Broach and pendant pin or chain?

I am currently working on a Sterling Silver Book, 29mm x 20mm x 4mm.
The client wants to wear it as either a Broach or Pendant. What is
the best way to make the back to accommodate a pin or a chain?

Tom

I am currently working on a Sterling Silver Book, 29mm x 20mm x
4mm. The client wants to wear it as either a Broach or Pendant.
What is the best way to make the back to accommodate a pin or a
chain? 

I made such a pendant/brooch some time ago. The pendant bail, which
was hinged and detachable, clipped onto the hinge of the brooch pin.
Hopefully, the following photos make it clear.

http://tinyurl.com/26bwkms

Regards, Gary Wooding

The client wants to wear it as either a Broach or Pendant. What is
the best way to make the back to accommodate a pin or a chain? 

That type was popular at the turn of the century. There are some
variations like pair of earrings which can also be warn as a pin. This
is not an easy work, and if one does not have an experience it is
probably better to send it out.

That said - for every wearing mode a frame is made with appropriate
hardware. Each and every frame is designed to receive and hold
securely the top, or tops. That is basically it. Making it is quite
another matter.

Leonid Surpin

You put a pin on it (near the top, so it will lie flat and not be
top-heavy and therefore fall forward), and then you buy a ready-made
pin-bail converter which slides over the pin, you close the pin and
then put the chain through the bail. You can buy these converters
from Rio Grande or any company which sells Findings. You can make the
converter yourself, using a piece of tubing a bit less than the
length of the pin and of a diameter just slightly larger than the
guage of the pin, and solder a bail to the center of it. I realize
that 20mm wide makes for a short pin, but it should work. You remove
the converter when it is being worn as a pin. You could also solder
the pin on a diagonal from SW to NE and then solder a small section
of tubing (curved or straight) in the free center of the book up near
the top to serve as a bail. Using a smooth snakechain is probably
your best bet to feed through the bail as the tips of the snakechain
are the same size as the chain itself, and can be easily pulled out
for when the book is being worn as a pin.

Janice Fingado
jfdesigns
Tucson, AZ

You can hide a simple inverted J wire onto the back.

You can make an attachment that slides over the pinstem with a bale
attached to the tube. Have a spring mechanism so that the attachment
isn’t floppy. A simple leaf spring that catches near top and bottom
of piece works well.

You can make the pinstem and bale as each removable attachments,
typically they’d screw on. If there is enough clearance you can leave
the pinstem permanent.

You can use an external pin setup (like a fleur de lie (that was
popular for pendant watches for awhile eons ago) that hangs the
pendant below the ornamental pin finding. A simple swiggly hook works
to catch the bale.

Any of these can be on the simple and cheap or be as relentlessly
crafted as you stand.

Hi Tom,

I have made several pieces that can either be worn as a broach or a
pendant. I use a tubing mechanism that I made from a basic desing
found in “The Complete Metalsmith” written by Tim McCreight on the
bottom left hand side of page 112. Basically, there are 3 sterling
tubes soldered on the rear of the pieces: Two sit against each other
horizontally across the top of the piece and one is soldered
vertically at the bottom (it’s maybe a little less than 1/3rd the
length of the others) and is used as a pin catch. By sawing through
the vertical tubing along it’s side, the tube forms a catch for the
pin back. The pin for the pin back itself has a sort of “crook” bent
into the side of it that gives pin some “spring up” tension. The
very top horizontal tube is a simple hidden bail that a chain can be
run through. If this at all sounds confusing, let me know off-line
and I will scan the page for you and draw you a simple example. I no
longer have the pieces, as they are all sold or have been given as
gifts, but I would be happy to explain it to you further.

Good Luck.
Teresa