Every piece of personalised jewellery has its own idiosyncratic challenges that need to be overcome when going about its creation. This pendant in particular had a couple of goals which had to be kept in mind when designing and choosing materials, they were: the piece of jewellery had to keep its value or go up in value, the stone should be a sapphire as this was the client's birthstone, the subject should be a snake (specifically a python). At the time I informed the client that a piece of jewellery shouldn't be bought with the intension of selling it for scrap later down the line but should be worn and loved. Later on I understood that they just wanted something that would have value, which funnily enough, I think this piece has gone up in value since the making of it.

I had a very strict budget that I had to keep to, so there were some calculations which had to be made which if done incorrectly could make this commission a complete loss. In the end I calculated that the finished snake had to weigh 16 grams, interesting how after all this time the number sticks to me, this coincidentally meant that the wax carving had to weigh exactly 1 gram, this was the challenge. I remember getting to the workshop at 4 am and spending hours hollowing out the wax carving, removing tiny bits of material to achieve the goal, in the end I was able to achieve the required weight.

After a meticulous cleaning up of the casting and a nerve racking soldering of the collet to the pendant, the snake was textured by sand blasting to create matte regions, mirroring the pattern on a python's scales. 

I don't have any record of how long this piece took to make but it was a tremendously enjoyable thing to design and make. The client loved it.