Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Unicorne Talisman


Following on from that Gryphon pendant I made last year, I thought I'd go ahead and do at least one other (I have an idea for a third, but who knows when I'll actually get around to it).

Although, in general, I was never a terribly girly girl growing up, I did have an overwhelming passion for unicorns. I had a huge collection of them, from inexpensive commercial plastic ones designed for children's play to (what I realize now were) artisan-crafted works of art. (As an aside, did you know that a grouping of unicorns is called a "blessing of unicorns"?) Anyway, I thought it would be nice to remember that cheerful time of life with a new pendant.

Like the Gryphon, I wanted to render the animal in a simple line form reminiscent of the illustrations in medieval bestiaries. Well, after two pages of agonized sketching in my book (as I believe I mentioned in the previous post, this stuff just does not come all that easily to me), I think I ultimately managed to create a nice, simple form, here, and even incorporated the classic combination of the head of a horse, a goat's beard, a lion's tail and cloven hooves. However, my rendering is ultimately pretty modern-looking, overall - the medieval versions always remind me of a cross between a goat and a deer. I added a small resin heart to mine to symbolize the unicorn's purity.

I added five small holes to the bottom of this pendant, as I thought it would look nice with small rose quartz or aquamarine briolettes dangling beneath it. I haven't actually found the stone yet to wire-wrap to the pendant, though.

Thanks for visiting!

1 comment:

SueBeads said...

My daughter just loves this, but she love the gryphon even more! These are great, Melissa!