Purple Passion

Purple Passion involves Fluorite and Amethyst cabochons which were cut this week. I started Monday morning cutting three amethyst, one fluorite and one ruby cabochons. I have finished cutting the cabochons, and have completed two as necklace pendants. First to be examined will be the Fluorite. This gemstone is quite soft (Moh's hardness = 4) and must be set in a protective setting. So I designed a bezel setting for the freeform stone. The fine silver bezel wire had a 20 gauge Sterling silver wire soldered to the bottom of the bezel to support the back of the stone in the setting. Then I hammered the bezel to produce dimpling. The top edge of the bezel was scalloped with saw and file. Finally, a bail ring was soldered to the back of the bezel. Now that the bezel setting was crafted, the stone was placed in the bezel and the scalloped edge was burnished over the edge of the cabochon and here is the finished product:



The rest of the 20 inch necklace was made with fluorite chips and silver colored ball chain. The next necklace was made with an amethyst cabochon. I had an amethyst crystal about 5 inches long. I cut the crystal into two pieces along the c-axis and then cabbed each stone. One has been completed with wrapping with 22 gauge Sterling silver square half hard wire in a criss cross pattern. The resulting pendant is about 3 inches by 1/2 inch. Here are my two pictures of this beautiful wire wrapped pendant.



Now I am watching the first game of the finals for the Stanley Cup, Boston playing Vancouver. Even though Boston beat the Flyers, I will root for them as they are one of the original six teams.