Sonja’s aquamarine cluster pendant – a very personal gift

Sonja made me cry… Yes, really! But don’t worry, it was in a good way, and I will tell you about that in a minute. First things first.

The brief

Sonja, who is a local lady that I got to know through the chorus we both sing in, came to me and asked if I would help her come up with a special present for a friend’s 70th birthday. Sonja told me about the things that really matter to her friend and for me to have that information makes it so much easier to design and create something that will be a very personal gift with real special meaning. It can add that perfect personal touch that only a specially made item can give you.

So the things that meant something to the lady in question was her faith and her love for Cornwall and of course the fact that her birthday was in March, made the stone choice an obvious one. The birthstone for March is aquamarine, one of my favourite gemstones too.

The design

So the Cornish angle was obvious to me, nothing says Cornwall quite like a pebble, so I hand made a silver pebble, that I then stamped the lady’s initial onto. The faith element, again was an obvious choice, a cross is of course THE symbol for faith and to complement the simplicity of the pebble, I decided to make it a very simple one as well. The third pendant was of course an aquamarine, the March birthstone. I had the most beautiful pale blue rose cut gems to work with, the perfect match to the quite understated and elegant pebble and cross pendants. So there we have it, nothing complicated, but all of it very personal to the lady, and something that would be a pleasure to wear on a daily basis.

The finished pendant

The finished pendant had a brushed finish which just makes it look quite effortless and down to earth but elegant and special all at the same time. I thought that this was probably the kind of lady the soon to be 70 year old, is. I was right, she loved it and I recently asked Sonja if she would consider writing me some feedback. Sonja is a writer and a musician, so it really shouldn’t have surprised me that she would write something beautiful…

So back to me crying – twice! Once when I read the kind and beautiful words that Sonja wrote and sent me. And second, when I tried to tell my husband about it, and again couldn’t hold back the tears. In fact I am welling up again now writing this! Sonja described the commission experience in such a beautiful way that I also decided to share it on my commissions page, as it really describes what it means to have something custom made. So here it is, Sonja’s beautiful testimonial:

“For me, choosing a piece of jewellery is always a really personal thing. Quite often, what you wear around your neck or in your ears or on your fingers is you wearing a little piece of your heart on the outside. Sometimes, it’s the other way round, in that it also gives you the chance to give a little piece of your heart away. Being able to commission a piece of jewellery allows you express yourself in a unique and wonderfully creative way.

I asked Carin to make a pendant for a 70^th birthday for a close friend of mine. I summed up the heart and essence of my dear friend with three things … her faith, her love of Cornwall and her birthday. Carin translated those thoughts beautifully and, by combining a cross, a pebble and a birthstone into a beautiful, one-of-a-kind pendant. It was the perfect present … the kind that says it all without the need for a single word.”

And now I’m off to wipe my tears… I love my job. End of.

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