September 10th, 2011
Another Custom Order: Heart Defect Necklace
Tonight I’m bringing you a peek at another custom order I did a few months back. Forgive my gushing, but my customers are so creative. I am fascinated with the cool ideas they bring to me. I’m honored to help make those ideas a reality by creating a completely one of a kind, memorable piece of wearable art.
A woman had emailed me about making a special necklace to honor her young son, who has a very rare congenital heart defect called a vascular ring of the right aortic arch. The heart’s vascular ring pinches the trachea and esophagus which can inhibit breathing and swallowing. I understand it’s very rare, with only 1 in 100,000 people suffering from this diagnosis. Starting with my classic anatomically correct heart, this is what we came up with together.
I don’t know much about anatomy, so it was quite a challenge to match the medical pictures I had found while minding the physical properties and limitations of polymer clay. Making this necklace also reminded me, yet again, how brilliant and miraculous our bodies are. At any given moment our bodies are carrying out thousands (millions?) of mind-boggling and invisible processes to keep us alive, and yet we often take this for granted.
To my delight my customer loved it, and I hear her son’s pulmonologist got a kick out of it as well, LOL! Believe it or not this isn’t my first heart defect piece. I am glad that this unusual but lovely little niche found me!
Thanks for reading,
~ Allison ~
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2 Responses to “Another Custom Order: Heart Defect Necklace”
Hello… I make jewelry.
And I am a multifaceted beast! I currently sell my work under two pseudonyms. My Gearbunny line is where I express my punky, industrial, cute and morbid side. Here you’ll find polymer clay jewelry and accessories. I mainly focus on necklaces, charms, pendants, bracelets, and earrings, but I have been known to branch off into hair accessories and brooches. My inspiration comes from club and music culture and weird, quirky thoughts that pop into my head. I have been creating jewelry as Gearbunny since 2006.
My jewelry alterego is LapinJade (ooh la la, that’s jade rabbit, in French). Launched in April of 2008, it’s a newer endeavor. My LapinJade jewelry features sterling silver wire-wrapping and original silver pieces that I’ve forged myself using metalworking techniques. The versatility of silver is very inspiring. I also use various gemstones and precious materials. Overall this is a more elegant, classically beautiful line.
Gearbunny and LapinJade are both equally ME, so you’ll find updates for both on this site!
Currently I sell my work on Etsy, a fantastic virtual marketplace for all things handmade. Visit Gearbunny here, and LapinJade over here.







This is beautiful, I’d wear this even without the disease just because the human body is amazing..
Thank you so much! I agree, the body is a work of art in itself.