I do love to carve these fantastic insects! This is another iteration of the Death’s Head Hawkmoth-inspired Memento Mori, this time set with a warm palette of fancy-color diamonds with fancy-shaped cuts along the wing edges and abdomen. The thorax is of course set with a Tahitian keshi pearl carved as a skull. 18K.
The backside has a classic Latin message we should all take to heart: Carpe the Fucking Diem. (With a little diamond in the Fucking ‘i’)
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Here is the second iteration of the pendant mounting for the Japanese Shakudo medallions. This time I did a tentacle-y motif holding this second medallion.
Shakudo refers to a type of alloy of copper+gold+antimony that was usually patinaed a dark gray color and inlaid with different mixed metals for contrast.
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This was a very interesting project: I got to design a pair of pendant mountings to hold two fantastic antique Japanese Shakudo medallions. Shakudo refers to a type of alloy of copper+gold+antimony that was usually patinaed a dark gray color and inlaid with different mixed metals for contrast.
This first pendant I designed to have a delicate watery splash framing the piece. (Be sure to click through more photos to see the backside…)
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Lotus Pendant in 19K rose gold, and set with a large custom cut emerald in the center. I carved this to be extremely three-dimensional, which looks awesome, but is more challenging (hard to get my tools down in the crevices, both in the carving, and in the finishing process). I think it turned out wonderfully.
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So this wild thing is going to be a large pendant (but it is not yet all put together in this photo). I carved a 3D portrait of the sphinx cat, the center piece will be set with diamonds, then the lower piece has a gorgeous moonstone held in place with claws. 19K rose gold and 18K yellow gold.
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Lioness carved fully in the round for this epic rainbowy Australian boulder opal. 22K gold. This piece turned out so wonderfully! I love the lioness.
More Memento Mori enamel pendants to add to the collection: This time some super colorful guys with ribbons and crowns. 18K, and hand-painted enamels by Olga Doutkevitch.
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Medusa Pendant! This is a photo of the carving while it was still in the wax–I thought it looked pretty and jade-like with the light shining through. The backside is entirely carved as well.
Somehow, I got sidetracked with too many things going at once and didn’t get finished photos of this piece. I’m still kicking myself. This is the only one I took, when it was almost finished… The stone is a smoky blue-gray spinel.
Click through to see more of the wax photos, especially of the backside.
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‘Three Friends of Winter’ pendant: Plum, pine, and bamboo. Set with a beautiful slightly bluish-green tourmaline. This was a really fun motif to work with and I love how the piece turned out.
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Custom-designed pendant around this gorgeous green-yellow custom-cut Mali garnet (cut by Geologic Spectrum). Surrounded by a gradient of garnets from deep orange and lighter yellow-orange Spessartite, yellow-green andradite, light and deep green Tsavorite. 19K. The backside has carved peacock feather detail.
