The Illusionist Necklace, Page 1
THE MAKING OF
ILLUSIONIST PENDANT #28
Photos and Text
©2007 YKO Studio, LLC
PLEASE NOTE:
We are no
longer making our Illusionist Necklaces, having ceased
production at the end of 2007 due to the introduction of lockets
made in automated machine shops that could open like the one in
the movie. Since our necklaces were made on-at-a-time by hand,
there was no way we could compete with the prices the others
were selling for, so we just decided to stop. The following
information is here simply to document the work that went
into making ours.
I hope the eBay
links above will help point you in the right direction for
finding what you need.
Several people have expressed interest into seeing how I make
our Illusionist Necklaces, so I did some quick photography as I made #28, and
here you have it. Keep in mind that this process takes about 8 to 10 hours from
start to finish. With #28, I started at night and went
to bed after about 5 hours. I spent about another 5
hours the following day to complete it. I also had two
false starts on #28 resulting in two blanks having to be
thrown away.
The first part of the job is to take a block of Walnut
(#25, #26, and #27 were Mahogany), and cut off a slice that is about 1/4" thick
using the band saw.
After that, I cut it to the approximate size I need for the
pendant.
Once I have the rough blank cut, I sand the edges on a disk
sander to make sure all sides are square.
Next, I make the diagonal cut on the band saw, and give that cut
a quick run on the disk sander to smooth it.
Now we go to the drill press to make the hole for the pivot pin
in the two pieces. Simple, right? Just buzz a hole in there with the drill
press… I reality, the hole has to be in the right spot, must be centered
between the faces, and make sure the bit doesn’t "drift" if it hits a harder
spot in the wood. I’m usually pretty close, but
I never get it perfect, so it’s back to the disk sander to true
it up so there are no "ledges" or major gaps when it is in either the heart shape or the oval.
After this, I twist it into the heart shape and form the upper
lobes of the heart on the 1" belt sander.
The process (up to this point) is reasonably fast (about an
hour) if I don’t have any problems. In the case of #28, the first blank made it
to the inlaying stage, and turned out to be too thin, so it had to be discarded.
The second blank didn’t make it to the inlaying stage before it turned to junk.
But the third blank shaped up well, and went on to become #28.