Sterling Silver and Malachite

This necklace is very special to me.

It was a collaboration of sorts, you see. My step-pap was a lapidary artist who cut and polished stones and put them into his own wire-wrapped jewelry. He was a bricklayer who traveled the country for his job, and he fell in love with the American West in the process. His Rheumatoid Arthritis later made it so that he and Mumsy moved out to Mesa, AZ.

He passed away just as I was starting to get into wire-wrapping, so I never got the chance to learn anything from him. However, many months ago, my family was wonderful enough to pass the rest of his lapidary and jewelers tools on to me. While shifting through all of it, I discovered a cache of stones he had already cut and polished: finished cabs I could put into jewelry.

I made one of my signature skulls and paired it with hand-stamped hand-made beads. On the back: one of my signature hand-sawn and hammered trees. Set beneath, in a cradle of sterling silver, is a Malachite cabochon cut and polished by my step-grandfather, Pap. It is 1.5” long, 3/4” wide, and hangs from 24” of black leather cord.

I miss him, and I miss everyone else in our family we’ve lost in the last fifteen years. But I am so grateful I get to hold and use tools he used, and that I get to work with his work.

Momento Vivere. Momento Mori.

Remember to live. Remember you will die.

Thanks, Pap. Xx