The Guinevere bead, winner of the 2007 innovation award at the AETA show, depicts an elegant horse on the front. Her mane and tail become delicate floral vines, and they wrap around the piece to form the bead. Face down, this piece can be worn as a floral ball. Guinevere was hand carved by artist, Jeni Benos. Each Guinevere bead necklace is cast in Sterling Silver and hand polished to a flawless finish.
Jeni's sterling silver, Guinevere bead is an exquisite example of innovation! Jeni Benos earned the AETA Innovation Award in 2007 for, Guinevere, her first seamless hollow filigree horse necklace. Guinevere was created through a very unusual process of filigree carving and mold making. The graceful lines of this mare's mane and tail wrap around the form, becoming floral vines adorned with morning glory flowers. The grace of Jeni's equestrian jewelry truly shines through in the delicate lines of this design. Both sides of this sterling silver horse necklace can be worn as the front. While the elegant horse adorns the front of the piece, it can be worn as a simple floral sphere when flipped over. Guinevere comes with a choice of a 16", 18", or 20" sterling silver box chain.
This horse necklace exemplifies a level of complexity that is not commonly found in equestrian jewelry. While hollow filigree forms are not terribly hard to find as cast designs, seamless designs are extremely rare in any category of jewelry. The process to engineer a mold for a seamless, hollow filigree design is unbelievably complex. This level of complexity sets Jeni Benos of Jenuinely Jeni apart from other equestrian jewelry designers.
Jeni Benos sometimes spends up to 100 hours of hand carving under intense magnification to create her more complex filigree horse jewelry. In creating her Guinevere horse necklace Jeni encountered some shapes that required custom wax carving tools. Bike spokes and dental tools make wonderful wax carving tools. Bike spokes are made from a very hard steel that will hold an edge quite well, when mounted at the end of a dowel, just like the dental tools, they can be ground down to a wide variety of shapes. Adding a tool to the collection is always useful for future projects as well, and these are normally the tools that become favorites in the long run.
Guinevere's complexity exquisite lines and striking detail make her the perfect horse necklace for any rider with a sophisticated sense of style!
