When looking at a one-of-a-kind piece, do you ponder what steps went into its creation? Having an idea to make a certain work is the starting point, but if it is a complex piece, many more steps are involved. To create this married metal brooch, I first soldered small pieces of copper and 18k bimetal to a sheet of sterling silver, pickled it, and then ran it through a rolling mill to flatten the sheet to a single thickness and to add texture. Then I annealed the sheet and pickled it again. Next, I sawed a heart-shaped template from a block of 1/2" thick Plexiglas and placed the metal sheet under the template in my Bonny Doone hydraulic press to create a hollow formed puffed heart. The heart shape was then sawed from the sheet and the edges evenly sanded and soldered to a sterling silver backing. Next I set a square-cut garnet into a fine silver bezel and soldered a spiral shaped 14k gold wire to the bezel and back of the brooch to create a pin catch. I then bent 14 gauge wire into a fibula, filed one end to a point, and soldered the fibula to the back of the piece. And that is how this brooch came to be. It's one of my favorite pieces!
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