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The design began with Julie sketching several ideas from a top-down perspective. Her vision for the cameo locket with three-dimensional leaves then received input from Jacob, the fabrication side of the team. "We were looking to push the envelope-make something more technically challenging," he says.
Moving directly from sketch to bench, they decided on an original concept and then allowed the design to evolve through the manufacturing process. After making the alloy, they drew 18k red gold wire in multiple thicknesses, from 0.8 mm through 2.5 mm, and crafted what became about 3.5 of the 4 oz. of gold in the piece.
While searching through hundreds of cameos for the perfect three-dimensional, well-carved piece, this lady caught their eye, and they framed her in a 1.5 mm wide red gold bezel. The JJBuckar team then carved a round base for the bird's nest in wax to fit around the cameo's curves, cut a hole in the middle, and cast it in silver. (The base would be removed once the nest was formed.)
To construct the nest, they wrapped the wire around the base, building layer upon layer with gradually thinner wires and stopping at 2 o'clock and between 6 and 9 o'dock to ensure that the wires could be twisted into the form they desired. Each wire was laser welded to the silver and to the ends of the other wires.
To reduce memory in the wire, they annealed the "nest" in a furnace for 30 minutes. "If we over-annealed, the piece would become too soft and would lose its structural integrity; if not enough, it would spring open because there's so much memory in the red gold," says Jacob. After cutting the wire free from the silver, the team cut the silver base at three points and slipped it out of the gold, bending back the wire slightly. The ends of the wires between 6 and 9 o'clock were covered with caps, and the cut at 2 o'dock was laser welded together. After careful arrangement, the team laser welded, cast and diamond-set 19k white gold leaves in the large gap and atop the seam at 2 o'clock.
With the nest complete, they could focus on the back of the locket, which was fabricated to fit the undulation of the nest. Julie drew the pattern directly onto sheet metal; it was pierced, hand engraved, and then additional leaves were laser welded on to flow from the front of the locket to the back.Two picture frames, one in yellow gold and one in white gold, were attached with custom friction hinges to either side of the back door. Openings in the tops enable photographs to be slipped inside.
When the frames are folded in, the back door latches to the nest via a spring locking mechanism that hides in the leaves at the top of the locket. A loop of red gold covers the hinge that attaches the back to the front. The final flourish is a pin stem of twisted red gold with a hand fabricated pump-style catch and a pink sapphire in the end. With the locket construction complete, the cameo was laser welded into place in the nest, and the final wires were added to both secure it and complete the design.
From start to finish, this piece required about 400 hours of labor. "We went into this as we do with all of our projects," says Jacob. "We try not to be limited by budget and do whatever we feel needs to be done to make the piece match our vision for it."
To learn more how to create jewelry using laser welding, please contact LaserStar today.
This article was written by Shannon L. Brown and originally published in MJSA Magazine.