Polihale Necklace

When designing this necklace, I wanted to have a royal Egyptian feel, to reflect the specialness of the shells in this piece.  Once only worn by Royal Hawaiian bloodlines, Hawaiian sunrise shells are an indigenous scallop known for their bright colors and rarity in finding. The legend is the shell finds you, not the other way around, and finding even pieces of them on the beach are like finding treasure. 
These particular pieces were collected from a beach in one of the most treasured getaways for those of us that call Kauai home, and also, one of the most spiritual places in the world, IMO. I collected these before sunrise, walking the pristine beach, before it gets too hot, and my neck hurts from staring down at the sand for too long.  Finding pieces large enough to create jewelry with takes years, and many walks down the beach at sunrise. I paired them with Alaskan abalone, and created the stunning piece of heirloom jewelry. 
To create this piece, I hand stitch gold coated Japanese glass beads around, found objects. In this necklace, the objects are the abalone and the sunrise shell chips. Once all the individual pieces have their bezel stitched around them, I  arrange them until they fit together  like a puzzle that drapes perfectly. The back of this piece is finished with ultras suede for comfort and style, and the findings are 24 karat gold filled for no tarnish. This necklace is an adjustable 18 inches. 
This is an heirloom quality piece that took over 200 hours to make, including finding the shells, and designing and making the necklace. Made in Hawaii with love.