Anaïs

For the woman who reveals herself slowly — and is worth every layer.

She is named for Anaïs Nin — who kept a diary for sixty years and filled it with everything women were told to keep quiet: longing, ambition, sensuality, doubt. Henry Miller called her the most truthful writer he had ever read. Of all the women in this collection, she had the richest interior world — and the pendant at the heart of this piece contains one.

Found at an antique shop in Stillwater, Minnesota — a vintage cloisonné medallion, round and domed, worked en ronde bosse on a guilloché ground: that fine, luminous dotwork beneath the cobalt blue enamel that makes the background breathe rather than sit flat. Its surface is alive with irises in dusty rose and burgundy, a butterfly caught mid-flight above them, gold-outlined and weightless — polychrome enamel in the full Art Nouveau vocabulary. Finished identically on both sides, a mark of exceptional and genuine craft. One side bears a small area of enamel wear consistent with age — visible only on close inspection, and proof, if any were needed, of its authenticity and the quality of craft that has kept it otherwise intact. A gold tassel chain falls from its base.

Two large honey orange agate slabs flank the pendant like open pages. Two royal blue Czech glass faceted rounds anchor the composition at the clavicle — orange and cobalt blue, complementary colors, the pairing Mucha returned to again and again for its electric, almost living tension. The whole piece is held together by a delicate 18k gold-plated sterling silver chain that disappears into the background and lets the stones speak.

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." — Anaïs Nin

Materials: Vintage cloisonné pendant, en ronde bosse on guilloché ground — cobalt blue with polychrome iris, butterfly, and leaf motif in enamel (antique shop find, Stillwater MN) · Gold tassel chain drop · Honey orange agate slabs · Royal blue Czech glass faceted rounds · 18k gold-plated sterling silver chain and findings