Another project I just finished (it’s been a sort of cleanup the projects kind of month), the Koi Pendant. It has an inlaid silver koi and copper inlaid lily pads and is backed with silver, with an Argentium™ silver chain.
The dark surface of the pendant is made from an ancient piece of wrought iron anchor chain from Whidbey Island, Washington, where I live. Wrought iron is an early composite material created by forge welding lots of thin iron plates together to make thicker pieces of steel. It was made this way because the technology didn’t then exist to make large quantities of decent quality steel. There are large quantities of silica slag in the steel from the welding, making it pretty resistant to rust. Because it was created with many layers and slag, you can etch the surface of the steel and reveal a sort of wood grain pattern, which works very well as subtle water in this case.
It will be available soon at Bladegallery.com http://www.bladegallery.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=721&cat=Sterling%2C+Tom
