How often have you heard that lament, or even said so yourself? In this case it was in connection with a new jacket with a busy feather print. None of the dozen or so brooches available gelled, so I decided to make this silver feather brooch.
The spine is made from 1.7 mm triangular wire, tapered at one end. I must say, all the little 8.5 mm round wires, one row on each side, took some soldering, partly due to a tendency to pile up and clump as the solder flowed and partly because they simply refuse to attach to the spine. Adding more solder merely cause it to pool in the spaces between the wires. Finally a thin metal backing helped to keep things in place.
Recently I wrote that the need for aggressive finishing was a sign of failure. Well this was my nemesis, because the use of gravers to improve all the faults gave me a sore thumb. Dennis.
That's some impressive soldering Dennis - interesting to see your approach, I'd have grabbed gravers - probably powered - and saw and carved it rather than soldering. Different approaches to achieving the same thing...
Here is a picture of the reverse.
As my graver skills are not great, I was pleased to have grooves to guide my gravers where needed.
I use quite a bit of triangular wire as I think it's a little more special, but you really need a drawplate to make it. It also twists well, see my album (link below)
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