mokume gane locket

a not so good picture of my newest project. oh well. i'll try to get a better one, i was just so excited to finally have finished it!

now, the technical stuff.

this is a locket i made out of brass and brass and copper mokume gane (a really cool traditional japanese technique for patterning layered metal, you should check it out). i made the mokume out of 17 layers of brass and copper, and the fired it in an electric kiln, and forged it/roller milled it to 18 gauge sheet, then patterned it. that whole bit took me like, an entire week of 5 hours a day. crazy. i wish you could see the mokume better n the image.. it looks way better in real life.

anyway, the mokume is sweat soldered to the brass, which i then die-formed using a die i made (which is why there is that cool ridge in the back!). the brass lip that is on the inside holds a mechanism that prevents the lid from opening farther than it does. the lip also holds two tiny magnets at the bottom point that hold it shut when worn.

this is the locket open, you can guess what it looks like closed. or maybe i'll upload a picture of that too. the whole thing is maybe 3/4 of an inch wide, and 2.5 inches from top to bottom. the back is the reverse of the front, mokume and all.

ok, end rambling.