Myth and Legend - Nimue, The Lady of the Lake

The latest design in the Myth and Legend series is inspired by Nimue, Lady of the Lake. I've always loved all the Arthurian legends and myths, and found Nimue to be particularly interesting and mysterious.

Below is a painting by Frank Cadogan Cowper. Here's a link to the Art Renewal Center with some info about the artist.

The red/warm colouring of the image didn't work for me, it just wasn't mysterious enough. When I closed my eyes I pictured Nimue in purples, blues, and blacks with a veil. Being a priestress and sorceress Nimue also (for me) related to the moon and stars and of course to the water of the lake. I've tried to combine all those ideas by the materials and colours I've used in the Nimue set.

I've started with a fine silverplated chain because I wanted the necklace to be elegant and light. I then added more silver chain with twisted silver rings in loops and dangles and hung star charms and a snake pendant from the dangles. The snake symbolises wisdom and knowledge, but also the pain both can cause. If you know the story of Nimue then you will know that the knowledge she shared often hurt even those she cared about and not least herself. I added little glass shell beads, shell beads in soft purple and lots of other beads including vintage beads; amongst them are beautiful Swarovski beads, Czech faceted beads, drops, daggers, porcelain and Cloisonne beads. Finally, I added little semi-precious chips of amethyst, lavender lace agate, moonstone, obsidian, plum coloured stone, rose quartz and quartz, and one large fluorite nugget bead in purple.

Here are a couple of detailed pictures of the necklace:


I decided that I wanted to make a bracelet and also some earrings to go with the necklace. The earrings had to be simple, I didn't want them to distract from the necklace, but I wanted to add a bit of shimmer and a twinkle:And here's the bracelet, combining all the elements from the necklace (except for the snake):

This set is for sale. Although I'd like to keep them all, there's only so much jewellery I can wear. :-)

If you are interested, please contact me.