Silver Orchid redux

A couple of months ago I finished (or thought I had finished) this pendant. Its organic look arose from a thoroughly organic process, involving as much accident as intent. You can read about its early life here and here. In the second post I noted K's opinion that it needed to be hung from a chain, not a rubber cord, "because the pendant needed to be seen as being worthy of a beautiful chain. Because it's so weird. And ugly." As you can see from the photo, I did put it on quite a nice oxidized chain. And the pendant has been hanging around waiting for a buyer ever since.

I knew it wasn't going to be an easy sell. This isn't a pendant for everyone and maybe it's a pendant for no one but me, but that's ok - I like it. Still, I've never been completely happy with how it hung on the chain and so I fiddled around with some other options, including a beautiful dark grey silk cord which I'll definitely use for something else.

The other day I decided to make a chain, just because it's something I haven't done. Now that was fun - and that statement certainly qualifies me as a full on metal nerd. It took a couple of hours of snipping wire, balling the ends, pickling, curling, twining, tumbling, oxidizing, and polishing, but at the end I had a lovely long chain, a bracelet and a couple of dangles for earrings. About half way through the process I realized the chain was meant for the Silver Orchid pendant. "Meant for" as in, they'd look great together, but also "meant for" as in intended for. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had a hunch that what the pendant needed was a longer, more substantial chain that could match its organicness. (What? you'd prefer organicity?) And over the past week or two, as I've been working at work and wishing I had time to make jewelry, what I kept wanting to make was a chain, which I thought was a little odd, but who am I to question my unconscious mind?

Here's the result. There's no clasp - the chain is maybe 24" long and just slips over the head. Notice that the alignment of the pendant has changed as well. I also attached the cluster of pearls to the end of the chain rather than to the pendant itself - much neater.


Here's another picture showing how the pearls and pendant relate. I think this necklace might just be finished.

Is it weird enough yet?

A few days ago I posted a picture of a pendant in progress and said that I didn't think it was weird enough. It's now finished and it's definitely weird enough. The question is whether, in the search for belle-laide, I've gone over into totally damn laide. In defense of the pendant, I have to say that this is not a great photo. The color of the pearls is washed out - they're a much more vibrant greenish-purple. I guess that's not actually in defense of the pendant but of the pearls. But the pearls are quite important to the beauty of the pendant, such as it is. (The more I write the more defensive I sound. Not good.) I was debating whether to put it on an oxidized chain or a rubber cord and my partner said it had to be the chain, because the pendant needed to be seen as being worthy of a beautiful chain. Because it's so weird. And ugly. I agree that it needs a chain, a nice substantial one, not for beauty PR purposes but because of the pearls, which seem slightly too formal for a rubber cord.

The pendant still doesn't have a name -- to myself I call it "the weird organic thing" (hereafter, WOT). Last night I suddenly remembered a novel by Samuel Delany called Dhalgren. It's an amazing book - not my favorite of his, but amazing. Set in some kind of post-apocalyptic time, the main character is a semi-amnesiac poet with one shoe. Early in the book he's given a bracelet shaped like a flower, except that the petals are blades, so it's really a weapon. It's called a brass orchid and, later, that's what he names his book of poetry. (Great way to think of poetry, right? Something beautiful that, when wielded well, cuts deep.) I couldn't remember the name of the thing but when I remembered its existence I thought it would be perfect to give the WOT the name of the bracelet/weapon. The petals on the WOT are pretty sharp and pointy and, though it doesn't look the way I had imagined the brass orchid would look, it does have some of that post-apocalyptic dystopian thing going on.

Unfortunately, I don't think I can call the WOT "Brass Orchid". First, it's not made of brass and I don't want people to get the wrong idea. Second, it doesn't look much like an orchid. Third, the description of the brass orchid, which admittedly doesn't make it sound like it looks much like an orchid either, doesn't sound anything like the WOT. The second and third things don't actually bother me that much. Mainly I don't want to have to write a description explaining why I'm calling this thing a brass orchid when it isn't brass. Seems counterproductive.

Not to worry. I can't post the WOT until a shipment of chain arrives so I've got some time to think of another name.