'Roman Gold'

It's not often that I venture into gold and, truth is, I had not intended to this time.  It is actually copper, but as I was nearing finishing it, someone suggested that it would look great gold-plated.  They were wrong - it looks stunning. 

Someone else said that it looks very roman in style, and I had to agree with them.  I think that it is the texturing on the curves that make it.  For the most part, that texturing is a natural side effect of how the pendant was made. 

I started with two flat strips of copper and folded them round to make two short tubes - one wide and one narrow.  The larger one was then forged into shape (the technical term is anticlastic raising) by continual hammering and annealing to compress and stretch the metal to make the form you see.   In the process, the inner curve gradually pitted to produce the pattern you can see.  It gives such a wonderful organic feel to the piece so decided to leave it like that, with only a light polishing with a cloth to bring up the highlights.

The hammered surface stayed shiny, albeit marked from the hammer blows.  Rather than trying to file it smooth, I decided to level it by further hammering with smaller and smaller hammers (the technical term is planishing) and then rubbing with a steel blade (burnishing).  That's what has given it such a warm shine. 

I was delighted that the warm and feeling of the textures came through once the piece was plated. I had that done professionally, with a relatively thick layer of gold applied for durability.

All that remained was to set the piece on cord or chain.  I had always intended to use leather and, with the roman feel in mind, I decided to plait some leather cord (Greek, ironically).  It didn't feel right to put in some sort of clasp, so I made the cord 26" long so that the whole piece will slip over your head.  You can shorten it easily if it is bigger than you want.