First, there was the selection of the turquoise I was going to use. I figured there would be at least 14 to 15 conchos and a buckle based on his waist size. He wanted something along the conservative line with the turquoise as the main attraction. Okay.... So after digging through all my turquoise rough, I finally came up with a turquoise nugget about the size of a small grapefruit and decided to start slabbing. Well, after the slabbing process, my blade bit the dust and as fate would have it, I did not have another so I had to order one. Actually, that was a good thing because it gave me the chance to lay the slabs on top of a black leather strap and figure out how I was going to trim the cabs for the conchos. The photo below is what I ended up with after my blade arrived. I forgot to take a photo of the nugget I slabbed, but it was similar to the nugget in the upper left corner. The piece in the lower right corner would be the stone for the buckle. I believe the turquoise is from the old Santa Rita Turquoise Mine out of New Mexico.
With this process done, I started the grinding and polishing process and this is what the stones looked like. At this phase, I started making the bezels for the stones.
Once all the bezels were made, I started making the shanks for the backside that would be soldered onto silver sheet.
After soldering the bezel to the plate, I hand sawed the silver sheet to follow the shape of the specific stone and soldered the shank to the backside. After this process on each concho, I went through the polishing process, then set the stones.
The buckle was a challenge, too, but it sure turned out pretty!
Below is a photo of the buckle and all the conchos for the belt.
It was hard to get a photo of the complete belt, but here are a few.
And there it is in all its glory. It is a family heirloom!
