Accident is probably too strong a word for what I’m talking about.  Experiment is probably better.

I have a pair of earrings that have recently made me want to try filigree, or at least something filigree-esque:

True filigree, of course, is a very complicated and painstaking process which takes lots of practice to do well.  The pattern in the earrings pictured above, however, looks relatively simple so I thought I’d give it a try.

I began by forming a simple circle in 18g sterling silver wire.  Then I started snipping smaller pieces of the wire with my shears with the intent of curling them into various shapes and soldering them in place within my circular frame.  Here’s where things went haywire and I lost interest.  I think my wire was too thick and since I didn’t really measure anything, they were too big and slightly unwieldy.   I decided instead to just make a simple circular pendant instead.

I soldered a jump ring in the center to hold a stone and on the top as a bail.  Boring, but functional.  The happy accident came when I put the bottom half of the pendant through the mill–it flattened it and changed the shape of the circle into a petal (dare I say lotus) shape that is quite appealing.

I’m going to play around with sizes and stones on this pendant.  Even though I used a peridot in this example, I’m not 100% satisfied with it.  I’ll also make one with no stone at all, or add a tear drop of 18k gold instead of a stone.  Lots of options!