Jewelry Making

I’ve decided to dig through the mailbag for the next couple of weeks to put questions to rest. That instead of putting up a new jewelry tutorial which is what I’ve been meaning to do for ages now. Have no fear though - there should be one upcoming which combines the Mailbag AND a tutorial…

From the Bloglander Jewelry Making Mailbag:

Brieanne writes:
Hi- I would like to make jewelry by setting images into pendants (like this one)

What are the empty pendants called-frames, cups, etc? And where do you find them? How does one make these? Thanks!

Bloglander Jewelry Making says: Whew, I’ve felt out of my depth trying to talk about jewelry making that I dont’ have a lot of experience in. So, I’m relying on you readers to correct me where applicable!

The above photo, by the way, is from the Etsy website who we’ve profiled here before as a great way to sell your jewelry w/out needing to be web saavy. (Credit for the photo and the seller: barbarauppsala. I don’t know how long the link above that Brieanne listed will be good for so I screengrabbed it to show.)

I’m pretty sure what you’re talking about is some sort of Cabochon Mounting (Pendant Mounting?) which is basically an oval or circle loop of metal where the cabochon stone, gemstone, crystal or other pendant sits. There are a huge variety of them. Some of them have 4 or more small pre-notched “prongs” on the mounting that you fold over the stone in order to seat and secure it.

However, I think the one you may be talking about is called a Cinch Mount Cabochon Mounting because it has no prongs and the way you seat the image or stone is to “cinch” the loop around the widest part of the stone using round nose pliers. At right is a picture of one from Fire Mountain Gems that I found. They also have ones with loops at both ends if you want to have the option of connecting it to both ends of chain or multiple pendants using jumprings. There are many different sizes, though most of the ones I’ve seen are oval in shape.

The one thing with this type of mounting is that you have to make sure to cinch it closed securely since that’s the only thing holding it in from both sides. As opposed to the Pendant Settings that have the prongs - I think on those the pendant or gemstone sits in a “basket” on top of the setting and the prongs hold it in.