Completed Pendant

a not very good photo of the pendant when Keith posts one to his Instagram/Facebook page, I'll connect to that.

When mom died two years ago, one of the jobs I had to do was deal with her estate.  She had some jewelry, none of it particularly valuable.  Since I don't wear much myself, little of it appealed to me.

In the end I gave away pieces to people who would appreciate them, sold some, but she had opals that my brother, Don, had purchased on a trip to Australia and I knew what he had paid for them.  Mom had the two small fire opals made into earrings for her pierced ears - she always loved earrings and had been so disappointed when I decided to let mine heal over and not get them pierced again because she had been looking forward to giving me all of hers one day.  In the end she gave many pairs away and only kept some that were meaningful to her, including the fire opals.  The larger stone she had a local jeweler set into a ring but the setting was...frilly...and not anything I would wear, so I was a bit hesitant about what to do with them.

After some months I contacted a local artisan and asked if he would be interested in designing a piece for me, utilizing the opals.  He hesitated because he didn't generally work with opals, which are a soft stone.

The opals had not been worn for months and had gotten quite opaque, and Keith wasn't attracted by them very much until I started to polish the larger one with my thumb, bringing it back to life.

The transformation intrigued him, and after talking about what I wanted (a pendant) he came up with a concept.  Unfortunately my desired size constraints meant that the three stones would not 'fit' into one disc and so the two fire opals were set aside while he concentrated on the disc with the larger stone.

As the first (upper) disc neared completion, I suggested incorporating the fire opals into a second disc which would be suspended from the first.  He agreed to incorporate the ability to do that into the first disc and I saved up my money so that I could order the second half.

On Saturday Keith delivered the completed pendant.

The design in the first disc is the Raven, who stole fresh water and shared it with Earth.  The design shows Raven with the fresh water (the opal) in its mouth.

The Second disc shows Salmon with one of the fire opals as its eye.  The second fire opal rides on a gold hoop, representing all the fresh water on Earth.

The piece is worn every day as Keith mounted the pendant onto my Medic Alert necklace.  Mostly it sits under my clothing.  On special occasions I wear it publicly. 

But the piece is deeply personal to me - a remembrance of my brother, who brought the opals back from a trip that was deeply personal to him - and my mother who brought the two of us into the world.

Thank you Keith Kerrigan for listening and designing a piece holding so much meaning for me.