Marcasite in Agate by Gerard Scott Designs

Marcasite in Agate by Gerard Scott Designs

This week, I worked out what was troubling me with a design.  It was one of those few times that my artistic vision was cloudy, so to speak. I bought the most amazing Marcasite-in-Agate cabochon from Gerard Scott Designs a few months ago.  I was so excited looking at it, but… when I finally got over the sheer gorgeousness of the piece, I couldn’t decide what the design should be!

I knew I wanted a certain look, with a few specific design elements.  Maybe.  I was going to set it in silver.  I was going to set it in 22k gold- not that I have any.  I was going to frame it in diamonds. Yeah right.  I was going to set this amazing cabochon if only I could figure out which design!

So I drafted pages and pages of designs.  I drafted until I was sick of looking at this innocent, amazing, completely gorgeous, yet frustrating, piece of rock. Here were the top runners up:
Marcasite in Agate Designs

So then I just threw up my hands and started construction on the one thing my favorites all had in common- the partial bezel.  A bezel is a wall of solid metal that goes all the way around a stone, and is formed over the sides to hold it in place. So a partial bezel only goes around the stone part way… Well that was a good start… and then whoooosh!!

The design came out of nowhere, and was exactly what I had had in mind, but just couldn’t effectively realize.  My problem was that the stone reminded me of something, but I couldn’t remember what.  It finally occurred to me that it reminded me of the Cascade Mountains. I used to live in their shadow, and I have alot of amazing memories that feature gorgeous mountains looming in the background. As soon as I realized that, I couldn’t create the pendant fast enough!

Northwest Dream by Kaelin Design Fine Art jewelry

I forged a silver swath for the top section, with a beam of 14 K reticulated gold sweeping across like a single ray of sunlight does in the foothills of Snoqualmie Pass… then I set off the whole with a 1/4 carat total weight of glorious VS White Sapphires.

It took a while, but I finally managed to make Northwest Dream.  Enjoy!