Stygian Locket

Ruby zoisite, sterling silver | Pendant: 48mm × 35mm × 12mm | Chain: ~65cm, adjustable

Some things are more beautiful for having been broken.

This locket was cut from a single thick slab of ruby zoisite — greens and deep pinks the color of a stone wall overtaken by moss, by lichen, by the slow patient work of time. The slab was split precisely down the center so that the stone's pattern flows uninterrupted from front to back, the way a sarcophagus continues beneath its lid. A shallow recess carved into the inner face of the back stone creates a small compartment — a space for what you choose to keep.

The sterling silver was fabricated to suit these specific stones: their weight, their dimensions, their mood. It was finished bright and polished, and then deliberately unmade. Gallery wire was melted. Solder joints were broken at intervals. Holes were drilled. The pieces were sewn back together with fine silver wire and built back up with wire elements in varied gauges and shapes until the entropy felt right — not damaged, but aged. Not broken, but survived.

The chain is fully hand-fabricated: alternating hammered links, some wire-embellished, connected by half-round jump rings. The S-clasp is custom to this piece and moves freely along the chain, allowing the pendant to be worn at nearly any length.

The greens and pinks are Persephone's palette — spring and shadow, above ground and below. The shape is a coffin. The object is a locket. What you put inside it is your own.

One of a kind. Studio Miscellaneum maker's mark stamped on reverse.

Selected for the Exposed! juried online exhibition and sale, Society of North American Goldsmiths, 2025.