citrine pendant – antique Argentium silver mountain wax seal
Each wax seal base – what I call a ‘melted boulder’ – is handmade from Argentium silver that I have melted and shaped while the silver is still hot. I melt solid Argentium silver, until it is soft but not fluid – and then, using a jewellers pick, I manipulate the silver to resemble a historical ‘wax seal’.
For the mountains, I start with a picture of a beautiful mountain range. I draw the outline and main features to the scale I need. Then I cut and shape pieces of square Argentium silver wire to follow the peaks and valleys. I fuse these together, polish them up, and using a sweat soldering technique I attach them to the ‘wax seal’ base.
I select a gemstone to compliment the melted boulder base. For this pendant I chose a brilliant cut Citrine. I hand make the bezel for each gemstone, which I then soldered to the pendant base. And then I solder on a bail. Lots of polishing and shaping has to happen before the final antique patina can be applied.
The antique finish is permanent and it never needs polishing.
Pendant is 4.2 cm long by 4.2 cm wide. The pendant weights 15.5 grams.
This pendant comes with an 18″ Sterling Silver bead chain
LAND * I am * SOURCE ENERGY OF ROCK – Steadfast – Confident – Eternal – Nurturing
Argentium Silver is a high quality silver with a silver content of 935. It has the unique feature of having a small amount of Germanium added. Argentium Silver is whiter, harder and slower to tarnish. And it is always nickel-free.
