As a child of January, I find the month particularly brutal, especially for a birthday. Here in England, it is dark, freezing cold, everyone is burnt out from overindulging in socialising and living deliciously, so trying to wrangle people together for an event that requires all of the aforementioned things can sometimes feel like a tall order.
One thing I will say, however, is that January (and some December) children have it better than anyone else when it comes to the stones and symbolism associated with Capricorn. Goats are some of my favourite creatures. They're notoriously mischievous, symbolise independence, perseverance, fearlessness, ambition, vitality and the freedom of the untamed natural world. So it is no surprise that they are the animal most closely associated with Capricorn. Every Capricorn I know has those qualities in spades.
On the stone front, our birthstone is garnet. People often associate garnet with a dark maroon-red stone, but garnet actually comes in a gorgeous array of colours: oranges, greens, reds, yellows, pinks, near-black varieties and even some colour-changing varieties. We are genuinely so spoilt for choice.
For this project, the client wanted a pendant to complement a perfume bottle necklace she had purchased from me previously.
We chose a decagon as the base: a ten-sided geometric form that represents order, balance and unity. This was carefully hand-carved in wax and cast in recycled silver. I framed this pendant with a beaded border and adorned it with an engraved rampant goat, garnet set sun and stars.
The back is engraved with a ribbon-cut letter to match her perfume bottle and a tiny star framing the back of the garnet setting to create a luminous guiding star.
Such a pleasure to make this, thank you for the trust!
