Fibula 2

Here we go again:

This one is made from 1.5mm steel rod (a hair less than 1/16-inch).  I think this is a bit too thin, and might not stand up to the strain of fastening a heavy cloak.  But it works much, much better than the 1/8-inch in any case.  I might consider using a thickness up to 1/12-inch or so.

The use of only a single brass bead is intentional, as I wanted to keep the amount of metal to a minimum.  The round copper-plated beads on the first attempt already had 1/8-inch holes, so they were easy to use as filler.  However, for this pin, that wasn't necessary, since it was easier to drill out enough bone beads to fill out the bow when I only had to increase the hole diameter from about 1mm to 1.5mm.

And one more time:

Of course it turned out wonky due to the metal bending too much where the large round bead should be, forcing it over to one side.  I also made the pin too short, which didn't help.  Due to the wonky bead and too-acute bend in the bow, I think this attempt looks much less elegant than it could.  I might remake it someday.

A few notes:  Some of the bone beads - which, according to the package, come from the "Cherished Collection by Nicole" (um, sure) - had tiny seed beads jammed in the stringing holes which had to be pushed out before the bone beads were useable.

Also, the steel, which comes from the spine of a marker flag, is apparently high-carbon.  Between the second and third successful fibulae, I accidentally quench-hardened another pin while forming the coil, which was the first time I'd ever successfully quench-hardened anything, causing the coil to snap like dry spaghetti.

Fibula

Steel rod with bone and brass beads.

Lessons learned:  For this purpose, 1/8-inch steel is much too heavy.  Shaping it required a lot of annealing and forging.  The rod is also too stiff, making it difficult to clasp and unclasp, and pressing on the bow of the fibula in the process puts a lot of pressure that I fear will eventually crack the bone beads, even though they're not packed together.  And, of course, I wasted a lot of time enlarging the stringing holes on each bead (except the small smooth brass ones).

The bone beads are from an inexpensive packet I got at A.C. Moore.  The brass ones are from Crazy Crow.  Actually, the smooth brass beads are copper-plated.

I would like to try again with a thinner steel, in 1/12 or even 1/16-inch if I can find it.  I also wanted to incorporate fewer metal beads and some animal horn ones.