This is my Light in the Window creation. It is my own design so you, my buyer, can follow the making of the piece of jewelry in my story here. This is how I came to make a pendant in this shape, material and pattern.

I had purchased a new kiln that worked perfectly for firing individual artisan pieces in this size. I also had owned for many years an antique jeweler’s template for creating embossed metal jewelry. The template is chock full of various motifs used in making jewelry in Afghanistan and India.

I also had plenty of the doughy bronze powder that is called bronze clay. It is a mixture of tiny particles of bronze bound together into a clay-like substance with polymer. So I decided I would use my bronze clay to make a solid bronze decorated frame for the window to hang my little quartz crystal ‘lantern’ in.

I rolled out the bronze dough just as if I were going to make thin wafer cookies. Then what better to use for cutting the edge of the frame than a cookie cutter? I got out a special European cookie cutter that has a scalloped edge and a round hole in the center.

But first I needed to impress an appealing decoration or texture into the now plain bronze clay. I used my old template without regard to which motifs showed where on the surface of the ‘cookie dough.’ I wanted a sort of poetic texture without any special organization of the images. So I pressed the antique template against the soft bronze powder dough and cut my cookie into the shape that you see in my pendant that I call ‘Light in the Window.’

I dried the flat bronze clay window in my dehydrator for several hours, pierced the holes for the chain and for my quartz crystal faceted bead ‘lantern’ and then fired it in my fast firing kiln. When I took it out and tested it by dropping it on tiles of my kitchen counter, it clanged like a real bronze bell. I was satisfied that the polymer had all vaporized and the piece was now solid bronze.
At that point it was time to attach the bail and hang the beautifully faceted clear quartz crystal bead in the window. I added antiqued brass daisy bead caps and hung them with the quartz bead lantern on a bronze wire. I threaded the wire through the hole above the window and wrapped it securely so that the lantern will hang there safely. I hung the pendant with its own wrapped loop on a gold-filled chain and fastener.

I have shown this pendant at a meeting and everyone who saw it was fascinated with its beauty in texture and style. I know you will have the same reaction from the people who see you wearing it.

Measurements:
Length of chain: 17.5 inches (44.5 cm)
Pendant outside dimensions – 47 mm sq. (1.8 in)
Interior window diameter – 23 mm