Fold Forming Adventure

 

A talented young gentleman, about to become a father for the first time, wanted a marvelous gift for his much loved and very gifted wife.  He liked a fold formed pendant called Pure Treasure I.

The central part of the pendant is fold formed pure gold and has four puncture holes through which a fine silver ribbon winds its way from front to back and around the central body.  This is not a small pendant.  It is 1 1/4 in (32 mm) wide and 2 5/8 in (62 mm) high. But he thought that adding a rose gold ribbon that would intertwine with the silver ribbon would add more color and movement and would enrich the pendant.

Note to fold formers:  I take extensive notes for all of the fold formed jewelry that I make so as to be able to produce a similar object on request.  For the original Pure Treasure I pendant I traced around the metal shape before it was fold formed and determined the fold lines, recorded the thickness and weight of the plate and the direction of and number of pulls through the rolling mill.  I re-melted and folded and pulled the pure gold central element of the new pendant three times before arriving to an acceptable equivalent of the original.  Beware that a variation in thickness of the plate of less than 1/10 of a millimeter from the original, upon being folded and pulled, will probably produce a nice form but be considerably different from the original.  Actually any variation whatsoever in the weight, the placement of the folds, the distance between the cylinders of the rolling mill – any difference from the original model will be expanded in the rolling process.

Pure Treasure I, original, front

 

Pure Treasure I, custom order, front

 

Pure Treasure I, original, back

 

Pure Treasure I, custom order, back

 

The client was right.  The resulting pendant is more intricate (interesting) for color and movement.  Serendipity determined that with this variant the back of the pendant would become as beautiful as the front, so now there is no defined front or back and the pendant can be worn indifferently.

 

Tagged as: custom made jewelry, fold formed gold, fold formed pendant, fold forming, gold and silver pendant, lois martens