College art students are famous for running low on time and money. Mitchell Lurth, a student in the Engraving Arts program at Emporia State University, cleverly designed one of his graded college art projects so it could also be his mother's Christmas present.

Mitch's mother, Molly, had seen one of his earlier engravings of a nice stylized "M" which she really liked it. Mitch decided to shrink the pattern and use it on a nickel silver pendant. The result is what you see here, and several things are worth noting.

First, Mitchell was challenged by the much smaller scale compared to his earlier work. Next, with the price of gold and silver up substantially, he saved a lot of money working in nickel silver. It looks great, engraves cleanly and is quite durable. Last, he got college credit for making his mom's gift which is brilliantly efficient especially since he was already familiar with that particular “M” design.

In case you’re wondering, the blank pendant Mitch used is available from GRS as a practice workpiece (#003-303).

If you have been inspired by work you have seen featured here, or have a creative piece you would like GRS to consider for Featured Photos, send an email with your photos to featured@grstools.com.