This was a really exciting one for me as it was using a precious item that I had never seen before but that I was very interested in after visiting Le MAP in Marrakesh this year. This items came from Namibia Ovambo poeple and it means a huge amount to the owner.

This bead was brought to me by Cath, she wanted to use heirloom gold and rings to make 2 remodels this was the first I worked on. It was a simple request but needed quite a bit of care in how it was handled and set. The Okepa bead I believe could have been made of bone, which was dyed with a red colour and needed to be carfully ground down to make it more of a cabochon for settting.

The gold was many items melted down and forged out to make sheet I could use for the mounting. When remelting gold in a studio setting there is always the chance on misphaps and issues with cracking and pits. You can see how I had to carefully avoid these areads when I made my cuts. The Dado2 was fabulous for helping me tack weld the unweilding large bezel before soldering.

The scrap from this was the used to make her rugy and diamond pinky ring… check it out!

Okepa Pendant