It is the thought that counts
November 18th 2013
When a great deal of thought and time has gone into the creation of a gift the end result is an item that has great symbolism to both the giver and receiver. This pendant is such a gift.
The intended symbolism of this gift to a daughter from her parents I think is best told quoting the mother from an email she sent to me once the piece was finished;
It is the symbol of the constellation "Dorado". It was made to be the tangible piece as a reminder that we bought our daughter a star for her 21st birthday in that constellation. We made the piece for many reasons:
Our daughter is a mariner and has learned to use the stars for direction
This star is above her home and will always show her the way home
It shines most brightly during her birthday month Dorado is a dolphinfish,
our daughter is a great swimmer and we always called her dolphinfish
It is almost the same shape as the heart symbol representing the love we have for her...
At the start of the design process I was provided with the sketch above and the following guidelines:
- hanging at a 45 degree angle
- hidden bail
- 5 x 5cm dimensions
- 3ml uniformly wide plate
The first request was not possible, gravity and the position of the bail would determine the angle the pendant would hang on. Plans were made to trial the positioning of the bail to see what effect could be achieved.
With the pendant not able to hang at the 45 degree angle a 5cm length was decided on.
The request for the 3ml wide uniform plate I felt would make the pendant look quite plain and suggested to the customer that the fine details in the sketch outline would translate very well into a piece of jewellery and adding some detail to the top surface would give us an even better result.
In this case I was given the go ahead to follow my instincts and I soon had a draft made up. Using the draft we could check the positioning of the bail, how it would hang and also select a suitable chain to match.
The pieces was made in sterling silver and a round curb link chain was selected for it to hang from.