Graveyard Plume Agate - A Necklace in Sterling

Only two months in the making!

As you can see from the photo on the left, this gorgeous graveyard agate is cut on 2 sides but one side is left in its natural form.   The artist who cut is Michael (a.k.a. Gemcutter), from Michael's Lapidary,  a wonderful shop on Etsy.

This was the first time I ever set a freeform cabochon and it was certainly a challenge. 

The first time I made the bezel, the stone didn't fit.  The next time, I melted the bezel.  Each time I had to reheat the setting to melt my failed bezels off and try again.  Finally, I got it right on my third attempt!

The Graveyard Point Agate is translucent and has so much depth to it.  I didn't want to lose that, so I polished the silver behind the stone to a mirror-like finish.  This means that light reflects from the silver and through the cab, emphasizing the lovely details that nature gave to this stone.  The stone positively glows in the light with a slight peachy-lavender cast.

The natural freeform edge of the stone reminded me of clouds and I tried to cut the silver setting to follow those lines.  Then I carried over the design to the back of the setting. (And you can find my signature dragonfly peeking over the edge of the clouds.)

To the chain, I added some Hessonite garnets, which complement the colors of the agate, and then set the chain with, handmade clasp which fastens asymmetrically to one side.

More photos of this piece can be found here.

(And if you want more background about this piece, as well as its progress, you can read my earlier posts here and here. )

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