Often one design I make inspires more similar pieces. Such is the case for this new iteration on the classic owl face pendant. Diamond eyes, and this time, the entire backside of the piece is carved with a feathery motif. 14K, diamonds.

Of course, carving a piece all over every square mm makes it difficult to sprue (attach leaders to the wax piece in order to cast it into metal). Because this guy was kind of a double-convex pillow shape, the sprues needed to be about 7mm in diameter. (For comparison, the diamond eyes were 4.25mm diameter…) Each sprue obliterated about 4 of the back feathers. Casting went perfectly, and I recarved the feathers in gold after cutting off the sprues. I was a little nervous about making the recarve match with the original design, but it all went really well and I’m so happy with the turnout.