Phoenix Pendant-Arising From The Ashes

Wikipedia describes the Phoenix as a bird who: 
 "has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young Phoenix or Phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again." This pendant is a Phoenix.

Finally,  For The Teal Blue Druzy From New Mexico

I worked diligently on a new type of setting for the base, making a seat out of 12 gauge square fine silver wire and then filing out the edge on the top so the odd shaped stone would fit. At this point, I used too much flame and the base fell apart.

That was the first time it fell apart. I soldered it back together and then I set up prongs around the edges
by pushing them into my new Cotronics brazing board--more about this board in a later post. Again, I used an acetylene torch and some of the prongs fell off. At this point, I walked away for a couple of weeks.

After a brief vacation from the heavy prong setting on a square wire seat, I picked up the pieces and started again. I was beginning to understand this strange, exotic cabochon. First, it is not symmetrical and one side is higher than the other. Second, the bottom is not flat as its beveled edge connects the curved top to the flatter base. It would be hard to set without prongs and without the thick wire seat. The dark bottom of the stone presented another issue. Since the bottom looked more like teal blue polymer than stone, it really needed to be hidden. For this reason, I decided to solder the square wire seat to a sterling backing and make it solid in back. Once this decision was made, the rest of the setting went together easier.

I then split a double half-round sterling wire for the bail and placed it so the tip of the stone would fit just at the bottom of the bail. All that was left was to place the stone and bend the prongs. This was a gift for my daughter as she selected the stone in New Mexico. It looks great on the 18" patterned sterling chain that I finished with a double S hook. So there you have it--a blue teal druzy, shot with titanium and set in a heavy prong, heavy seat setting dangling from an 18" sterling chain. A Phoenix pendant--risen from the flame and destruction to beautify a simple outfit.