This pendant was inspired by the little round cabochon of Aurora Opal set in it. I had drilled the piece out of a slab that I used to make one of the rings and kept it in case it would be useful – just like I keep offcuts of silver, neither is cheap and throwing them away seemed silly.

After I made the three rings for the collection, I wanted to add further items and a pendant was my next go to after the earrings. The shape of the pendant was inspired by the shape of the rings, with the upswing to a point, but unlike the rings the major material is silver.

So, I dished the silver by hand and then set about shaping and polishing the opal before setting it in a bezel and the pearl in its radar. It’s the radar that gave me the collection’s name – it’s not a Sputnik, but it made me think of space.

Aurora Opal is an impregnated coarse crystalline substance with a directional and intensive play-of-colour, and I love it. I also love real opals – especially the very expensive ones.

Having cut and polished Boulder Opals I know how easy it is to loose a colour-bar in an opal and end up with nothing, so this Aurora Opal opens up many opportunities, especially the ability to cut and carve it and use it as the main constituent material of a piece of jewellery.

When designing pieces to make from the Aurora Opal I found that I was going back to the Menhir Collection’s shapes, and I really enjoyed taking what was mostly a flat shape and giving it 3D form. I then decided I wanted to add silver (at the very least) to the piece of jewellery so the lining around the shank seemed like an obviously place for it.

The more I looked at the opal the more it reminded me of the night sky and the idea of a small radar popped into my head and somehow then the name Sputnik came wafting in on the back of that, so the name was born.

Once I made the first radar, I was not satisfied with just a dish, it needed something in it and initially I thought that would be a round grain of silver. I had just acquired (for another piece of jewellery I was working on) some freshwater Pearls, so I tried one of them and it seemed like the perfect finish for the ring. Since then, the combination of Aurora Opal, Sterling Silver and Freshwater Pearls has been been what Sputnik is all about.

This pendant is 60mm tall, 30mm wide and 10mm deep.

SPECIFICATION

Metal: Hallmarked Sterling Silver
Stones: Freshwater Pearl and Aurora Opal