Cabochon pendant -tutorial and inspiration photos

I love to browse on Ebay. It is a dangerous world and I seem to always bump into things that I just can’t live without. The last items that I’ve been gathering have been cabochon pendants. These things are just funnest little things on earth.

So here is what I made one afternoon. I actually bought 100 pieces of glass cabochons and base settings so these might not be the only ones I make. Oh dear me!

So this tutorial of mine will be about making one of these pendants. Hope you like it and don’t be afraid to ask if you got any questions.

At the end of the post I have some inspiration for you.

1. To make the pendant you are going to need these next items:
– Glue (anything I think works but it has to be transparent when dry)
– Diffrent sets of cutting tools
– Pencil
– Pieces of scrap paper or any picture that you want to use
– Glass cabochon
– Base setting

2. Choose the picture you want to use in the pendant. Always remember to test the cabochon on the desired picture. The convex form magnifies it so you start to notice that not everything works.  After choosing the right picture draw a circle using your cabochon around the picture.  

3. Cut the circle out. You don’t have to cut accurately yet.

4. Glue the glass cabochon onto the picture. I just put a small dab of glue on the flat side of the cabochon and spread it out. Remember not to put too much of glue. Then just stick the cabochon onto the picture. Make sure it is in the right position and there are no air bubbles left between the glass and the picture.

5. After the glue has set you can cut the edges that come over the cabochon. Usually scissors will do the job but in some cases you might want to use precision tools like a mat knife or a papercraft knife. Be careful not to go over the edge onto the glass side since then it might show as a dark spot when you glue it on to the base setting.

6. Then spread glue onto the base setting. Once again just a small dab of glue is enough. Then stick the cabochon onto the base setting. If any glue is to come over the edges make sure you clean it off before it dries.

7. While the glue dries you can choose the stones you’d like to add to the necklace to go with the pendant. This, of course, isn’t mandatory but I thought it gave a little more life to the pendant . I also happen to have  pretty much of stones.  I chose the colors turquoise, yellow and white.

8. You can bring the stones all into a small bundle to get a good idea if they all work together. This process is the hardest nearly to me since I just can’t make up my mind. But here you see what I did and I thought it worked well with the pendant.

9. Next step is to make the actual necklace. The items that you need:
– chain
– the pendant
– stones
– jump ring
– head pins
– round nose pliers
– chain nose pliers
– cutting pliers

10. Take you head pins and the stones. Make a wrapped loop. I prefer this  loop since it is secure but you may also make a simple loop.

What loops? Here is a link to a wrapped and simple loop tutorial made by Beadaholique.

11. Open the jump ring and insert all the stones into it. Close the jump ring.

12. Then just slide the pendant and the jump ring into the chain and you are done. I used ball chain in this case since it is really easy to open and close. No hassle with adding locks.

So this is it folks. As an tutorial it might seem a bit more complicated and long but it really isn’t. Trust me, try it. It is so fun! Here are still a few picture of ready made necklace and pendants that are waiting for their stones to be chosen as well as for the chain to arrive in the post.

Fun right? Have a great day!

-Alina

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