Mother's Day Gift

I don't know why I have so much trouble with the orientation of these photos on here!  UGH!  So you have to look at it this way, sorry.

This is the necklace I made for my daughter-in-law.  Our granddaughter Paige was born before Mother's Day last year so this is our daughter-in-law's first Mother's Day.  

I took a copper disk and hammered the edges a bit and then stamped the words:  "your first breath took mine away".  I had gotten the letter "P" for Paige at Hobby Lobby.  Then the fun part and my most favorite part!  I had taken a profile photo of Paige and shrunk it down to about the size of a quarter and I printed it out.  I had to make sure I had a picture of her that had a very light background so I could get a good outline of her head.  Then I cut her little head out of the copier paper.  I had purchased some PMC 3 silver (Precious Metal Clay) and I rolled a bit out thinly onto my work surface.  I set the paper head on top and traced around it with a thin needle.  I poked a hole in the top for the jump ring to go in and I let it dry for a couple of hour.  Then I sanded it very smooth. The more sanding you do at this point, the less you do later!!!  Something very important to always remember!  Once I got it smooth on the flat sides and all edges it was ready to "fire".  

I set the head on a fireproof kiln brick and got my micro torch out and began the firing process.  Once it was done and cool I sanded it quite a bit.  I had some marks on it from the binders being burnt off. And when the sanding was done I used silver polish and I polished it up.  Once the PMC silver clay is fired it is .999 find sterling silver.  How cool is that?  I polished the head to a mirrored shine.  It turned out a lot prettier than it looks in the photo.  It's a beautiful piece of silver and it's got a special meaning to it because it's the profile of my granddaughter!  So this is what I gave to my daughter-in-law for Mother's Day!

And a Happy Mother's Day to you all too!

Thank you for visiting today,
Wanda