And that may be for the best.  My “Petal Drop” pendant is a result of serendipity. I had originally planned to surround the center bezel with a donut shaped jasper. All was going well…I had sawed out the bronze flower shape and soldered the bezel to the center of the bronze. I planned to put the jasper donut in a prong setting so with ruler ready for measuring the space between each planned prong and a punch to mark the drilling positions, I picked up the jasper stone and…I dropped it! Of course, it didn’t conveniently land on my workbench. It fell onto the tiled floor and broke in five pieces!

Wouldn’t you know, of all the other donut shaped stones I had in my stash, not a single one was the correct size nor had a hole that was large enough. Well…back to the drawing board!  I had a sheet of light blue Plexiglas and thought that might work nicely. After sawing, texturing, and buffing a flower shape from the Plexiglas, I fitted it on the bronze backing, but it looked far too much like a glass bead for my taste. I decided to use Faux Bone™, and although the first attempt produced a shape I wasn’t pleased with, the second attempt rendered a component that mimicked the shape and texture of the bronze surround. After additional finishing and patina to all the metal components, the center of the bezel was filled with polymer clay, textured, and baked. Then the Faux Bone™ flower was fitted, drilled, and riveted to the bronze backing.  A quartz petal-shaped druzy dangles from a ring of coiled silver wire at the bottom of the pendant.