Glass Pebble

Cabochon Pendant By Judy Larson

in Memory of June Orlowski

It seems that everyone has a lot of those little glass

pebbles around-you know the ones from the bottom of

flower vases. What in the world can you do with them?

Why, make a pendant, of course! They look fabulous

hanging on a Viking knit chain.

Materials:

21 gauge dead soft or half hard half round wire-

about 3”

21 gauge dead soft square wire-about 24”

24 gauge dead soft round wire (blue pendant)-

about 12”

Glass pebble cabochon

Note: Silver plated craft wire in silver color and

gold color has been used to make this pendant. This

type of craft wire is considered dead soft. Round

wire could also be used.

Tools:

Round, flat, and chain nose pliers

Soft Jaw pliers

Flush cutter

Ruler

Painters tape

¼” dowel

If you do not have fingernails, you will need a

sharp, non-serrated knife to separate the wires

Ultra fine point Sharpie marker

Mandrel the size of the glass pebble

Directions:

Step 1: Measure the circumference of your glass

pebble cabochon: Wrap the outer edge of the

stone with a strip of painters tape. Remove the

tape and place it on a piece of paper. Measure the

tape length. Draw a line on the paper the length

of the tape and divide this length into thirds.

Step 2: Straighten,

cut, bundle and mark

your wires: You will need 4 wires-one that

is 4” longer than the stone circumference

(add more length if you want a larger

rosette or spiral showing on the front of

the cab); one wire that is 3” longer than the circumference; and two wires that are 2” longer than the

circumference. Using the Sharpie, mark the center of the longest wire. Mark the center of the two shortest

wires. Place the second longest wire beside one of the short wires, the ends even on one end. Transfer the

mark from the short wire to the second longest wire. Matching up the marks, bundle and tape the wires

together as shown with the two short wires sandwiched between the two longer wires. Center the bundle on

your drawing and transfer the markings from your drawing to the bundle.

Step 3: Using your half round wire,

make three wraps to show on the two

center marked lines. Place the bundle

next to your drawing and check to

make sure that the wraps are lined up

with the marks. The wraps in the

photo are NOT lined up with the lines. Close is not good enough-they need to be as exact as possible. Use

your fingernail, NOT a tool, to move the wraps if you need to. If you do not have fingernails, you can use the

¼” dowel. Once the wraps are where you want them, you can snug them down tighter with your flat nose

pliers.

Step 4: You will be making a 90° bend AWAY from the wrong side of the bundle, TOWARD the outside or

right side of the bundle. Place your flat nose pliers on the outer marked line so you can barely see the line.

You could even cover the line just a hair. With your fingers, bend the bundle of wires 90° over the top of the

pliers.

Step 5: The mandrel

you use for bending

your wire bundle does

not have to be exactly

the size of the glass

pebble cabochon but it

should be close. Center

the mandrel between

the wraps on the wrong

side of the wire bundle and bend the bundle around the mandrel. When you pull the top bent

wires close together around the cabochon, they should come close to meeting. This does not have

to be perfect, just close.

Step 6: Remove the tape from the bundle ends. Take a close look

at the wire bundle. The side that has the two long wires is the back

and the side that has one long wire is the front. Use your flat nose

pliers to flatten the bend in the front long wire.

Step 7: Put the cab into the bezel and pull the top wires together. Pull the front long wire around the top

wires two times-two wraps will show on the back. It will look like there are three on the front, even though

you only wrapped twice. Cut the wire off on the front side of the bundle. The glass pebble cabochon can be

taken out of the bezel after the first full wrap.

Step 8: Put the glass pebble cabochon back in the bezel. At this point, it may seem that it does not fit. You

will find that the top back of the cab does not set flush with the bezel wires-that is OK. Use your fingernail to

start to pull up the inner bottom wire between the two wraps. You can finish by using the ¼” dowel to push

the wire up as shown. Do the same thing to the front side of the cabochon. The glass pebble cabochon is not

secured permanently in the bezel at this point so you may need to hold it in place with painters tape for the

next few steps.

Step 9: Fan the top wires out slightly: The two long wires go toward the back,

one set of two center wires goes to the right side and the other set of two center

wires goes to the left side. There is one short wire left in the center front.

Step 10: Cut the two sets of side wires to slightly more than 1/8” long. Use your chain nose pliers to curl

down the ends. Tuck the wire ends under the bottom of the wraps.

Step 11: At this point, the glass pebble

cabochon will be sitting at an angle in the bezel

and can not be pushed any further forward at

the top. Use your fingernail and/or the ¼”

dowel to push the back side wires over the

protruding cab. Adjust them until they look

even. Be careful not to pull too hard on these

wires as they are your back two wires for the bail and they have not as yet been secured.

Step 12: Wrap the center front wire around the two bail wires: The center front wire needs to be wrapped in

the OPPOSITE direction that you wrapped the first front wire in Step 7. Wrap two times, ending in the front.

Cut off the excess wire and tighten the wire down.

Step 13: Finishing

Amber Colored Pendant

A: Twist the two bail wires together. Do not overtwist as you may break the

off the bail.

B: At the base of the bail wire, make a

slight bend toward the back of the

pendant.

C: Using the ¼” dowel, bend the bail wire toward the front of the pendant.

D: Use your round nose pliers to make a small round curl in the end of the twisted wire. Switch to your soft

jaw pliers so as to not scratch or mar the wire while finishing making a spiral. Adjust the spiral so it sits

nicely on the front of the glass pebble cabochon. Note: If you want a larger spiral rosette on your next

pendant, cut the longest wire ½” to 1” longer.

Green Colored Pendant

A: Cut 12” of 24 gauge round wire and wrap the two bail wires, making sure they do not twist while

wrapping. Wrap until 7/8”-1” of bail wire is left showing. Start and end the wrap in the front of the pendant

bail wires. Slightly fan out the two wires at the top. Using a soft jaw pliers so as to not scratch or mar the

wire, spiral the bail wire ends toward the outside, as shown, until they meet the wire wrap on the bail wires.

B: Bend the bail wire assembly toward the front of the pendant in the same

manner as B and C in the Amber Colored Pendant. Using your fingers, snug

down the side bail spirals onto the glass pebble cabochon. The spirals will

bend slightly toward the back.

Step 14: Make any adjustments needed to the

bezel wires and the bail. Do not overthink this!

The pendant probably looks fine and only you can

see your mistakes.

Voila! You are done!