Weak Spot...

I cut these beautiful shapes yesterday for earrings (you know I'm in love with this pattern) from a *rare large piece of Willow Pattern pottery shard - and discovered that this shape has a weak spot. The first cab broke before I even set it - and the second one broke during setting.

*Willow Pattern is common. Large pieces of any kind are rare...

Disappointing - the shapes take quite a long time to cut, but they were just too weak at  the top. These will have to be re-shaped into chunkier drops...

......Some hours later......

Here is the end result - I reshaped the cabs, added Thames Glass cabochons in a gorgeous blue colour, of which I only managed to make 3 with the piece of glass I found...

I'm so glad I am managing to correct my disasters, and that I can reshape the pottery pieces and not ruin expensive stones for instance. I do treat my pottery pieces with care because although they are 'free' - they do take a long time to collect, clean, sort out and shape.
I'm resisting the urge to oxidise these...