After Action Review Jewelry project 2

Sustains, things I did well:

Complete the project on time and with all the required bits and pieces, internal framing, hinge, clasp. It was my first ever working pendant of the sort and it works. I was really proud of myself. I did not get solder everywhere and was impressed with myself on that. Otherwise I would have lost a lot of texture having to sand it out. I got a nice texture on the bronze from rolling it through the mill with sand. I like how I adjusted my design after initial reactions to still get my message across without looking commerically funded. I liked how the shininess of the metal and the shape combined gave a feeling of reverence (church triptych) because that is kind of what the place I was thinking of when I made this makes me feel. Not like church, but reverent.

Improves:

Learn not to scribe to deeply. The hinge was a mite looser on the pin than I thought it would be. I think that happened a little bit along the way. Even though I had a work pin in I think all the opening and closing might have opened the holes just enough to make the difference. The loop on which the pendant was to hang from I should have used a thicker gauge wire, but I did not have one available. In hindsight I could have twisted two pieces of the thinner gauges together for more stability.

What ifs:

What if the piece was slightly smaller? If I had a do over I feel I would go in that direction with some more technical precision (scribing) in my work. Megan's suggestion of the sanding stick I liked because the metal did get slightly sunken in the middle. I might also consider a texture on the left hand side. I would not cut into it though because I think you would loose the sense of moving through the piece from front to back as in a door or window.