Technique: Sunflower pendant

Win: Yes

Challenge:

• Creating a flower using layered petals and a centre with clean, refined edges

• Designing a textured flower centre that feels natural but still visually balanced

• Testing a new bail attachment method

Lessons Learned:

• I really enjoy creating flowers and pendants. After the concave attempt two days ago, I tried a convex shape instead. Using a metal form worked much better than tinfoil because the shape stayed consistent and smooth

• Adding drawn detail to petals is surprisingly tricky. The lines need to feel organic and irregular, but still balanced enough to look intentional and natural

Confidence Level: 8/10

Notes:

• I dusted one flower with gold Perfect Pearls and it looks lovely overall. However, at certain angles it appears slightly spotty, almost like a texture flaw. Mica powder may give a smoother, more even finish

• The second pendant was built in layers. This feels structurally stronger and also made it easier to use a firm base shape for attaching the bail

Material Mastery Note

Focus Material: Metallic powders (Perfect Pearls vs mica)

• Perfect Pearls gave a beautiful metallic glow
• But at certain angles it looked spotty or textured
• This created the illusion of surface flaws

This usually happens because:

• Perfect Pearls is slightly grainier
• It tends to sit on texture peaks
• It reflects light in micro patches instead of evenly

Mica powder behaves differently:

• Finer particle size
• Smoother reflective spread
• More satin-metal finish
• Less “speckle sparkle”

Material Insight

• Perfect Pearls → textured metallic, slightly rustic
• Mica powder → smooth metallic, refined finish

I love grunge and uneven and even chaotic, but for a shiny finish, I think you have to decide what story I want to tell. Neither is better. They are just different.

I feel like I am doing this exactly right:

• experimenting
• noticing
• adjusting
• repeating
• refining