Hypatia's Dream Necklace

Hypatia's Dream, and her sister necklace, Thought and Memory, are the result of a collaboration between two artists and silversmiths: Sara Akl and Patricia Tozer. The pieces are designed to enhance Sara's gorgeous grisaille enamels.

About Hypatia and Sara's work:
Hypatia was an astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher who was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and lived in a very turbulent era in its history. She was the leader of the Neoplatonist school and spectacularly overcame the profound sexism of her society, until she suffered a violent death at the hands of ignorant zealots. Sara's enamel work is a meditation upon dreams, the sea, and most of all it is about her home Alexandria, and what it means to her.

She writes: '“Hypatia’s Dream” is an enamel I created about my home Alexandria, and the sea. Hypatia was Alexandrian and has always been an inspiration. Her intellect, philosophy, freedom of thought and bravery in a turbulent society have weaved a part of my own dreams. And this piece is what I imagine hers looked like, within the sea, fearless, contemplating the stars and their movements.'

Grisaille enamelling is an exacting, difficult, technical process whereby finely ground opalescent vitreous enamel is applied in many layers onto a dark background. It is a technique that is so exhaustive and demanding that few attempt it today. Sara has achieved beautiful results and we are so happy to be able to offer this to our patrons.

Patricia set Sara's beautiful piece in sterling silver, a metal that shines like the sun upon the waves, and carries the energy of the enamel, radiating it up and out from the central focal point. The process used to create the elements of the necklace is called fusing. Heat is applied carefully to the sterling, causing it to return to its most energetic state (molten) and fuse to itself. The results are always surprising and satisfying. It was the perfect choice for this particular project.

Many hours of love have been poured into every part of this unique piece of wearable art. We both hope you love it.

Details:
Materials: vitreous enamel, 24k gold, fine silver, sterling silver, aquamarine
Dimensions of Pendant : 137mm x 38mm (approx 5.5")
Total length of chain: 53mm (22") adjustable shorter

NOTES:
***LAYAWAY available. Please see our Policies page and then contact us for details.
***While we offer flat rates for shipping, we do recommend that for expensive pieces such as this that you upgrade to include insurance on your parcel. If this goes missing without insurance, there will be no compensation from the postal service and therefore none will be issued to the buyer. Please read our Policies page for more information.
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