Anne V Massey
Tentacular pendant
Tentacular pendant
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This unique, show-stopping pendant with its bold, organic form is wearable sculpture for the person who wants to make a real statement. Its sinuous biomorphic curves and twists combine with a hammered texture, semi-matte finish and subtly glittering edges to stunning effect. Jewellery for the big occasion!
- Hangs from a 45cm/18” sterling silver snake chain, 3mm thick.
- The pendant measures 5.5cm x 4cm.
- Made by the technique of anticlastic raising which makes it both strong and amazingly light.
- Keep it looking its best using this simple method.
- Designed and made by me in my Hove studio.
This pendant came out of a desire to challenge myself – and it has done just that. I wanted to see how far I could push my skill at anticlastic raising, which produces curling, twisting forms. In particular, I wanted to see if I could make something more complex and more intricately intertwined than my Forget-me-Knot range. The Tentacular pendant which resulted has gone through several iterations, but the idea originally came from my longstanding love of marine invertebrates, especially cephalopods – hence the name.
This is a piece to wear on the grandest stage, when you really want to shine. It would make a great gift for a once-in-a-lifetime celebration.
Free gift wrapping can be selected from the Cart. Just click on View my Cart; it will be under the list of pieces ordered.
I post all orders free of charge by tracked services and will email you with the tracking details. Non-UK customers are responsible for paying any extra taxes, duties or delivery charges. I am not currently posting to the EU due to the complexity of the new rules.
If there is anything more you would like to know about this or any of my jewellery, please get in touch via the email form on my Contact Me page.
Care information
Care information
Silver tarnishes over time. Pieces which are gold plated all over (gold vermeil) may need cleaning every now and again; although gold does not tarnish, the silver underneath may. All my work is best cleaned by methods which do not involve rubbing, which causes the jewellery to lose its semi-matte finish and gradually makes it become shiny. My favourite involves using readily available household items - hot water and bicarbonate of soda with aluminium foil in a heatproof glass or ceramic bowl or a stainless steel vessel. Even better, it's sustainable! You can re-use old foil - repeatedly! - but it needs to be clean. You can clean more than one piece of jewellery at a time, but as this is an electrochemical process each piece needs to be in contact with the foil. It doesn't matter which way up the foil is. The hotter the water, the faster the reaction goes. Enough bicarb should be used to cover each piece. This won’t damage the gold plating on wholly- or part-plated pieces, but boiling water should never be poured directly onto pieces which incorporate stones; some stones can be damaged or even destroyed by thermal shock. You can use hand-hot water in this case, or - more effectively - bring the piece(s) up to boil from cold in a stainless steel saucepan. There are many versions of this technique available on the internet, and also many sites which have information about stones and their vulnerability/resistance to thermal shock.
The first two images show a pendant before and after cleaning by this method. 
The next series of images shows a more heavily tarnished brooch. The images are taken at 20 minute intervals. As you can see, the brooch never becomes as clean and bright as the example above.
This technique works best if the piece is not too heavily tarnished.
Storing your jewellery properly can help retard or prevent tarnishing. Direct sunlight, humidity, chlorine and hairspray all accelerate tarnishing. Storing the jewellery in a box in a dry room (not the bathroom, for example) will help keep it looking bright and fresh. The jewellery should not be worn to a swimming pool, and hairspray should be applied before putting jewellery on. Salt (including from perspiration) can also react with silver, so it should not be worn for swimming in the sea.
If you don’t mind losing the surface “bloom”, you can use a commercially available cleaner such as Goddard’s foaming paste, or even toothpaste, with a soft toothbrush.
Much of this information is taken from Masamitsu Inaba's article Tarnishing of Silver: A Short Review in the Victoria and Albert Museum's Conservation Journal, January 1996 Issue 18. Many thanks.
