Opals have always fascinated me. I've had the gorgeous, tiny pink teardrop opals encased in this glass vial for about 3 years (I totally misunderstood the size, and when they arrived I thought "uh oh...what am I going to do with these?!". The answer came to me the other day...
Opals have such an interesting history. For about 50 years, thanks to Sir Walter Scott's novel "Anne of Geierstein" (published in 1829), they were thought to bring bad luck. There is also a school of thought that says that, due to their delicacy and tendancy to shatter when being cut, jewellers were not that fond of them either (!).
What interests me most is the history that goes further back even than that. In medieval times, all blond maidens wanted a necklace made of opals, as this was considered an absolute guarantee to prevent their hair from fading or darkening. The opal was also thought to make a person invisible whenever he wished, and for that reason, it was called Patronus forum (patron of thieves).
My "Patronus Forum" necklace has a glass vial filled with dainty pink opals, with flashes of gold and beautiful colour. I peyote-stitched a band around the bottle to add decoration, and added a gorgeous handpainted Japanese Tensha bead to the top. The Tensha has flashes of gold, green/blue and pink in it's decoration - gorgeous! A pale pink Swarovski pearl adorns the bottom point. I've used mixed metals again, to give it an air of mystery.
The pale pink ribbon was then hand-embellished with pale blue/grey and bronze seed beads, with glass teardrops interspersed. Closure is by way of pewter toggle clasp.
Necklace length: 42cm (16 1/2in)
Pendant length: 7cm (2 3/4in)
ONE OF A KIND
Giftbox and worldwide shipping included
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