Tuesday, May 11, 2010

I'm still playing around creating setting with graceful vines and flowers.  With this one, I used recycled sterling to create the flowers.

I always have scraps of silver lying around.  When I get around to it, it's easy to melt them down into spheres of various sizes.  Here, I flattend out a few balls of silver into discs and stamped them.  I like the way the stamp wasn't perfectly centered on each disc - it looks more natural that way, as though the flowers were being swayed by a warm breeze.

If you'd like to see more photos of this pendant, they can be found here.

The stone is a chrysocolla.  They've sometimes fooled me into thinking that they're turquoise, except the color can be a bit more vibrant  bluish-green. Chrysocolla is found in quite a few places in Europe, North Africa, and the United States.

It has many metaphysical properties attributed to it. In Eqypt, it was thougth that this stone had the power to make violent people more sensitive and tolerant, which is apparently why Cleopatra carried chrysocolla with her everywhere she went.

Native American Indian cultures regarded chrysocolla as a healing stone. This earth-like stone was used to strengthen the body's resistance and calm a person when he or she was upset.


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8 Comments:

  1. Mani on a Budget said...
    This piece is gorgeous. I envy your talent! Well done!
    Anonymous said...
    what a gorgeous necklace! I have been dying to get into silver-work...
    Contrariwise said...
    Thanks!

    This one almost became a ring, but I changed my mind in the last minute.
    Anonymous said...
    It's gorgeous - it looks so organic.
    LiPeony said...
    totally beautiful.. I love how the stone is hugged into the setting. That's very interesting tidbit... =D
    Kristin said...
    Absolutely beautiful. I love your work.
    hopestudios said...
    funny, i always try picture some of your pendants as rings, too! this is a beauty!
    Lucid said...
    It's absolutely stunning and so creative. I'm very jealous of your talent!

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