Iris Pendant

A friend of mine one time shared a gorgeous photograph of an iris that she had taken. I was just drawn to the photo, and asked her if I could recreate it in a piece of jewelry. She was happy to share.

This flower was created entirely by hand with the ancient sculpting techniques of chasing and repousse, using small, specialized tools and thousands of hammer blows to push and form the metal, either from the front of the piece to add texture and detail (chasing) or from behind to create depth (repousse). This work is done free hand, beginning with a flat sheet of metal, and no molds, stamps or machines are used in the process, making each piece truly one of a kind.

The pendant is hollow, and on the back there is a hand-sawn heart image, allowing a glimpse of the repousse on the back of the piece. There are 24K gold highlights on the flower.

The pendant is on a fine silver two-way single loop in loop chain. These chains are created by first coiling wire and cutting the coil into individual rings. The rings are fused into a closed circle, formed, and then woven into the chain. This is a chain-making technique that that dates back thousands of years.

The sterling silver pendant is permanently affixed to the 24 inch fine silver chain.