
No, I’ve not gone out and adopted a little orphaned pendant. Raising is a term used to describe a metal-smithing technique whereby (typically) a flat sheet of metal is hammered to form a 3D shape.
The classic example would be forming a bowl from a flat disc. If you just want to take a quick look at a series of photos of this pendant in the making, click on 'read more' and skip to the bottom of this post. If you want the gory details, read on…..
First, a bit of background. I made a similar pendant a while ago.
That was made out of copper, and a started with a strip of metal which I bent round and soldered to form a very large, flat, thin ring – almost like a small napkin ring. I then formed that to give the final curved shape. Doing it that way (soldering a ring) meant much less hammering to do.
The downside was that there was a line of silvery solder visible at the joint. That didn’t matter, because I had the piece gold-plated, so the silver was covered up.
I used the same technique to created what I can only call the woggle. It’s just smaller and less formed than the main part.
That wasn’t just a decorative feature: it holds the knots at the ends of the plaited cord.
The classic example would be forming a bowl from a flat disc. If you just want to take a quick look at a series of photos of this pendant in the making, click on 'read more' and skip to the bottom of this post. If you want the gory details, read on…..
First, a bit of background. I made a similar pendant a while ago.
That was made out of copper, and a started with a strip of metal which I bent round and soldered to form a very large, flat, thin ring – almost like a small napkin ring. I then formed that to give the final curved shape. Doing it that way (soldering a ring) meant much less hammering to do.
The downside was that there was a line of silvery solder visible at the joint. That didn’t matter, because I had the piece gold-plated, so the silver was covered up.
I used the same technique to created what I can only call the woggle. It’s just smaller and less formed than the main part.
That wasn’t just a decorative feature: it holds the knots at the ends of the plaited cord.