Moonflowers Bloom in Misery

I recently returned from a brief trip to Portland to watch one of my beloved bands, Swallow the Sun. I've been a fan for two decades now and seeing them live in the flesh was absolutely astounding. Honestly, I'm still in disbelief that I got to experience their music performed with such passion and intensity. The next big dream of mine is to see them live once more but in their home country, Finland.

Four years prior, they released an album called Moonflowers. The emotional impact of this album inspired me to transform the album artwork into jewelry form. 

The first step was to find the perfect deep red stone to represent the moon which was painted with guitarist and song writer, Juha Raivio’s actual blood. I experimented with red jasper, garnet and carnelian but eventually found a little red onyx cabochon to work with. 

I hand drew and cut 5-petal shaped flowers on silver sheet metal. Then I melted tiny granules of silver into little balls and clustered them into the center of each flower. 

I think the most challenging part of this project was figuring out a way to make a 2D image into 3D. I came up with this somewhat odd construction of silver wire and created platforms for my flowers to rest on. 

The white material I’m using to secure the pendant is called Jett Basic. It’s a plastic molding compound that you heat up in hot water. Honestly, it can be a bit of a hassle to deal with. When it’s heated, it gets super sticky, and I’ve definitely burned my fingers more times than I’d like to admit. I’ve now switched to GRS Thermo-Loc, and it’s a total game changer—it softens up easily with just a heat gun.

I carefully lifted the top portion of the flowers to make room for the stone to slide right in. Then gently pressed the flowers back down to secure the red onyx. 

This necklace was made four years ago which I’m sharing only now. I always felt it wasn’t good enough and it lacked something. I think what bothers me is the fact that it’s disproportionate and, perhaps it should have been made with a bail versus being directly soldered on two chains.

However, my recent trip has sparked some inspiration and excitement in me to recreate this necklace again! This time around, I might opt for a larger and distinct stone or incorporate some texture into the petals to better resemble the real flower. 

Side note: Driven by my intense curiosity and extensive web sleuthing, I discovered that the flower used in the album art and music video is called Hepatica Transsilvanica also known as Large Blue Hepatica.

Well, if you made it this far, thanks for reading. Not sure if this little jewelry business will take me anywhere or amount to anything, but sure doesn’t hurt to try. Bye for now.

-T