sweet little rose

there you go... another month has passed, yet it seems like only yesterday that i last posted.

meanwhile, we are nearing the end of the year, and i ve been busy trying to get the last little things that need to get done, well... done, before we welcome 2012.

which also means Christmas presents.

handmade is always nice ofcourse. yet sometimes that isn t always possible.

however, this time, i had found a little project in the january 2012 issue of Beads & Beyond and i thought it would make a perfect gift for my long-time girlfriend, oh, we ve been friends since kindergarten..., and even though we don t see each other enough, she s always been there for me.

so she deserves this one:

i started off by punching out different sized circles out of 8mm silver sheet

which i then gave an organic feel by doming them

after giving them a sanding, pre-polish and texturizing, i then stacked them ready for soldering

here they are, soldered

and after pickling, it was easy to leave them in the polishing tumbler for a while, which actually gave them both a matte and a high-shine finish (depending on where those metal spheres could reach).

remember that 4 in 1 half Persian bracelet i made at the beginning of this schoolyear? well, that rose box-clasp (shop-bought, ready-made...) wasn t quite working, it tended to release at the most inopportune moments, and i didn t want to lose the bracelet... so i replaced it with this little number.

front

and back

still have to decide what i m going to make to show off this clasp for my girlfriend, but now that the hard work is done, i still have a few days to ponder.

oh dear, i hope she doesn t read this before... nah, she s probably busier than i am right now...

so, that s all folks! at least for 2011... in the meantime may i wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful and Happy New Year!