A prayer in jewelry form

Turquoise, vermeil, sunstone, and bone.

This is an intensely personal symbolic piece for me, a prayer, a hope for the future. Its central themes are marriage and childbearing, life and relationships.

I chose this green turquoise not only for its beauty but as a representation of strength, as also life, abundance, and fertility, themes echoed by the hand-carved bone Corn Maiden centerpiece. Sunstone I originally chose simply because I'm fond of it and it looks good, but I was reminded after the fact of the Sun stones on the Nauvoo and Salt Lake temples, symbolizing celestial glory and eternity, a fitting addition to the theme.

The number of turquoise between the vermeil beads represent members of and types of relationships in marriage: that ideally there should be three parties (husband, wife, and God), and that two (husband and wife) should become one. The gold can sybolize any number of things that make a relationship work: love, faith, trust, unity, compassion, humor, commitment, endurance, etc.

The sequence of spacers represents the number of children I want: Five would be very nice.

After that, the turquoise continues in groups of seven, symbolic of perfection, effectiveness, wholeness. The final sequence (not picture) is ten, symbolic of completeness of order, everything attained, nothing lacking. Strung on gold-plated wire, finished with two vermeil soldered (solid and continuous) jumprings, and a vermeil s-clasp, the closest I could get to the figure-eight symbol for eternity.

These are the things I hope and pray for in my future marriage and family life. About 20" long, not for sale.