So I’ve been in a making-stuff slump for the past few months. The price of silver has been a downer and made me more inhibited to work on projects. But I finally found a project that inspired me. I’ve, incidentally, been going through some medication changes, and I think that’s helped, as well. But this picture made my heart sing!
1st-2nd Century CE Roman necklace from a Bonham’s auction
I started by playing with bronze wire, getting the length and shape of the lozenges correct, using 20 gauge wire.
Then I dialed in the size of the jump rings. I didn’t want to do test pieces in silver, for obvious reasons.
This was my huckleberry. A half inch link with 2mm rings. So I moved on to silver!
For the lozenges, start with 1″ 20 gauge silver wire. Bend in half. Sharpen that bend. This took some trial and error to find the best way to get that sharp angle. I used sharpie at every step, marking my mid points as I went. All the links bent! For the jump rings, I wound 22 gauge wire around a large bronze wire. I’m 95% sure the bronze is 16 gauge.The spiral off the bronze. You clip each ring off one at a time. With larger diameters, you can use a saw, but I don’t think that would work for 2mm rings. Getting ready to solder the lozenges closed.Getting ready to attach each ring. I didn’t bother soldering them closed first, I just worked to attach and close in the same step by putting the joint against the lozenge. I was 98% successful. I had to sweat solder the rings. A finished link! All the finished links! I needed 15 and made 17, and lost none! I lost a handful of tiny jump rings in the attachment process, though. The necklace uses the same wire wrapping technique as the Byzantine necklace tutorial I posted. The finished piece! The finished piece being all fancy.
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