The Mom Pendants

[Liane]

Subtitled: In which I finally stop slacking (a little) and get off my butt to post something.

This is/was my first major custom jewelry project. I wanted two similar, but not identical, pendants to give my mom and FMIL for my upcoming wedding next May as a cross between a "thanks for being awesome!" present and a token of the occasion.

I wanted large, showstopper stones for this project. It took some hunting around, since many gems would have been prohibitively expensive in the sizes that I wanted. Fortunately my mom doesn''t know or care anything about jewelry (so I could pretty much get her anything and she''d love it) and FMIL likes blue and purple stones, which meant blue topaz and amethyst came in as affordable choices there.

I ended up with an oro verde citrine and amethyst from Rick Martin at Art Cut Gems. By some fluke of luck, both of the stones I wanted were on sale at the time, so that worked out splendidly.

Here are the vendor pics of the two stones. You can see a tiny bit of zoning in the amethyst that occasionally shows up in pictures but which I have never been able to see in person.

 

[Liane]

Here''s a photo of the two stones as they appeared in late indirect daylight in my kitchen.

 

[Liane]

With the rest of my loose stone collection as of August ''09. The amethyst looks really weird and blue-tinted in this photo, I have no idea why. Everything else is more or less color-accurate except the vermarine is a little grayer in the picture than it is in life (but not much, it''s definitely a gray-green color).

 

[Liane]

So I shipped the stones off to Sally at Heart of Water to work her magic. I pointed out a few other pieces she''d done that I really liked for inspiration, asked for bezel settings with open sides in 18K gold, and otherwise gave her free rein to do whatever she thought would look attractive.

This is what she came up with.

 

[Liane]

Side view. I think the design is gorgeous; I like how it integrates flowy organic shapes with more angular, geometric ones. I''m a little worried it might be prone to tipping when worn, but I guess we''ll find out when it gets here.

 

[Liane]

The citrine.

I had no idea Sally was going for an E-W setting until I got the picture of the finished design. For some reason I just had it in my head that it was going to be N-S. I think this way is much better, though, and I''m glad I trusted her design instincts rather than my own.

 

[Liane]

Side view of citrine pendant.

And that is that! I got an email that the pendants were on their way as of this morning. I very much look forward to receiving them and seeing the pendants in person. Hopefully my mom and FMIL will love them as much as I do.

 

[packrat]

Those are gorgeous Liane! Just stunning-Sally does amazing work!

 

[ma re]

Those are some awesome pendants, and I SERIOUSLY love that citrine!!! Not just because it''s citrine (and yellow is my favorite color), and not just because it''s bezeled (and I''m a person who thinks pretty much everything should be bezeled), but because altogether just works so well - wow!

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Very gorgeous, you have to love those profiles!

Ack, this just makes me more anxious to get my pendant with her underway!

I'm sure you're mom will love them!! Could you tell me how big that citrine is? I'm curious to get an idea of how small and intricate that filigree can get.

 

[Indylady]

Beautiful!! Love the galleries.

 

[Arcadian]

That amethyst is like WHOA!

That is really super gorgeous. Profile of both pendants are really super nice!

-A

 

[Liane]

Aw. Thanks for the kind words.

MTG - the citrine is 9mm wide, 15mm long. The amethyst is 15.6mm in diameter. I haven''t seen the pendants in person yet so I don''t know how delicate the filigree is, but I would venture to guess that it''s fairly bulky compared to some of the work done for more delicate gems.

 

[Novel]

Both of those are lovely! I''m with Ma Re, I think everything should be bezeled! What a lucky mom and MIL you''ve got!

 

[fierypyropixy]

Both pendants are GORGEOUS!

I wish Sally wasn''t so far away . . . shipping to her is the only fear that''s keeping me from sending my amethyst off for the past few months. I love how it''s more she has a personal relationship with each stone to understand what''s best for it. It really shows with your pendants!

 

[D&T]

Seriously beautiful!!!

 

[oddoneout]

Beautiful. I love the detail on the sides.

 

[vc10um]

Those are positively gorgeous! I was thinking of doing something similar for my mother and my FMIL whenever SO actually decides to pop the question...and now I know exactly where to go!

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Hehe, I got my FMIL the frog and moondstone pendant from sally. She loved it, the frog was meticulously made!

Can''t wait to see neck shots! It''s a shame you can''t see all the beautiful filigree from the front, sigh.

 

[SB621]

Can I have the link to her store on Esty? I can''t find it.

i LOVE the purple necklace! That is just beautiful. I have seen a lot of Sally''s work but never thought I would contact her...after seeing your necklaces though I think I will shoot her an email. I have been wanting to have some stackers made

 

[Catmom]

Beautiful! I love the profiles on both!

 

[Burberrygirl]

Wow, those are absolutely beautiful!

 

[AustenNut]

Wow, beautiful pendants! Will you take any neck shots before giving them away as gifts?

 

[ma re]

Not that I think anyone''s interested, but I just "have to" correct some of you who used the term filigree - this is not it. Filigree is done by twisting very fine wires into decorative elements (like THIS), while here metal is (I believe) pierced i.e. small parts of metal are cut out from a sheet to make holes of different shapes.

 

[Lovinggems]

Beautiful pendants!

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Date: 10/9/2009 2:34:23 AM
Author: ma re
Not that I think anyone''s interested, but I just ''have to'' correct some of you who used the term filigree - this is not it. Filigree is done by twisting very fine wires into decorative elements (like THIS), while here metal is (I believe) pierced i.e. small parts of metal are cut out from a sheet to make holes of different shapes.

I''m interested! Hehe. Thanks for the correction.

 

[Liane]

Sarahbear - Here''s the link to Sally''s etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6415660

(if links aren''t allowed, just Google site:etsy.com "heart of water jewels" and that should bring it up quickly.)

AustenNut - uh... maybe.

Actually I do have a bad habit of wearing gift jewelry for a day before handing it off, mostly to make sure that it''s comfortable and well-made and doesn''t poke weirdly or flip over all the time or whatever. I''m not sure I want to create photographic evidence of this bad habit, but we''ll see when the time comes.

ma re - haha I was just thinking "well it''s not really ''filigree''... but close enough" when I typed that post earlier. I should not be surprised that you called me on the carelessness.

This is a bad place to be imprecise with language when describing jewelry!

Again, thank you all for the kind words.