Mt. Fuji Pendant

brokenarrow

Hi guys!
Thought I'd show you a pendant I've been working on the last couple of weeks in my down time. I took shots of it being made from start to finish. It's based on the Japanese woodblock print, 'South Wind, Clear Sky' also known as 'Red Fuji' from '36 Views of Mt. Fuji' by Katsushika Hokusai; The series was created between 1826 - 1833
I have a huge weakness for Japanese prints, there has always been something about them that I connect to.

Materials - Sterling Silver

'South Wind, Clear Sky'






Sketch w/sterling sheet, back plate and Fuji cut out






Half round wire for bail






Shaped bail and square wire for accent







Soldered bail (unfinished) and back plate







Soldered pendant base; polished Mt. Fuji and cut out snow (brushed) for the peak

brokenarrow

Unsoldered (layout next to sketch)






Unsoldered piece (just thought that angle was kind of cool) also, I completely wrecked this cut out of the snow when I tried to do a bit of spot soldering on the back of it. I watched one of the snow lines puddle, then disappear. Needless to say a very loud 'fuck' came streaming out.
Funny though, I ended up liking the second cut out more.






Clouds






Clouds pre-solder, pre-trees






Pendant after polishing with trees






Completed pendant






Another angle




finis!

CHANGEinWAVES

HOLY FUCK!!!!
this is awesome ....
the 36 views of Mt. fuji are my favorite prints!!
I'd love to own one of those.
beautiful work!!!!

brokenarrow

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

HOLY FUCK!!!!
this is awesome ....
the 36 views of Mt. fuji are my favorite prints!!
I'd love to own one of those.
beautiful work!!!!

that HOLY FUCK was awesome. Much better than the FUCK that came pouring out of me when I destroyed the first snow.
Many thanks ChangeinWaves!

chiquimonkey

that is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! that looks like a ton of work, but paid off in a gorgeous way

finnannie

great work!

Fifthelement

That is absolutely beautiful! Do you make jewelry for a living? If not, you really should consider a career change. :P Congratulations on your hard work.

Sian-of-the-dead

:shock: That's beautiful... Your hard work really paid off!

Jeremy spoken

So fucking cool! awesome!

Lizard

Very beautiful.
Great work.

brokenarrow

Thank you everyone! You're compliments mean a lot to me!
I used to make jewelry for a living but it was more finishing work, pre-cast pieces with a very minimal amount of soldering. Then I worked with a fellow who makes everything by hand, I would watch him, read some books and have just experimented. I want to take a class in the fall to truly learn the 'recipes' and proper way to do things. I honestly don't know what the efff I'm doing! :oops: It's all trial and error.
I wish I could do this for a living, I would be one happy person....
let's see, I'm now in my mid-40's....
what do I want to be when I grow up?
thank you again!

yellowporch

so nice!
i took a metal/jewelry class, and it was hard as fuck for me to do anything( i left that class with burned fingers and a bad grade) lol, totally makes me appreciate your piece, and craftsmanship! nicely done

dcfaithful

Hey, great job! That looks awesome! Working with metal and wood is a great skill to have, you have obviously mastered it

chiquimonkey

i had to come in this thread to look at it again. it is so beautiful

strummers

That is goreous!

brokenarrow

Thank you again!

Yes Yellowporch, I had a nice blister on my left index finger, and a small split on the knuckle of my right middle finger. The flexi shaft (drill), somehow skimmed it and made a nice little split. It was kind of cool though, it gave me the excuse to wear a band-aid on my middle finger, I would hold it up at work to everyone and say , 'hey, look at my band-aid! I have a cut!' and give people the finger.
they saw right through me though since they know me so well.....

pearljgirl2010

OK, that pendant is amazing. I'd buy it in a heartbeat! i don' t have pierced ears, and since I have short hair, I accessorize with necklaces...LOVE unique, chunky pieces and am always looking for something special--like this one!

brokenarrow

pearljgirl2010 wrote:

OK, that pendant is amazing. I'd buy it in a heartbeat! i don' t have pierced ears, and since I have short hair, I accessorize with necklaces...LOVE unique, chunky pieces and am always looking for something special--like this one!

