Over a year ago, I bought some roman glass to use in some jewelry. It has been sitting in my stash box waiting for inspiration.

On July 4th I worked at the San Diego Fair, again, but not for the Volunteers for Minerals. I worked for a friend who has a jewelry booth and he sells jewelry made with roman glass and small bags of roman glass shards. It is from him that I bought the glass oh so long ago.  

While in the booth I was able to spend more time looking at some of the construction techniques. While much of what was in the cases had thicker glass or was perfectly encapsulated in gold and silver there were several pieces that reminded me of the "Captured Objects" style I had seen demonstrated up at Metals Week by Joanna Gollberg who was leading the class titled "Trapping Found Objects" 

I had finally found my inspiration!

Saturday, I pulled out my glass and selected two pieces. One would be used for a necklace and the other would be cut in two for a pair of earrings.   Both pieces appear to be the bottom rim of bowls or vessels and have part of the bottom which is thick and some of the side walls which is very thin.

I spent most of the day shaping the glass to remove the sharp edges; rolling out my silver and adding a texture; cutting, drilling and soldering a frame on to the back plate. 

It was a total of 10 hours on Saturday

Sunday I soldering the prongs, rings to attach to the chain and I started to work on the Byzantine chain. The chain will be short enough to have the finished piece just lay at the base of my neck. I will have 2 hooks of some sort [yet to be designed] for each connection so  IF I want to use a different chain (maybe a longer viking knit perhaps) I can change it out. I spent about 5 hours on the project Sunday.

I have not attached the glass at this point because once I do, I can't/shouldn't put it in the polisher - which is where it is right now. I have to be ABSOLUTELY positive I am done with any changes I might make. 

I am hoping to get the chain hooks soldered and then get the chain into the polisher tonight. Then I can check it all tomorrow and Wednesday set the glass.

Go over to my Metals- 2010 page to see some of my first pictures.