Believe Iris Pendant

I guess by now it’s become clear that I’m not going to be able to keep up with my Monday/Thursday blog post plan. I promise to write when I can, though. I’ve been really focusing on engraving lately and have just started an eight-week online engraving course. I’m having a lot of fun, and things are finally starting to make a little more sense. Maybe soon I’ll have something worthy of sharing with you!

I haven’t worked quite as much on the JTS projects lately since I just run out of time - the days go by so quickly! This next week I hope to finish my last Level 5 project so I can submit my work and get my certificate. Then I’ll be half way through the program. I’ll admit, this level I’ve really been procrastinating. I’m really glad I’ve done the projects, but I’m really interested in doing rings. After this level, we’re back to rings again.

Meanwhile, I got an idea for a project. I love flowers, and I especially love creating flowers with chasing and repousse. It’s always a challenge to create the depth and the details of the petals. The iris signifies wisdom, hope, trust, and valor. I wanted to pair that with the word “Believe,” since I think you need to have hope and trust in order to believe in something. Especially today, with so many challenges we face on a daily basis, we sometimes need a reminder to believe, whether this is a belief in ourselves, our friends, our future, or simply that there will be a day when our lives can return to (pre-Covid) normal.

Sometimes, however, projects don’t exactly go as planned! I created the iris, and my original intention was to leave the back open so that the reverse side of the chasing is visible. However, I made a mistake on the back and decided it needed to be covered with a back plate. While soldering on the back plate, I wanted to fix up one spot (when will I ever learn to leave well enough alone), and when I touched it with my solder pick, the pick went right through, creating a nice hole. Ugh.

Well, Plan B… Maybe I can add some stones to the front and cover up the hole. I had cut out an image of the iris on the back plate, but one of the small pieces was too thin and broke off. Unfortunately, it created an image which just wasn’t going to work. So, there was no rescuing the piece. Into the scrap pile it goes….

I redid the piece, and I’m really happy with how it turned out! I guess sometimes you just need to believe things are going to work out! (I know, corny…. but I couldn’t resist!) If you’re interested in finding out more information about this pendant, it’s available in my shop (click on the photo to go directly there).