Thank you PearlGirl!

decides2dream

brokenarrow wrote:

:shock: :shock: :shock:
WOWZERS!
that is utterly beautiful!


i have no idea how i missed this thread earlier, tho my presence here on the art wall has been very hit or miss for quite awhile now. amazing, gorgeous work! back in my student teaching days, i had to teach a jewelry-making class. fuck if i knew what i was doing. hahaha. luckily, didn't have to do so for long, and worked obviously with a teacher who did. i fully appreciate all the efforts put forth! and thank you for sharing pics of the *process*....love to see things as they happen. bit of the mythodical in me, i suppose. :P

very, very impressive!

brokenarrow

thank you dreams,

brokenarrow

I haven't been here in a very long time, been so busy, but I've been wanting to update this thread.
This following story is all because of Pearl Jam's Art Wall, the gent found the site on one of his many searches of Mt. Fuji, (although he does like Pearl Jam alot, loves Ed's soulful voice).
This is LONG!, if you make it to the end I'm impressed!

The Adventures of Mt. Fuji:
Towards the end of June, I was contacted by a fellow from Cali who wanted to purchase my Mt. Fuji pendant. He and his girlfriend share a love of mountains and enjoy climbing. Pretty cool huh? But wait, it gets better...

Neither he or she support the diamond industry because face it, you really need to know how and where that diamond has come from in order to ensure it hasn't come from a vicious regime such as the one in Zimbabwe.

The fellow told me their story, how they were flying to Japan, (on July 6th), specifically to climb Mt. Fuji. They're were climbing to the summit on July 11th, which would include night-time climbing, they would reach the summit by the morning of the 12th to watch the sunrise together. He was going to propose to her and ask her to marry him, and in lieu of an engagement ring, he wanted to bestow the Mt. Fuji pendant/necklace as the token of his love.

How could I resist this? This had to be one of the most romantic things I have ever heard.

The care package (sans pendant wrapped in cloth, placed in a beautiful fabric bag with glass beads), chain, polishing cloth, and other goodies flew to California.

The fellow shared his blog with us, they're in their early 40's and are so damned cute, you can tell they're madly in love. They said it was ok to share their blog here on PJ's site, (it hasn't been updated yet with the trip to Japan though, hopefully they'll update it soon!)
http://adventurecouple.org/index.php

Then I heard from our couple,.... Actually, let me back up a bit....
Greg emailed me from Japan the day after he proposed to tell us she said Yes! They were on their way to the Japanese Alps. I was up in Canada, so my husband read me the email when I was up in NS.
On July 28th, I heard from them again, they were back in California and shared their story with me and photographs. The day before he proposed, they were able to see an original Hokusai print of Red Fuji at the Edo Museum in Tokyo. It was on loan from Greece with various other Hokusai prints. He looked at it as a sign, the very next day they were ascending and he was proposing.

This is an except of what he wrote, (figure it's easier than re-writing their story!)...

""It worked out wonderfully. I did not quite know what I would do when we got to the crater rim because I didn't quite know what it would be like up there. As it turns out, we started hiking at 10:15 pm and arrived at the rim at about 2:45 am. We huddled up and shivered until about 4am when I got up to walk around and noticed that a guy setting up a stand to sell hot drinks. Two hot chocolates: best thing ever! At 4:30 we watched the sunrise (with over a thousand other people all over the mountain). After that we made our way around the crater rim to the true summit on the other side. It was there that I popped the question.

After being awake for 24 hours straight we were both a little groggy, but it was a wonderful moment when she accepted. The attached picture of us was taken right afterwords.I didn't actually get a picture of Marilee with the pendant at the summit, but it did go all the way up! I've also attached a later photo of her wearing it.
Thanks again for your beautiful piece...it will now and forever commemorate that wonderful dawn atop Fuji-san.""


Is this cool or what? I can't tell you how honored I feel to have him give her this pendant for her engagement.
Thought you guys would enjoy the adventures of the pendant, you were so supportive after I made it!

Here are some pictures they shared, (again, with the couple's permission)


Sunrise from the summit of Mt. Fuji




Crater of Mt. Fuji




The beautiful couple after she said 'Yes'~