The Shield of Faith
I made this pendant for a young relative who is religious and who has always like this type of steampunk style jewellery. She’s always been the one who stands out from the crowd, so I thought this combination of everything which speaks of her faith, combined with her love of the ‘alternative’ style of jewellery might just hit the spot.
tucked into the presentation box was this little book style leaflet which I put together, and which quotes the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 6:10-18. For those of you who may have just glazed over … (lol) .. if you want to understand what I’m going on about then perhaps check out Wikipedia, and in its search bar just put ‘Armour of God’. It will take you where you need to be in order to read.
I didn’t want to start quoting biblical passages here as this isn’t a religious blog, it’s simply a post in my Craft blog, about an item of jewellery I’ve made, but it just happens to have a religious theme to the pendant. (But if you’re not in the least bit religious – it’s just a great Steampunk pendant!)
I have to admit that I’m fairly new to my Ranger Melting Pot (which I’ve christened The Cauldron). I bought it and then sat looking at it for several weeks, terrified of it. It seemed so ‘major’. Such a professional looking item which required someone with way more skill than I had. But … eventually I talked myself into getting the darn thing out on my desk and plugging it in. From that moment I was hooked. AND HOW!!
If you’ve never used one, then I highly recommend it. It’s the most fascinating, amazing, awe-inspiring bit of kit and you honestly don’t have to be a brain surgeon to get it working for you in the way you want it to work. I’ll be making a post about this machine in the ‘Products I Recommend‘ category on my blog, very soon. So if you are interested in possibly purchasing this bit of kit then check back and I’ll put together as comprehensive post about it as I can muster and get it up and ‘live’ by the end of this current week.
But .. back to the pendant: The necklace which it hangs from is made from a length of velvet ribbon in a rich warm green (it had a posh name for the colour, but my memory is rubbish so that name has gone by the by). I turned this length of ribbon into the necklace you see in the photograph by the addition of some jewellery ribbon ends – which are like little clamps with teeth which grip the ends of the ribbon so that it’s held firmly. I added some jump rings and then two lobster claw clasps. Voila – one necklace ready and waiting for a pendant.
The pendant: I did a rough sketch of what I had in mind and then set about making it. I chose the hobnailed bezel you see in the photograph and then searched through my stash for a cross which was the right shape and size to fit into that bezel. Once I’d found it, I then wanted to make it ‘glow’ in such a way that it showed clearly through the poured liquid which was to complete the pendant. So I used some Cosmic Shimmer glitter and flake Glue which I dabbed all over the cross, waited just a moment or two for it to get to a tacky stage and then covered the cross in a mix of silver, rose gold and yellow gold gilding flakes, so that it had a multi toned effect – but you couldn’t really see where one colour finished and the other began.
Then it was time to turn on the Melt Pot. (hears the notes to The Twilight Zone in the background)…. Into the Cauldron Melt Pot I poured some clear Cosmic Shimmer Ultra Thick Embossing Crystals – not too much, but enough to make what I guessed was enough to fill up the bezel and then a little more, just to be on the safe side.
I added some inks – Cosmic Shimmer Melt Inks, … don’t use any other inks in your melt pot because other inks aren’t meant for the Ranger Melting Pot and if you get the wrong inks then the whole molten liquid can explode – you have been warned, – which, because I used CLEAR Ultra thick crystals, the inks simply coloured the clear [now] liquid in the melt pot. The colour remained transparent but the more ink you use, the deeper the colour gets. I then added a little pearl shimmer ultra thick crystals, which gave the liquid a look as if some sort of magic was happening somewhere in that mix.
I poured a small amount of the hot molten liquid into the triangle bezel and quick as I could, I then ‘set’ the cross into that tiny bit of liquid while it was still in its ‘un-set’ state. I needed to do this so that the cross was held in the place where I wanted it to be, so that it didn’t float around the bezel when I poured more liquid on the top. I gave it a moment or two to cool off and then I sprinkled some tiny specks of gold gilding flakes over the inside of the bezel and then carefully poured more of the molten liquid over the cross and carefully filled up the bezel to just the right level so that it was domed a little, but not so that it was close to over-flowing. All I had to do then was wait. Not long. Just wait a little while for the whole thing to cool down – which honestly doesn’t take long at all. Maximum ten/15 minutes for it to be totally cold.
And there you have it. One Steampunk pendant … or pendant with a religious theme (depending upon which way you want to look at it).
There is a little more to the Cauldron Ranger Melting Pot which you need to know if you’re going to invest in one. Either click to ‘follow’ me (that way you’ll get an email when I post something new on here) so that you won’t miss out on the post in ‘Products I Recommend’ which will be about the Melt Pot, or remember to keep popping back and checking my blog out so that you don’t miss it.
Have a great day all ~
The Art of Cobwebs 