Darkest Before Dawn: Nightfall

Some time ago, we launched Nightfall as an expansion of our Lockstone range. We've plenty of experience in making bracelets and necklaces as we have done day in and day out for nearly two years. 

However, a major bump in the road almost derailed the project entirely. Maybe kink in the tracks is a better way of phrasing that.  

Previously, all our pendants were machined via CNC from solid steel, copper and brass. With Nightfall, we opted for a casting approach in order to create the new pendant shape and incorporate the constellation designs. Mankind has been casting metal for a long time. What could go wrong?

Bubbles.

What we found was that, batch after batch, were coming up with small but noticeable bubbles in the surface of the metal once cast. These small holes made many pieces totally unusable. Each batch that went wrong was another delay. Try again. Failure. Delay. 

This went on much longer than we anticipated. Finally, we pulled the plug on the casting approach and went back to CNC.

What this meant was that we now had to hand polish stainless steel plates instead of them being ready to go. 

To add further complications, the CNC parts came in slightly wrong, meaning we had to drill and wear down significant amounts of stainless steel to get them right. You know dentist drills? We had to use one of those.

So, to mitigate all of the horrors of bringing Nightfall to life, we've changed a few things. 

Firstly, the pendant design has been tweaked to be better to produce all round. 

Secondly, we've moved away from the original constellation designs and implemented a new approach using our engraving capabilities. Going forward, the constellations will look similar to this:

All round, Nightfall, through great trial and tribulation, has come out much better than it was when the campaign ended. Now that we're fulfilling the campaign at long last, we hope that the pendants are enjoyed for years to come and we look forward to improving upon the design even more as we move into 2018.