How did you make that?

Ever since I first started selling my flower necklace at local craft shows in early spring, I have been asked the same question ... how did you make that?

Drum roll ... and my answer is ...

When I create jewelry using sterling silver sheet I usually will either sketch out a rough design or create a design in Illustrator.  For the flower I drew a rough outline of the shape and size wanted and placed a circle in the middle of the design where I thought the little round beads should go.

Then I place the flower line drawing on top of a sheet of sterling silver and, using my favorite saw, I cut out the flower.  After filing the edges, removing any scratches, and cleaning the silver I gave the flower a warm matte finish.

The next step was to create the little balls for the center of the flower.  Since I wirewrap all of my dichroic pendants in sterling silver I had a lot of leftover pieces of round silver wire.  Using my torch I heated the recycled pieces of silver wire until they formed little round balls.  Then I soldered the balls in the center of the flower.   

To give the pendant some depth, I concaved the flower a little before soldering on the hidden bail in the back.

Okay, now it's my turn to ask a question.  If you had asked the question, would this have answered it?