Quartz and Garnet Pendant

Making a Quartz and Garnet Pendant

Supplies: Quartz stone, pre-polished garnets, chain, bale, lobster clasp, brass mesh, epoxy resin

Tools: Needle nosed pliers, side cutters, rock polisher, dremel, diamond drill bits, various dremel attachments for grinding a polishing.

I drew out a rough drawing as to what I wanted. To prepare the piece of quartz I found in a gravel path, I used a rock tumbler to smooth the quartz stone to a shine. I ran it for a week and it came out as you can see in the picture. The garnets I had on hand were pre-polished so they didn't need to be put in the tumbler.

I used a dremel tool with diamond bit to make hole for chain hook. I drilled two holes that met at a 45 degree angle inside the stone. When you drill stone that is as hard as this, you will need to drip water over the work as you drill. This is the most difficult part of the job and takes a lot of skill and patience. If you try to drill the stone without water it will get the drill bit red hot and it will break.

My idea started with six garnets surrounding the quartz, but ended up with eight surrounding the quartz as it looked more like a flower petal.

I cut a small piece of brass mesh to act as a backing for the stones and glued the main stone to it with epoxy.

I centered the quartz on the mesh and glued 8 garnets in a circular pattern around the quartz in a flower petal pattern. The side of the garnet that is to touch the mesh should be roughened with a diamond drill bit. The brass mesh should be roughened also to give the epoxy something to grip on to.

I attached the hook and chain to the quartz through the two holes I had drilled earlier.

I put some lacquer on the quartz stone, put the lobster clasp in the middle of the chain and trimmed the brass mesh close to the stones. Put decorative gold pin to conceal the hole in the quartz.