Today, I found out that there is a new (to me) way to wrap gemstones.

I have one regular customer who I am helping out with building a necklace with crystal pendants. Sometimes I am finding the kind of stone he is looking for, and other times I am wire-wrapping stones that he sends me.

Well, he sent me an especially tough one a few weeks ago. It's a double-terminated amethyst, but it's about thumb-wide and a bit over an inch long, so it's very chunky. As I discovered after using lots of wire, that shape just does not lend itself to wire-wrapping at all. It also has a girdle around its middle with little chakra-colored cabochons. I loved it. It used to have a bail on it, but the original bail broke completely off, hence he needed it to be fixed.

So I was at a loss on how to get this done. If I had soldering equipment I could have done this in minutes, but I don't. I only wire-wrap, and wrapping was not getting the job done.

After wracking my brain, I looked around through other jewelry creations on Etsy and Pinterest, and one particular tumblestone practically LEAPED off the screen at me. It was wrapped not in wire, but in chain. AHA! I realized a way that I could adapt that idea to wrap the Amethyst pendant. I did it this morning (before my eyes start getting tired from reading the computer screen and my close-up vision deteriorates... freakin' middle age). It's getting shipped out this afternoon, and I Am Delighted.

HAPPY DANCE.

That's awesome! :thumbup: It's fun to learn new techniques.

Sweet!