01/06/2026
Teuta Beneath Bura
There are certain stones that return person to places they have long since left. I have learned this at the workbench. Copper teaches patience, but stone has habit of summoning memory uninvited.
When I was young, in small town on Adriatic, I grew up listening to stories of Teuta, the Illyrian pirate queen who ruled the sea and would not surrender. In every telling she seemed larger than history permits; stubborn, defiant, forever moving against the current of what others expected of her. As children we absorb these stories as if they are weather itself. Only later do we realize they remain in us.
Whenever I hold hemimorphite beneath my lamp, I do not merely see blue stone. I see the Adriatic beneath winter skies. I see white mist rolling over the water while wind Bura tears across sea in front of Makarska, fresh and fierce as bedsheets snapping on balconies after washing day. I see movement where there should be stillness. I see Teuta's blade lifted toward horizon, and her refusal to retreat.
This pendant began there, perhaps long before I touched copper to pliers.
I wrapped the hemimorphite by hand in woven copper, allowing the stone to remain the quiet centre of the piece rather than imprisoning it beneath excessive ornament. Suspended beneath it hangs a cubic zirconia blade less weapon than echo; line drawn through memory. The Amazonite necklace carries pale blue beads like scattered droplets of sea foam, softening the structure and creating movement against the skin.
There is something curious about making jewellery. We spend hours persuading wire into obedience only to discover that the material retains a little of its own will. Copper bends, resists, yields, changes colour beneath hands. It is perhaps not unlike people. We imagine ourselves architects of our own lives however spend much of our time negotiating with circumstance.
Worn, this piece sits with gentle weight rather than heaviness. Necklace moves naturally with body and catches light in quiet moments rather than demanding attention. I have always preferred jewellery that accompanies person rather than announces itself; something discovered rather than declared.
