Introducing the Enariel pendant: a fusion of celtic elegance and technology.
Delve into a world where fantasy meets innovation with my Enariel pendant. This exquisite piece combines the artistry of elvish and celtic design elements with the functionality of a 64GB USB drive, offering you both beauty and utility in one elegant package.
A creation journey
Being a huge fantasy genre fan I always have this desire to bring some of its elegancy into our world. Also I want my jewellery to be more than just a mere decoration. This is where the USB drive part comes in.
Once a spark of inspiration lands in my mind it takes me hours of sketching to get it out.
I select the most promising draft and start crafting the separate elements accordingly. The overall idea is to make this pendant in 2 parts: a main frame with a gem and a detachable USB drive.
The USB drive part
The bottom part of the pendant is essentially a basket for a USB drive with decorative frames. I chose a brand new Goodram UPI2 64GB nano USB drive. This particular model is awesome for such projects because its plastic case is not an integral part of the drive itself. After removing the plastic parts you got a clean full metal USB stick with little grip bumps on the sides.
I used 1.0mm wire for the central frame and 0.8mm wires for everything else.
The main challange here (and the excitement) is that the elements must be assembled in 3D instead of a flat piece. I solder the central frame first and two auxiliary ones on both sides right after. I figured that it is easier to solder all 3 frames at the bottom point and then attach it to the USB basket.
The main frame
I had an itching desire to create something spiky. It was probably inspired mostly by the world of Witcher and Elder Scrolls where you can often loot some cool artefacts left by ancient civilisations. Hence, the idea boils down to have two wire triangles curved inwards attached to a cage where a USB drive would come in.
Together these triangles would create a frame stiff enough to hold a detachable element firmly. I used 1mm thick silver wires for that purpose, but it turned out that 0,8mm would work just as well. So I would solder 2 out of 3 pairs of vertexes together leaving the last pair at the bottom where the USB part would be inserted.
Only at a later stage of the project I thought that a gemstone would make it all look even cooler. Luckily I had this gorgeous carnelian cab lying around for quite some time that I purchased in a small mineral shop in Poland. A bezel setting was not an option as it would ruin the airy feeling of the entire design. Thus I simply marked four points on the frame as symmetrical as possible and soldered prong wires.
One of the most important things of the entire pendant is the way its parts are holding together. The connection must be strong enough to ensure that the bottom part would not fall off easily. On the other hand it should be easy to operate. I had to get through few iterations until the mechanism was good enough. I used simple bracelet clasps firmly clicking onto the blobs soldered to the USB basket.
The result
After some extensive polishing and tumbling I set the carnelian on the prongs and bent the ends of clasps to kinda outline the bottom frame. I am happy with the end result and also I learned few things along the way so this experiment can be considered successful.
You might also wanna check the video of the Enariel pendant:
Cha-ching!
Another major evidence of success and recognition of me as an artist is that the pendant was sold!
My artistic ego is skyrocketing!
Even more so, my artwork was also bought as a birthday gift! I guess that the artistic fulfilling sensation ain’t getting better than that 🙂
If you like the stuff I create make sure to check my Etsy store SlavikLTD.