So a friend of mine is a huge fan of the Harry Potter movies and for her birthday she asked me to make her a lightning bolt pendant for a necklace. I have never done this shape before and i dont want to just cut it out of some material then rough texture it if i can forge it out. I thought what i would do would be to take some 1/4" round stock and point one end of it, then bend the whole thing into a shape that looks like a lightning bolt then i would flatten it out which would keep the shape but give me something that looked more like a proper lightning bolt, after that heat the thing up a bit and give it a once over with a brass brush for the gold colour and lock it in with a coat of clear spray paint. Has anyone here got any expierience with this shape and if so am i on the right track?

Harrys scar looks more like an N then a lightning bolt so keep that in mind. I didn't remember that till i looked up some images. Thats going to pose the biggest design problem. 

That's how I'd go, with the caveat of upsetting the corners good & square on the outside to maintain the crisp lines.  Upsetting tiny stuff  tests your patience; 1/4"square might be a tad easier.  For keeping the heat localized it's sometimes less frustrating to break out the OA & a little brazing tip.  Just my 2 copper

Ok so i got a couple of them forged out and this was the last one with a shape I was happy with. I used 1/4 inch square bar and forged it out into a 12cm long taper. The bottom is 5cm the middle is 3cm and the top is 4cm. Once i had the taper i marked my bend points. I did the top first, cooled the part above the bend and folded it over tight together then forged a small point to it. I then opened the bend back up and repeated the process on the other end making sure to fold it the opposite direction then opened it back up too. Tonight im going to brass the surface so it will look nice and yellow when im done. Not incredibly difficult once i got into the swing but keeping my dimensions in line was critical otherwise it just wouldnt look right.