The Brooch

Building Bitzer part 5

My long-misused jewellery-crafting skills got a workout this afternoon as I turned a substandard necklace into a pretty nifty brooch.

I thought the chain would also be cheap and nasty, but no-o-o-o-o… It turned out to be some high-strength previously undiscovered amalgam of tungsten carbide or something as it was an incredible pain in the anatomy to try and break one link.

Even my trusty side-snips [pic 3] barely made a dent in them, but once that dent was made, the link was weaker and eventually succumbed to pressure.

The technique went thusly:

Dent reject link with side-snips. This uses prodigious amounts of muscle and some leaning.

Insert closed needle-nose pliers into the centre of the reject link.

Resting tip of pliers against the table, apply pressure both outwards and down.

Curse a bit whenever the arrangement slips.

Finally get enough gap to winkle reject link free.

Blood sacrifices are not necessary.

The gem holding prongs were shockingly easy to open in comparison, and the gems themselves were minuscule!

I poured one drop of craft clue into the setting, picked up the gem by adhering it to my finger, and pressing it onto place. Then, once it was in, it was just a matter of re-setting the prongs.

Compared to the link removal, it was a breath of fresh air after exiting hades.

Next: Fixing the loose links back into their proper place. My glue gun has a dribbly nose and that’s exactly what I needed for this job.

Part 6 coming soon!

Bits and bobs about to be used in the making of a brooch