I meant to discuss this necklace with you on Friday but I had a harried schedule to keep and didn’t get around to really photographing this necklace until today.

This is the Bloom Bright Necklace, composed of sterling silver, 14 carat gold and a fresh water pearl. It’s a shadowbox design with the added visual pleasure of a blossom that rises up and out of the actual frame. Once set with a pearl, the flower is actually taller than the frame edges making this piece delightfully three dimensional.

It’s got some serious texture on the edge of the frame, on the base plate, and on the inner petals of the bloom. There’s some intermediate vertical relief to be found beneath the flower layers where I appliqued word strips and 14 carat gold splotches.

I was actually really quite pleased with the finished product you can see here. It’s a burly necklace, weighty, and the pendant is large-ish (by my standards) but there’s an intensely delicate nature to the actual components that build it.

From time to time, I have the pleasure of meeting ladies who are a bit frightened to try on large pieces of jewelry. I say, if it’s blow-your-mind-delicate-and-organic in its character, despite its actual dimensions, I think it’s wearable by almost anyone because it will manage, no matter what, in the end, to mirror the essence of the female gender.

The key to wearing large jewelry is, in my opinion, confidence.

You’ve got to wear the piece. If the piece wears YOU…it’s probably not meant FOR you.

I suppose that’s all to say:

Wear what you like and no one will point out that your

cocktail ring is the size of a cinder block…

Anyway, hope your weekends are treating you well!

I’m making venison lasagna for dinner at The Gables

and it’s time to grate some mozzarella.