Beautiful Amber!

I'd like to do a piece on the beautiful thing that is Amber.
Amber for those that dont know, is actually fossilised tree resin. Its been used in jewelry making from up to 13,000 years ago and its still very popular.
I love making pieces with it as every piece is unique, bubbles,dirt or even insects can be trapped in the resin. I’m hoping to get hold of some with an insect inclusion soon to turn into a nice necklace.

I dont tend to buy amber too often, unless someone requests it, as its generally a bit pricey for its size.
Here are a few bits ive made in the past with polished amber stones and chips.

This ring was my first attempt at a claw setting, turns out its rather difficult!

Sterling Silver & Amber Cuff

These last two pieces i was really quite pleased with, i was given a rather large chunk of raw baltic amber to make a single necklace from, due to the size of it i was left with a fair bit to do with as i wished. I did a bit of 'how to' reading online and ended up cutting out the nicest pieces to eventually make into pendants.
Because Amber is so soft it was surprisingly easy to shape and polish with sandpaper. After several hours of polishing i managed to get a good finish to them before wrapping them with Sterling Silver.

This picture shows the progression in polish as i used finer and finer sand paper