Interim Project with Crystals

In the post called "New Stones" there are 3 fluorite crystals.  At the time I bought them I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with them.  They were inexpensive and I liked the graduation of color that fluorite comes in.  What I hadn't checked was that the stone is about a 3 on Mohs scales (hardness) and that crystals can be brittle.  I'm so gun-ho on new pieces that I didn't think about checking that out and began making a cage for them to go along with the design I drew up. 

Turtle be damned I say! So there I was going to my fabrication class with my half done cage and asking questions about what I needed to do to protect these crystals from the heat I was about to apply to ball the second end of these wires.  LOL  That dear sweet teacher looked at me and said "are you trying to turn my hair white?" 

That's when it occurred to me that I should have looked up the necessary information before I designed a cage that required close contact heat.  Okay dokey.  So now what?

Well, like most design issues there is usually a way around the problem.  Mostly if you think about it before the initial design, duh.  Since I also happened to have a jar of Vigor Therm-A-Guard I figured I might find a way around it.  And, so it was.  I wet packed the guard inside the cage and around the crystals, stuffing it in with a soldering pick where I needed to. 

I was just plain lucky - it protected the crystals and I now have a nice cage for them and can continue on with the design.  Back to the torch....I've decided it needs a Warring States themed bead for the bottom - and maybe some matching stone dangles.  It was one of the design options I had come up with.

 

My finished cage needs polishing and oxidization but that can wait until I have more parts complete.

 

It might also look great with a necklace made of similar stones and a ceramic word bead that said "clarity".  Or something to go along with the metaphysical meaning of the fluorite crystals/ and Warring States bead yet to be made.  Choices - choices. 

 

I'm always open to ideas - what do you think?