Dan Dye Designs

Fighting Fish Pendant - Design Notes

  This pendant is sold but I wanted to describe how I designed this piece.

I had the Crysacola stone first and the color made me think of blue/green Caribbean water.  The curve of the fish tail and of the waves in the foreground of the piece suggests movement through the water.

The back is sculpted to show the fish's eye and scales.

Dogwood Pin - Construction photos

				Step 1: I trace the petal shape on 20 gauge .999 fine silver and then saw with a 2/0 blade in my jewelry saw.
				Step 2: I arrange the two heart shaped petals and two elongated petals to check for accuracy and size.  I like to have an actual blossom in a bud-vase on my workbench to check the details.  This also helps me to get the correct curves of each petal as I hammer and shape them.
				Step 3: Using a cross-peen hammer and a leather covered cedar stump, I hammer a striated texture on the backside of each petal.  This leaves a more realistic veined appearance to the face of the petals.  I also further indent the notch on each petal by hammering into one of the cedar stump's natural intentions.
				Step 4: I make the center from a melted "button" of sterling silver wire and smaller .999 fine silver beads.  I solder the beads to the button with #75 hard silver solder, totally covering the surface to mimic the florettes of the dogwood.
				Step 5: I solder each of the two pairs of petals together with #75 solder, then solder them together with the heart shaped pair on top.  Next, with #70 solder, I solder on the beaded button and attach a stem of sterling wire to the back.  To this wire stem, I solder stems for leaves and then sterling leaves that I have sawn and textured in a similar manner.  A hinged pin and lock are then soldered on the back and the whole piece is hand polished with a course and then a fine polishing compound.

Welcome

Welcome to Dan Dye Designs.

If this is your first visit, please check out the Current Inventory on the right side of the page.  This represents items I have in stock. To see examples of items that can be made as special orders, please have a look at the Portfolio on the left side of the page.

At this point, I cannot accept online orders, so if you would like to place an order, please send me an email using the "Contact Me" link on the left side of the page.

Or, if you would like to contact me via phone, call me at 919-876-0609 between the hours of 9am and 8pm Eastern time.  The holidays are past, and I'm busily working on new designs for 2008!

Ordering Ornaments

I will accept orders for Christmas ornaments until November 15th.  Some of my ornaments can be personalized with a name or date, such as the Stocking with 2007 or Noel, the Rocking Horse ("Thad" shown here) or the the Angel (with a name running across the bottom). 

Contact me for a price estimate on these.