Beautiful unique three dimensional handcrafted Scottish thistle flower necklace, made using real thistle flowers. Whilst wandering through the farm near me I saw lots of lovely thistle flowers growing so I picked some as I decided I would be able to make a good mould from them. Throughout Celtic regions the thistle represents bravery, devotion, durability, strength and devotion! The pendants are made from fine silver metal clay which if you haven't come across it before is tiny particles of fine silver (99.9% purity, sterling is 92.5%) which is mixed with a clay binder and then textured, shaped, sculpted etc., once dried it is then fired where the clay binder burns away and the metal particles fuse together leaving a fine silver metal piece, first created by the Japanese and now produced in all sorts of metals! The pendant is approximately 2.9 cm long (1 3/16 inches) and the width is 1.7cm wide (5/8 of an inch) and has a nice solid feel to it. The 46cm chain is a sterling silver trace chain but a good sized one and the closure is a carabiner clasp. This fine silver metal clay is also made from recycled silver! I love metal clay but please note it does not come out like a smooth milled sheet of metal at the end of all the processes, I feel this is part of it’s charm and it is solid metal of whichever type it is made from.