Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 03/99) - Artist Francois Thibault, who recently premiered a line of silver and gold pendants, now has the latest pieces in his Northern jewelry puzzle.

Noted for his ivory carving, Thibault will soon add Northern diamonds to his precious-metal jewelry.

"I have 32 designs of Northern animals -- designed for diamonds," he said.

In the pendants, Thibault will use a portion of the diamond known as the table top.

He has acquired two diamond "tops" from diamond- cutting and polishing company, Sirius Diamonds.

To give a rough diamond its flat, horizontal surface, a diamond-cutter will first slice off a corner of the rough stone. What's left is the top.

The diamonds came from BHP's Ekati mine and are among the first that were sold to a cutting and polishing company, Thibault said.

Thibault, whose Originals by T-BO studio is in the Centre Square Mall, says the two diamond tops will be placed on a set of Northern Lights larger than the pendant -- made from 116 pieces of .5- millimetre silver wire.

The caribou, about four centimetres high, will hold other diamond tops in the points of its antlers.

To create the Northern diamond jewelry, Thibault taught himself lost- wax casting. This is a process whereby the artist carves an object from wax and then makes a mould around the wax carving. Gold or silver is then heated to a liquid form and poured into the mould, displacing the wax.