Week 10: For Clemens: The Four Elements

I have a friend that has been very important to me for the last couple of months. He was Barend's best friend and we support each other in our grief. I don't think I would have made it through these past months as good as I'm doing now without him. So I wanted to make something really special for him.

His lucky number is 4. He has a tattoo on his arm that looks like a 4 one way round and if you look at it the other way round it is the Chinese word for Strength. When I started thinking about what I wanted to make for him I immediately thought of the four elements. I did some research and found that the earliest form of the Celtic cross is a circle with a + in it. The four spokes represent the four elements.

While I was thinking about how to make this into a piece of jewelry a male could wear (I always have problems designing for men) I saw one of Iza's crosses for the first time and I just knew what I wanted to make. So when I found Iza's new tutorial I bought it and went to work right away (thanks so much Iza!). I adapted the design so it would just have one bead in the middle. I also made the spokes the same size so it looks more like the symbol for the 4 elements. And I made the little ball ends with my torch. The piece is a combination of Fine Silver and SS. The bead in the middle is a faceted round Amethyst. The Amethyst also has a special meaning to Clemens. I hung it from a simple leather cord.

I worked on it without stopping yesterday and finished just in time so I could give it to Clemens last night. And he loved it. I just had time to make a quick scan of it because he didn't want to leave it with me :). Comments are of course always welcome!