A South Sea Bauble.

[Dennis]

When Wendy of Pearlescense managed to charm one of her suppliers into parting with this large Hawaiian pearl, even though it belonged to another lot, it seemed fated to end up in my collection.

So here it has been since last autumn, working at my subconscious on how to turn it into a pendant necklace.

First I made a handmade chain, a slimmed down version of an antique pocket watch chain, with a matching adjustment section. It is finished with a small freshwater pearl as a charm. On the other end is a hook fastener in similar stile.

The long links were made by stretching large O-rings with the contraption shown in my first picture.

The bell for the pendant is like the calix of a mini-aubergine and the whole is a bit like regalia, but it is going overseas, where they are not shy about a bit of power dressing.

There is one question I had meant to ask Wendy. When she is in Hong Kong shopping for pearls, does she have to sort them with chop sticks? Dennis.

[SteveLAO]

hehehe, I'd like to see that! When I shopped for pearls in HK I used what looked like a pair of standard stone tongs but instead of the tips being pointed, they had small cups on the end, so you could pick pearls up easily.

http://www.rubin-and-son.com/product...ategory_id=144 is the link if you fancy some?

Interesting Hawaiian pearl.....it looks like a Tahitian one....maybe Wendy could tell us the difference?
Beautiful colour though.....and beautiful necklace too

[ps_bond]

Wow. That's fantastic, Dennis. Love the sepals around the pearl, and having the smaller one as an accent really balances it.

[mizgeorge]

Beautiful

[medusa]

Wow, that's beautiful! I really love the chain. How big is the pearl?

[Kathryn Harrison]

That is really lovely! What an amazing pearl and I really like the chain.

[surfergirl]

A lovely necklace and pearl, Dennis. I'm not a pearl person but that blue is just yummy.

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[Didi]

Thats just beautiful Dennis. I found your remark about it going overseas very interesting. At the jewellery fair in Birmingham I was talking to a fab designer and commented on how I really liked some of the pieces. He said that they would probably end up overseas in the European market because the English are very conservative and don't value bespoke jewellery. How sad - in my opinion they were amazing designs.
Didi

[ShinyLauren]

I really like that Dennis. So nice to see pearls used in a non-traditional way - the shaped bell is just beautiful.

[Nick martin]

That's a beautiful piece Dennis, and as has been said, the colour of those pearls is very striking indeed!

If you don't mind me asking, and as I'm a novice it's a novice question, how are the pearls attached to the chain?

I can clearly see silver wire coming from the top of the pearls, but how does it stay attached to the pearl itself?

Nick