The First Pendant
I made this little butterfly pendant in 2009, whilst working for Malcolm Appleby. It was my first step in my engraving and jewellery making journey.
I drew out the shape of the butterfly onto a piece of card then carefully cut it out. Then using a scriber, I drew around the cut-out onto the silver before piercing out the butterfly from sheet silver with a fine saw blade. I can clearly remember Malcolm sitting on the other side of the room, saying he could hear when I my sawing was good, and when it was not. The classical music on Radio 3 played a good rhythm for sawing.
Once the butterfly was cut out, I learned how to use Malcolm's wonderful flypress, with all his hand cut dies. I used one of his scroll dies and the sunburst die to create the patterns on the corners and the bottom of the butterfly.
This pendant is particularly special as this was my first attempt at engraving. The scratchy lines in the middle of the butterfly was my first experiment with engraving.
