Jellyfish Pendants handcrafted from antique thimbles

The making of a unique Jellyfish Pendant made from a Sterling Silver Thimble. An old thimble getting a new lease of life as a jellyfish pendant.

Who would’ve thought something utilitarian and functional like a little thimble could be transformed into something so unique, unusual and wearable like a Jellyfish Pendant?

What have Jellyfish Pendants got to do with our current state of affairs you may ask? Well…since the start of our Covid-19 lockdown, I’ve been focusing my time and attention on homeschooling and keeping my family safe and sane. My usual work/life balance has been flipped completely and my partner and I have devised a rough schedule so that we both get enough alone time in our respective studios to get creative without interruption.

I’m getting at least one full day in the studio at the moment, which isn’t enough, but I can’t grumble, at least I have a studio at home and can access it whenever I need to. The time I can devote to making and selling my work is pretty limited, but I’m doing as much as I can.

It’s not business as usual, but as all my stockists are now closed, I have no wholesale orders keeping me busy. I have no deadlines to meet. This frees me up to have a play and experiment and try things out that have been on the back burner for a long time. So I sat down recently and wrote a list of 10 things that are on my #BucketList as a maker and posted them onto my Instagram Stories last week.

My Milomade #BucketList of 10 things I've always wanted to make but never had the time.

A few people responded with suggestions of what to tackle first and so it was decided that I should make a pendant from a silver thimble. I bought a box of watch glass years ago for another project that I never got round to and the seller included a few thimbles in the sale. They’ve been in this box for years and I’ve never done anything with them.

The making of a unique Jellyfish Pendant from a Sterling Silver Thimble

One of these thimbles has a beautiful engraved design, but it was damaged when I acquired it and the bottom rim that contained the hallmark came off long ago. I decided to start with this thimble and give it the love and attention it deserved. It has the most beautiful swirly pattern all over.

This is the first thimble I worked with.

I had no idea what I was going to make, but when I smoothed off and levelled the base, I noticed that there was a row of holes around the thimble. So I had to utilise these in some way. After a bit of playing around with different thicknesses of wire, ideas starting forming in my head and after that the whole process from start to finish was quite organic and intuitive.

I didn’t make any sketches, I just got on with the process and enjoyed EVERY, SINGLE, MINUTE!

I scalloped the bottom edges…

Here the bottom edge has been given a scalloped finish to form for body of the Jellyfish.

I made a hole in the top so that I could thread a bail through it so that the pendant would be able to be hung from a chain. I then thought the best way to utilise the holes was to use wire that had been balled at the end. So this was the next stage.

The making of a unique Jellyfish Pendant made from a Sterling Silver Thimble. I have balled the ends of a few strips of silver wire so that I can thread them through the holes in the thimble.

From here on in it was pretty obvious to me what the pendant was going to be, but I kept my followers on Instagram guessing for days as I only posted images up of the different elements. Some people thought it’d become a hedgehog or a porcupine, or an octopus or squid.

The making of a unique Jellyfish Pendant made from a Sterling Silver Thimble. It's now quite obvious what the pendant will be with the tentacles added.

I kind of got lost in the process and didn’t photograph the next few stages, so all I have to show you is the finished pendant. What do you think?

The making of a unique Jellyfish Pendant made from a Sterling Silver Thimble. This is the finished pendant with tendrils and tentacles made from old broken silver chains.

It’s turned out so much better than I expected and I totally love it. I’ve been wearing it ever since I made it and it hangs low on a long 76cm chain. It’s a great weight and it’s great to fiddle with.

If you like it, comment below and let me know what you think….

Look out for my next instalment where I’ll show you the other Jellyfish Pendants I made last week.

So how do I get one of these Jellyfish Pendants?

They’ll be in my shop soon and if you’re eager to get one and want to know exactly when they’ll be added to my shop, hit the Sign Up button in the footer below and become a Milomade VIP. I’ll be emailing all my subscribers first to let them know when the pendants go live.

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