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Once you have finished a design from precious metal clay, it is often difficult to find a brooch fitting that suits your handmade piece.
Making your own brooch fitting is very straight forward.
Firstly, take a length of sterling silver wire. It should be approximately twice the length of the brooch itself.
Bend the silver wire into a curve shape and make a fixing pad and solder both ends securely to the base.
Cut the silver, but make sure you leave 1cm to allow folding for the catch.
To make the catch of the brooch, coil the sterling silver wire around a rod going from under to over.
The pin should be finished when it has tension at an angle of 70 degrees.
Then round off the ends of the catch and bend the pin over so that the fitting mechanism will engage.
Cut the pin off at an angle to provide a point, before sharpening on a grindstone to slightly round the end.
The point of the pin should be sharp enough to easily be pushed through the fabric, but not so sharp that the weave of the garment is ruined.
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