I bought a hand-made pendant a little while ago and it has been quietly sitting in my drawer waiting for inspiration to strike. Well after my little week away it has!

I loved the colours of the sky when you’re standing on the beach and can see a storm in the distance out at sea. There’s an inky line on the horizon with lighter shades in the foreground, and it seems to affect the sand; with lighter and paler shades where you have patches of dark, wet shiny sand and dry pale sand- here are a couple of photos attempting to capture this:

From GaliciaMay08

So the pendant is a rectangle of Mother of Pearl (MOP) framed with Sterling silver, and it’s quite an unusual shade being neither the classic bleached white nor natural blue/grey-ish colour. Instead it’s a soft beige, sand colour. Of course it shimmers constantly when you catch the light, thanks to the layers of nacre.

What to combine it with? I was playing with Swarovski pearls last night in two shades- Bronze and Powder Almond, they’re almost the same colour but with different finishes: Bronze is a steelier, shinier finish and Powder Almond is a very muted soft shine and a little paler. Perfect! Just like the sand! Anyway they look fantastic when teamed together and also work beautifully with the pendant whose shine is both hard and soft.

“Penelope” Pendant Necklace: 44cm with drop of 4cm

Pearls, MOP and even Swarovski Pearls are notoriously difficult to capture so I took another photo is natural daylight against a white background:

“Penelope” Pendant Necklace and Bracelet

Now I have an idea for the matching earrings, and I have another couple of “pretty pendants” who have been waiting their turn so check back soon…