Silver-Wrapped Paua Ammonite Necklace

This necklace is my own design which I made during a week long silver fabrication course at the Haliburton School of Arts, Ontario, summer 2011. It took me several days of fine sawing and hammering of the silver sheet to wrap the silver to a tight fit around the shell with the spiralled ammonite design revealing the colour beneath. All done by hand!

The pendants focus and inspiration is actually a salvaged Paua shell earring-turned-pendant. I have a second I'll have to make something else with. They were pretty gaudy as earrings though very pretty pieces of shell. The chain was made from limited bits I had on hand during the course - some swarovski crystals, freshwater pearls, and pyrite (fools gold).

I'm listing this as "metal work" because that was the focus of this project rather than the actual necklace. *sticks out tongue*