Twinkleberry

The Otter Pendant Necklace

04 Jun in Jewellery | Comments (2)

I recently received an email from a gentleman which went something like this ” Could you make a necklace for my wife? She is turning 50 and I would like you to use white pearls and an otter”

So no pressure then….

You don’t want to get a gentleman’s 50th birthday present to his wife wrong do you?

Here is the story:

White pearls – pearls are the traditional stone for June

The Otter – the lady in question sponsors an Asian short-clawed otter

Pearls, you know me, pearls are absolutely no problem. The otter though was another story. I searched high and low for a silver otter. I literally spent hours trawling the web looking for a beautiful otter. I could not find one….. I did find a incredibly talented silversmith who would be able to make a bespoke one for me – one which could be incorporated into a necklace design I had set my heart on.

But he could not do it within the budget I had been set.

And we were back to square one, and a new design,  looking for that elusive beautiful otter. Eventually I found one, an elegant creature perched on a branch! The only problem was that the pendant weighed 12.5 grams and any silver object weighing over 7 grams needs, by law, to be hallmarked by the Assay Office in Birmingham.  With a week and a half to go before the birthday date and a bank holiday weekend tucked into that, time was precious. We couriered the pendant to the Assay Office from it’s home in Scotland….. held our breath while the Assay Office (notoriously temperamental) did their thing and then it was couriered on to me. With just a day and a half to string the white pearls and assemble the necklace, I had no time to make any adjustments and had to hope that the idea I had in my mind would translate to the finished item.

I think it did.

An elegant double strand necklace – a string of medium white pearls, traditionally knotted, with a second strand using a silver chain, studded with silver drops holding a handcrafted silver otter pendant.

2 Comments »

  1. It looks fantastic in real life, even better than the pictures!

    Comment by Ian Lawley — June 14, 2011 @ 9:20 pm

  2. Hey Ian, Thanks for that – I am so pleased that you like it!

    Comment by jenni — June 15, 2011 @ 9:16 am

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