The Stone That Wanted to Be a Dog ... Introducing "Puppy Profile" Pendants

When I first took a look at this natural piece of Howlite stone, I didn't notice anything special about it, except that it was an ideal size and shape for a wire-wrapped pendant. As I looked more closely, however, I saw the profile of a floppy-eared dog's head. It was a bit vague and misshapen, like a cloud image, but I definitely saw a dog.

Besides a couple of owl faces, I hadn't yet tried to create the image of another animal, but now I wanted to make a dog's profile with copper wire. So I decided to look online for a simple line drawing of a dog's head profile to help me better imagine the best way to create the pendant. Fortunately, the stone was nice and flat, and I figured the natural outline of the dog's head on the stone, courtesy of Nature's design, would be my guide.

It didn't take long before I found this sketch. (I'm sorry I don't know who the drawing's artist is, or I'd surely give due credit!)

It was very similar to the cloudy image on the Howlite stone and the sketch's simple, but more definitive lines gave me what I needed to give it a try.

I'm the first to admit that I sometimes botch the job. What I imagine, or what I set out to create, just doesn't come into reality, or I just screw it up. It often feels like the stone is "telling" me how it wants to be wrapped and if I'm trying to go against it, I end up horribly unhappy with the result. I hate to waste perfectly good copper wire, but if I end up with something I wouldn't want to wear, then I take my wire cutters and hack the pendant apart. That's the beauty of natural gemstones: most of them are tough and don't easily scratch or mar, so even though the wire can't be reused, the stones certainly can.

This stone wanted to be a dog. And since that is exactly what I wanted, too, it turned out to be surprisingly easy. I was tickled with the result.

And I liked the design on the back of the stone almost as much as the puppy profile. It wanted to be a mushroom, for whatever reason. So, I obliged.

I was really, REALLY tempted to keep this pendant, especially since it was my first "puppy profile" and because of the natural "sketch" of the dog on the stone, but when a Facebook friend asked if she could buy it for her daughter, who happened to adore dogs and mushrooms, I just couldn't say 'no.'

I'm working on getting a few other puppy profile pendants listed and ready to buy. They can be found here on Shop | Stone Maven Handcrafted Jewelry (stonemavenjewelry.com). The pendants will include a long-nosed dog made from Fluorite (also with a mushroom design on the back); a dog on clear quartz and amethyst with a reversible 'paw print/love my dog' charm; and a pooch on creamy butterscotch Australian Mookaite with a paw print charm.

To see other pendants available to buy right now, please visit my shopping page on StoneMavenJewelry.com to see what else is currently available.

And of course I'm always happy to make you a pendant from scratch. I haven't figured out how to make pointy-eared dogs yet, and not all stones are suitable for this type of design, but if I don't already have the type of stone you want, or if none of my in-stock stones would work, I'll do everything I can to find a good puppy profile stone of the type you're wanting. I don't charge any kind of special extra fee for custom orders. The only reason a custom pendant might cost more than the pre-made pendants, would be if the stone you want happens to be significantly more expensive. Of course, I'll always check with you first with a final cost before starting on the project.

To get started on a custom order, or to just ask a question, simply send me a message through the Stone Maven contact page at Contact | Stone Maven Handcrafted Jewelry. Or you can send an email to ameslp@live.com to get things started.