Making my my first halibut pendant
Greg and I were looking forward to the next project. Something that involved a little bit of metal forming along with soldering. Greg came up with the idea of a Halibut pendant. Ok, so I head back home and start studying Halibuts. Get a real idea of how their body looks. I have caught plenty but not enough to recall from memory.
Once I get a good idea of how they look I need to mix that with formline. This takes some time of making many different variations. If it looked great the first go that would save me lots of time. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen. Many tries latter and lots of erasing I finally have it. Send it to Greg for the approval. Get the go ahead to put the drawing on metal.
Got my design locked in. Ready to do some cutting.
In the picture above I cut out my design with a jewelers saw.
Next I carefully file all my edges down, Next I engrave, then form my piece. Basically just means I pop the metal out a bit. After that I polish and clean which is no fun.
Getting ready to pop the tail the way. We do this with a mixture of using wooden dapping tools and leather to try and not mar the silver.
Couple good hits and we got it.Giving the halibut curves brings it to life.
Time to make the wire for the hook on the back of the pendant. Hammer it flat, file it clean. Then curve it.
Once it is all lined up and we know exactly where we want it then we will solder it on.
Put it in my pitch and utilize my new skill I learned from chasing and reprousse. Pop a couple hole in the eyes and middle of the body.
Can slightly see the hole from the eyes. The ones in the middle stand out a little more. You can see we got a real strong solder on the back by the tail. I stipple all the parts in between the rib bones giving a nice contrast to make the rest of the polished surface area really shine.Very happy with the outcome of my first halibut pendant.
If you’re reading this then you are seeing my work before anyone else. I have not shown this on public social media. Keeping them in suspense. Congratulations.
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