Cloisonné Butterfly Necklace — Handmade Georgian Silver Enamel Pendant

Description

A cloisonné butterfly pendant, hand-built in Georgian minankari enamel on silver, with a small silver dove perched above the wings. The butterfly glows in blues, greens and gold — colours that come from kiln-fired glass rather than paint, which is why they shift as the light moves across the surface.

Wire, glass, fire

Minankari begins with silver wire flattened and bent by hand into the shape of the wings, every cell soldered closed onto a silver backing. Ground glass in a dozen colours is packed wet into those cells and fired at around 800°C. The glass shrinks as it melts, so the cells are refilled and refired several times before the surface is ground flush and polished. On a butterfly this is unusually demanding work: the cells are small, they curve, and the colour gradients across a wing have to be planned before the first firing because nothing can be corrected afterwards.

Materials

Sterling silver, vitreous (glass) enamel, and a silver dove detail. Vitreous enamel does not fade, chalk or yellow the way resin and epoxy imitations do — the colour is glass, so it is as permanent as the metal it sits on. Pendant scale, on a standard bail that takes a chain up to 2mm. Made in Kutaisi.

Care

Treat it as you would a small piece of glass set in metal: hard-wearing, but chippable against tile, stone or a car door. Take it off for sport and heavy work. A dry cloth is all the enamel needs; use a silver cloth on the metal only. Avoid ultrasonic cleaners entirely.

Who it’s for

Butterflies are the standard shorthand for transformation, which makes this a natural gift for a graduation, a milestone birthday, a new chapter after a hard year, or a mother’s day where you want something less obvious than a heart. Arrives gift-boxed.

Questions

How is this different from an enamel pin or a cast butterfly pendant?
Cast pieces are stamped from a mould and often filled with coloured resin. This is cloisonné: individual hand-bent wire cells filled with real glass and fired repeatedly. Look at the wire lines — they are the walls between colours, not decoration printed on top.

Are the colours going to be exactly as pictured?
Very close, with small variation. Hand-fired enamel never repeats a batch exactly, so tone and intensity differ slightly between pieces.

Delivery to the US and customs?
Made or sourced from the artisan after you order — most orders arrive in about two weeks, tracking emailed on despatch. We ship duties-paid (DDP), so import duties are included and there is nothing to pay on delivery.

If you like the technique but want a different subject, the cloisonné ornament necklace uses traditional Georgian patterning, and the enamel flower jewellery set is the matching-set option. The full range is in Enamel Jewelry.