Pea pods

Good morning I thought today I would share a recent project from my silversmithing class. We were designing projects using fold forming which is something I  used a few years back when I made my daughter a peas in a pods silver pendant. 

I shared this post 6 (!) years ago and photos of the pendant I made.  Here it is again, not the best photos as they were taken with a very old camera.

Now this pendant was sooo complex to make as I had to thread the pearls onto silver wire which I had drilled a hole for. I also made silver tendrils. My daughter loves this pendant and
over the years many people (including my own Mum and Daisy) have admired it.  When I knew that we were re visiting the technique of fold forming in our class I hatched a plan to remake some very simple mini versions of my daughter's peas in a pod pendant for them.
Below are some photo I snapped with my phone on my jewellery bench showing how I brought my idea to life.
I used sheet silver and folded small pieces into rectangles onto which I drew my outline and then cut out.

I then hammered along the rounded edge, re annealing the metal regularly as it work hardens.

This gradually causes the metal to stretch and curve and creates the pod shape.
Once I was happy with the curve I pickled the silver to remove the oxidization and then opened the pod up with pliers (seen on the left side of the photo)

I then drilled holes into tips of the pods.
You can also see in the photo below that if you hammer on the opposite side of the metal you can get a reverse shape rather than a pod....I also made some leaf forms.
I had a play with several versions.

To finish them off I glued in some tiny freshwater pearls.
So here is the mini peas in a pod version..it's always so hard to photograph silver...which Daisy and my Mum really loved.

My card today links in with my pea pod necklaces and is the Lili of the Valley sweet pea pod digi image. I made a new baby card which is up for sale at Dotty's Teahouse where my cards are sold. I added a LOTV stamped sentiment and some fun die cuts.

I would like to enter my new baby card into the following challenges;

Crafteezee summer

That's crafty 1/3 A summer's day

Fussy and fancy 1/3 summer fling

Happy little stampers 1/3 anything goes with dies

Thanks for stopping by and for your kind comments. Have a lovely weekend. I'm back on Monday with my Monday DT make for Visible Image.

Bye for now,

Jane x