre, which was lost with the neutral sterling silver so I thought to make the colour of the healing crystal pop I would darken the metal, but I didn't want a jet black uniform look. |
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Malachite Earrings To all intents and purposes these stunning Malachite earrings, were studs!!! They had the posts soldered and the malachite cabochons where all set, and I was just adding the final polish to make the healing gemstones really pop, when I accidently snapped the post off the back of one of the studs. With the stones already set, I really didn't want to re-solder the wire post back on, and risk cracking the cabochon, so decided to turn them into contemporary earrings, by adding ear wires to them |
I would really love to hear your thoughts, so post something in the comments below:
Until next time
Joolz xxx
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