A Drop of Gold - or Grellow

Some of you reading this may or may not know that I am, as well as a jeweller, a fairly passionate knitter. I fell in love with the craft a few years ago - actually as a response to being self-employed and needing to have something to do in the evenings rather than work! It turns out knitting is a whole world of its own with styles and celebrities and trends - and part of that, of course, is colour trends. 

A couple of years ago, yellow really had a moment - specifically, yellow and grey, or Grellow. I'm not sure that moment has properly died down but when I started knitting, Grellow was one of The Things that everyone was obsessed with. There were Grellow cardigans, Grellow socks, Grellow mittens, I made a Grellow shawl....you get the picture. 

Here's the thing though: I'm actually not always a massive fan of grey and yellow together. Yellow, yes. Grey - hmm, sometimes (it can be a little dull....sorry not sorry...). Together? They really do have to be the right shades otherwise they're just too harsh for me. Edging towards bumblebee status. But it is undeniably a classic colour palette that really works and when I stumbled upon this stunning handmade porcelain pendant from Round Rabbit in my work stash:

I knew that I wanted to try my jeweller's hand at Grellow with it. Not least because I knew it would be a challenge. Firstly, the pendant itself is such a gorgeous contradiction in terms - the intricate nature of the detailing, the delicate almost formality of design and the bright, sunny cheerfulness of the bold yellow. I wanted to keep this feeling - the delicate playful formality that the dragonfly exhibits - and it was very possible that that delicacy could be squashed by putting a bold yellow and grey spin on it. Bear in mind that this pendant is all the more special as Nancy of Round Rabbit no longer makes beads and components. This one is a rare breed. But I think (I hope!) I did her justice:

Of course it's the high contrast between the grey and yellow that can make the colour palette in general work so effectively, so in order to keep this I knew I wanted to soften it with an ombre fading effect (another big knitting trend, coincidentally!). I had a string of variegated grey gemstone faceted rounds (I can't for the life of me remember what stone they are but they are extremely lovely!) that would work well in creating a fading band. I gathered a few other beads - handmade lampwork rondelles in grey, frosted semi-transparent white and deep yolk yellow, vintage German glass rondelles and some of my own handwoven glass {song}beads. They are a really unusual grey - they almost seem to be a shadow grey to me, if that makes any sense. They are frosted and very slightly transparent and extremely lovely. 

I've used them between the larger beads in the main band as well so you can see how subtle they are. 

You can see here the depth of the yellows I have used - the lampwork glass rondelles are very slightly deeper than the pendant itself, a rich yolk yellow, and bring such a warmth to the soft and more subtle, delicate greys. There are a couple of flashes of soft but steely pewter - a hand-cast cap and a hook clasp, allowing the necklace to have an adjustable fastening for different length options.

You can find A Drop of Gold here.