Saturday, October 2, 2010

Antique to Magnifique

Here's to a custom piece made with an old antique pair of sugar tongs.  Sent to me by a customer to transform into a pendant with a sea glass marble set in the tongs "claw feet". 

I also took the remains of the tongs' handle and manipulated it into a cool wrap ring.  The Art Deco style pattern was too cool to pass for scrap.

The metal of the silver tongs was different than I'm used to, very hard silver metal, but also very brittle if not handled with the proper force.  It took some getting used to, and lots of reheating to get it to the malleable state I'm used to.  Once finished I oxidized the surface and buffed it to bring out the detailing.

I'm very pleased with the outcome, I might even make more if others wanted one...
Any takers?
This isn't the actual pair, but it's more of less what they looked like before I got my hands on them...



10 comments:

  1. omg that blue pendant is amazing!

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  2. You are amazing!! Absolutely gorgeous pieces!!!

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  3. You are a very accomplished metalsmith. Love the way you also salvaged the tong handle to create an absolutely awesome ring.

    I'm now following your blog, hope you can check out my blog and maybe follow me too. :)

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  4. Gorgeous! What a creative way to use the leftovers! And what a great customer who chose to change something laying around her house into a beautiful piece of jewelry.

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  5. Love this - absolutely gorgeous and one of a kind too !

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  6. agree - the blue pendant - fantastic ♥

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