“Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously. Her hands trembled as she lifted it. She fastened it round her neck, upon her high dress, and remained in ecstasy at sight of herself.”
—excerpt from The Necklace
To hang something around your neck is different than putting on other jewelry. Even just talking about the neck sends a slight shiver of awareness, a “be careful” impulse because, after all, it’s the neck, one of the most delicate places on your body.
And so, instead of giving trophies out at the Olympics, we have athletes bow down and receive their medal, fastened to some sort of fancy ribbon-like material allowing it to not just drape around the neck but to transform the person of the athlete into both recipient and part of the medal itself. In effect, they happily become the display furniture. The physicality of such recognition feels strangely appropriate; a trophy on a shelf or a medal to be pinned on a jacket doesn’t seem quite as right. Just as strange is how these medals are rarely worn. Such is the decorum surrounding what could be referred to as the most well-known and revered of all necklaces.
For us mere mortals, we often reserve this space for that which is most precious and heartfelt. You rarely see a cross on a ring or broach, but crosses on necklaces are ubiquitous. While not in vogue now, it used to be common to wear charms containing the locks of hair of loved ones passed. Some wear clasped pendants containing photos. Sometimes we throw a ring on a chain and call it good. Obscured by a collar or framed by the collar bones, the real estate of the necklace is universally recognized as a place of solemn import.
The Silver Shamrock Stone Set Pendant depicts a shamrock of deep green CZ, delicately set and stemmed in sterling silver. Because each lobe is left without any sort of trim, the leaves appear to float against the pinprick stud of polished silver that holds each in place and then, when worn, the skin. It’s a minimalist design and with it, all the trappings that subtly accrue in what we can call elegant. That each leaf looks like a heart just adds a disarming sweetness.
The excerpt above is from a sad story involving a necklace. You’d never know it from the description, however. Instead, we read of another reaction that wells up from deep within when we see something beautiful. Our heartbeat increases, covetously, even. We might tremble, and when we can link all this to something we can fasten around our neck, ecstasy might ensue. It’s a reaction that comes as easy as breathing. To orchestrate such a reaction within the place of the shamrock adds another dimension that cannot be measured in carats or ounces or any other metric. It’s whimsy and faith and beauty. It’s also luck, something that can make sad stories happy ones and when cast in emeralds, well, who can’t smile at that?
