Sculptural Amethyst & Ruby Necklace

This is one of my newer hand-sculpted pieces. The necklace displays hand-mined faceted Amethyst gemstones with accent stones of red Rubies. The Amethyst is a little over 27CT. The necklace is 19.25 inches in length and can be sized smaller or have an extender added. The silver has 22K gold accents added into it on the sculptural turtles. The necklace is hand sculpted by me. I use a Precious Metal Clay blend that allows the necklace to have the strength of Sterling, but not the tarnishing. I then hand-carve the designs in the metal and when happy with the design, fire it at high temperatures in a kiln. This burns out the clay binders and leaves behind pure silver or gold. The 22K gold added into this design is created with Aura 22. It is a 22K gold slip I paint on the piece and when it is fired in the kiln the gold molecularly bonds with the Silver to create a 22K plating that will never be able to come off. in some designs I then add a patina to the piece that will darken the silver, turn it a copper color in places, or may even turn the silver rainbow-ish. I will then seal the silver to keep it from ever turning another color.