Janus

(2011), 3" x 2.5", silver clay (shaped, carved, fired, enameled, burnished), vitreous enamel, silver wire, sunstone cabs in various shapes and sizes, sunstone beads, silver beads, silver finding, fireline.

In making this necklace I found a home for a whole collection of various sunstone cabs I had collected over the years. The slight taper of the central spine between the two faces accommodates ever decreasing sizes of square cabs and ends in a slim oval. The two shades of enamel highlight the carved design and pick up on the main hues of the stones.

Janus was the Roman god of thresholds and doorways, guarding the passage of time with one head facing forward into the future, the other looking behind him into the past. The first month of every new year - January - is still named after him.