Thursday, October 26, 2017

Halloween Raven Pendant Necklace - Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"


For Halloween, I made a raven necklace of bronze with a black patina and added a crystal eye.   


I took some images of ravens from the internet and resized, then printed them.  As pendants go, this raven is large, about 5 inches beak to tail and almost 3 inches from feet straight up.  I then used a jewelers' saw to cut the pattern out of metal sheet.  I used bronze 18 gauge, but copper would have worked also.  I then sanded the edges real nice because this bird will be laying on my neck and costume!

I then soldered on some flattened wire for the chain attachments to the back of the bird.  I liked the heat patina so I added more to the front surface of the bird for some feather texture.  I added chemical black patina also and rinsed.  After several patina coatings and sandings, I was happy with the look.  I used a 5-minute epoxy to secure the inexpensive crystal eye.

According to Wikipedia.org, In January 1845, Edgar Allan Poe published his poem "The Raven" to instant success.  It made Poe a household name almost instantly,[61] though he was paid only $9 for its publication.[62]