Ancient Spirit

On a recent trip to Ohio I visited a flea market and spied a broken and badly treated silver bracelet in a box. The price was very reasonable, so, "Mexico Sterling" treasure in hand, I planned what I would do with it. My original plan was to use the small turquoise cabochons in an embroidery. Upon closer observation, I realized that what I had wasn't a bracelet, but a watch band; sans watch and including a functioning adjustable clasp. I planned to use the Mexican Turquoise cabochon in the center, it was cut by D. Aikman. I wanted the color to stand out, since polishing the silver up seemed to be hopeless without damaging either the little cabs or their fragile settings. The #11 beads and the bugle beads are Czech. Since I already had a working clasp, I didn't need to add any metallic beads; indeed didn't want to, since I probably couldn't match up the old silver color anyway. The sections were held together by hinged pins, some of which were broken. I removed the remainder, and began to lay out the design. The sections with the coil-like tubes for the watch spring rods proved problematic. I couldn't cleanly cut the coils off them without possibly damaging the settings, and they stuck out. Also, all the sections were curved and I had to flatten them. Very gently. Once I laid out the design and had the major parts attached, my son commented that it reminded him of a Thunderbird motif. So I went with that idea, adding "wings" to either side of the large cabochon. An Ancient Spirit and a favorite souvenir was born. Completed 7/08 >>MPK