Hamlet Coin-Pendant Project

Hamlet Coin-Pendant
Jewelry Design, 2017

Broken Mortality Pendant

For a few years I’ve wanted to make a masculine opal pendant – something that just doesn’t seem to exist in the marketplace, but the cost has been incredibly high. I thought, maybe if I bought a rough opal and had it cut plain and flat as a back piece and utilized my Skull-Leader design as a metal inclusion I’d have something affordable and special.

WRONG. The rough opal was affordable, thanks to Opal Auctions, but getting it cut, shaped, and polished is very labor-intensive and expensive. To make the medallion I desired I’d have to spend nearly $1,000.00, which I simply don’t have.

Hamlet Coin-Pendant Design

For a quarter to half that price I could make 50 medallion pendants or more using an enamel pin manufacturer, like Pin Source or Made by Cooper. So, I decided to leave my dream piece, for now, and invest the money in a custom coin-pendant that had more universal meaning and promoted my art and design. I reimagined the Broken Mortality Pendant – my original design – as a coin that paid homage to Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the most well written internal struggle of whether or not one should live or die by one’s own hand. I consider it a continuation of the Hamlet Series and part of my own contribution to the suicide-prevention and mental/social/spiritual health awareness movements and, more importantly, discussions that are and need to be more fully explored and discussed.

I chose Pin Source to make my coin-pendant because I’ve worked with them in the past on multiple projects and appreciate their craftsmanship and attention to detail. Due to some miscommunications (it happens), the samples I received were incorrectly plated with copper instead of a yellow-metal like brass or gold. New samples should be arriving shortly, and then – if those meet my specs – I’ll probably be selling some Hamlet Coin-Pendant necklaces on leather cords.