A few more pendants

[Alan Zenreich]

Here are a couple more of our recent pendants.

Lauren has been having a good time with the beads, crystals and wirework to complement the wood.

I finally used up the last of our padauk and zebrawood... have some other interesting wood blanks to explore for our next round.

More pendant photos are on my web site.

Thanks for looking.

[David E Keller]

Those look great. Lauren has certainly got a knack for accessorizing the wood. I really like the zebra.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nice work on all of them - but the Zebrawood really stands out! I like how the colors all work together!

Pretty cool stuff! Thanks for sharing!

[gary Zimmel]

Nice work on the pendants Allen.
That zebra wood one sure catches ones eye...

[alex carey]

totally awesome idea, nice job.

[John Keeton]

You are really becoming a team on these things!! While I will agree that the color combination on the Zebra one is great, there is something about the first Padauk one that is very attractive - though I might prefer it better without so much on the chain. What is the material you used for the center of the first one?

[Alan Zenreich]

John,

The disk in the first photo is made of yellow and black glass. Really stunning up close. The gloss of the disk sets it off nicely against the matte finish on the padauk.

We've made several using these disks, and the ladies (all friends) really like them. Some additional photos are on the pendant page of my web site.

As for the amount of beading... that's where I defer to Lauren. She has a good sense of what other women will wear. Some like very very simple, others really like a little glitz. Often I give a little input into the process, but usually stand back and just see what she comes up with. It's also great fun watching her do wire work, as I'm not yet familiar with some of the techniques, so I don't know where she's headed.

Part of the joy of making these early pendants is figuring out how to actually produce them. Lots of successes, several failures.

For example, how and when during the process to bore the large center hole without blowing up the relatively fragile slice of wood. Here are just some of the decisions:

Drill press or lathe?
If lathe, forstner bit or chisel?
If drill press, bore the wood slices one at a time, or do a solid block then slice later? If one at a time, bore hole while wood is still square, or after rough rounding on the bandsaw?
Drill one large hole or a series of progressively larger holes?

All of these (and other) little decisions are tweaked depending on the materials and their tendancy to break and fly off of the machinery. I've spent quality time locating and picking up pieces of 'almost' pendants from the shop floor <vbg>

We're having a lot of fun with these. The women who now wear them are delighted with the results.

[Paul Douglass]

Those are really nice. Do you finish the back of the wood flat or is it finished off some how like the front, as in curved.

[Alan Zenreich]

The back is flat, but the edges are rounded front and back.

[Michael Armstrong]

Great looking pendants.I'm inspired by your work to get back and try making some more of these myself.

Michael

[Bernie Weishapl]

Alan those are beauties. Really like the first one and the zebra wood just stands out.

[Baxter Smith]

Very nice pendants.

[James Combs]

That's some beautiful work Alan. I got to try some of those myself someday if I can find some one to wire them.