After planning the piece I have prepped a few difference pieces, some coiled coils, the three marquise stones to go along the bottom of the piece, and the frame as well as some other coils and pieces of wire that I will be using to secure everything.
Securing the coiled coil and a smaller coil that will create the depression for the main tiger iron piece to sit in. I plan on connecting them to the top loops and then later once everything is in place I will lash them to the frame.
My husband totally thought that the tiger eye was supposed to go at the top of the piece instead of the bottom. Messing around with it I decided it was an interesting look and revised some of my plans. It'll work about the same, but with things going backwards from what I originally thought.
Now that I know I won't have the three marquise stones holding in the tiger iron I use a piece of 20 ga round with swirls to create "prongs and hold this baby in. Up top I took the three 20 ga rounds from inside the inner coil (the ones that were headed towards the left) and brought them around to cover just the tip of the pear, holding the stone securely in place. The three from the top are brought down along the back of the piece and connected at three points at the bottom of the frame. This is the final step that secures the tiger iron from the back. Also notice that I went back in with 30ga round on the inner coil to make it look a bit more finished. I'm a firm believer that it's the little things that give a piece a polished look and I really think that helped complete the coil.
I could show a bunch of stuff about how I connected the marquise stones, but I didn't take pictures, so here's the gist of it.
1. I added one more 20ga round around the main tiger iron cab to fill the empty space and help hold it in. I also added a twisted piece of 22ga square wire on the other side of the inner coil to fill space. I was going to use round, but the twisted wire added a little bit of interest as well as being super stiff once it's twisted.
2. I placed the marquise stones at the top and brought the two tails criss-crossing behind the piece. They were then wrapped around the sides to accent the top drooping wires and continue that style. I lashed them to the frame in the back.
3. I took 30 ga wire and lashed each tiger eye separately to the hoops at the top of the bail to hold them tight against the pendant and keep them from leaning forward.
I'll be honest, I could have kept the connections of the three wires on each side near the bottom a bit cleaner. If I decide to sell this I'll probably take some pliers and noodle them clr together so they sit nicely against each other. But this is still a far cry from my old messy backs, and most importantly, passes the sweater test.
And there you have it. After a nice dip in some patina solution, and a ton of polishing and cleaning, it's done.