Zincite & Sterling Silver Pendant - How to: Weekly Contest by @robali123

Success!
I have just finished this Zincite and Silver pendant I've been working on for the last week or so.
I got some progress shots along the way to show you how it's constructed.

The crystal i used in this piece is called Zincite.
It's something i hadnt come across before so when i spotted a box of the stuff at a gem show recently i had to buy some. The price was £8 a gram which doesnt seem like a great deal until i picked a few of the Zincite points up, they're actually quite heavy! Although it looks like glass it actually has the weight and feel of a chunk of metal, steel perhaps.
Anyway, the guy i bought it from explained that Zincite is quite rare to occur naturally. I'll let wikipedia explain better than I can!
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zincite)

Zincite is the mineral form of zinc oxide (ZnO). Its crystal form is rare in nature; a notable exception to this is at the Franklin and Sterling Hill Mines in New Jersey, an area also famed for its many fluorescent minerals. It has a hexagonal crystal structure and a color that depends on the presence of impurities. The zincite found at the Franklin Furnace is red-colored, mostly due to iron and manganese dopants, and associated with willemite and franklinite.
Zincite crystals can be grown artificially, and synthetic zincite crystals are available as a by-product of zinc smelting. Synthetic crystals can be colorless or can range in color from dark red, orange, or yellow to light green.

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Making the pendant

Heres a few of the steps i took to wrap this interesting crystal.

I already had an idea for how this piece was going to look as i made something similar with quartz and copper recently.

Building up a frame with heavy gauge wire early on makes it easier to fill out later on.

As you can see in this next shot the beaded section has gaps around it. The copper version didnt have this but it was something i wanted with this one to add a bit more depth.
By this point the zincite is pretty well set in the piece. It's a real pain trying to focus on the design when the stone is still loose so I try to get it secured relatively early on.

Its difficult to explain whats going on here but i thought some may find this tip useful.
So i was wrapping this 1mm wire all the way up to the top but as i got further up the gap to feed the weave wire through became tighter and tighter. It's a long process to wrap wires once they are attached like this so to make things easier I fed a piece of scrap copper wire through, which as you can see, has created a comfortable gap for the weaving wire to pass through. A simple trick that saves a lot of frustration!

As always, i get really into my work near the end of the wrapping so theres a bit of a jump from this last photo to finish. I basically spend a little while once the design is finished just going round tidying up all the loose wires at the back and making sure there arent any sharp bits to snag the wearer.

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I decided to give this piece a bit of a patina using liver of sulpher solution then pick out the high points with fine wire wool before a final polish and its done!

Thanks for reading. If you're interested in purchasing this or any of my other work you can do so through my Etsy here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/601972934/unique-zincite-sterling-silver-wire-wrap or contact me for a Steem price.

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Previous Post - https://steemit.com/art/@robali123/couple-of-new-pieces-finished-last-weekend

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