It's All In The Details...

Any great art design has great attention to details-whether it's a photograph, a sculpture, a painting, or jewelry.

Lexi Erickson is a contributing editor for Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist and Jewelry Making Daily. This is an excerpt from an article she wrote for Jewelry Making Daily, "Metalsmithing Details: Designing Interesting Pendants"

Her motto: "The back of the piece should be as interesting as the front of the piece," and you have the basis for a delightful array of design ideas. Therefore, the bail can be a richly designed little secret treasure that only the wearer knows about. That's not always the case, as it seems like anytime anyone looks at one of my pendants, the first thing they do is turn it over and look at the back. So I like to make the back interesting and beautiful, too."

(image is Lexi Erikson's Star Shaman 

pendant and Lexi owns the copyright to this work)

Lexi says that if you can make the back a bit more detailed, reflecting the spirit of the piece or the design on the front, it makes the back more interesting. Here, she used a Native American sign as an extension of the bail on her Star Shaman pendant.

You can read the article in its entirety,  "Metalsmithing Details: Designing Interesting Pendants (and Speaking French) with Lexi Erickson" over at the Jewelry Making Daily Blog.

For more great metalsmithing tips, techniques, and projects, check out the jewelry-making tutorial DVDs and video downloads, and learn from Lexi herself in her Metalsmith Essentials DVDs, How to Solder Jewelry Vol. 1 and Jewelry Etching on Copper.